Absolutism and the Empire | The Political Theory of Star Wars

A line of Palpatine in Star Wars, "I am the Senate," opens up some historical parallels within the franchise, giving us an excuse to talk about the Empire and Absolutism, with comparisons to Louis XIV and Cardinal Richelieu of France

🔸 More From Corey 🔸

#starwars #lore
Star Wars, History, Political Science

[JaxonHaze]

Tarkin launching a coup with the Death Star would have been a fun idea, ultimate technology vs ultimate dark side with rebels trying to figure out which is worse and how to ensure there is someone left afterwards

Edit: couple to coup cause autocorrect

[daisygowanditchburn]

10:00 truly the most terrifying manifestation of dark side power: becoming France.

[rifterx]

The Naboo situation is a little more nuanced than depicted here. It's not that open warfare between worlds in the Republic was allowed. Instead, what we have is a legal dispute which is being ostensibly resolved according to normal legal and bureaucratic channels. The Trade Federation objects to the tariffs Naboo is levying, and refuses to pay. They then institute a blockade in order to protect their legally recognized monopoly rights. They are not supposed to actually initiate hostilities or invade the planet. That would not be legal or allowed. Back on Coruscant, the situation is presented as a literal he said / she said. Amidala alleges atrocities, aggression, and coercion. The Trade Federation denies these allegations. The Senate then votes to convene a committee to study the situation and determine what the truth is before proceeding. This is similar to how a dispute might be resolved in the UN. Meanwhile, of course, we know the Federation has invaded Naboo and will try to have them sign a treaty granting the Federation more rights before the Senate can do anything. All of this is part of Palpatine's plan, because by reducing people's faith in democracy and presenting short cuts he lays the foundation for his Empire, and positions himself perfectly to completely take over once the Civil War gets going. He doesn't know at the time, but this is also part of how Anakin is swayed toward fascism.

[nickmalachai]

Really glad you're putting politics in Star Wars. Unironically exactly what Star Wars needs.

[InestimableFlorivore]

I'm going to do a bit of "Urm actually" but "absolutism" in itself wasn't something theorized by monarchs or people living at their time, but something theorized later, during the restauration, so after the french revolution. It was used in hindsight to define the way monarchs were ruling before.

[TheMercyfulEmperor]

The Imperial Palace really is worth its own video - I've always preferred the old EU Imperial Palace, the grim, massive pyramid of a thousand towers, rising 4 kilometres into the air, being the tallest building on Imperial Center. Palpatine's ridiculously massive audience chamber, plants genetically modified to be listening devices, it is a manifestation of his rule - as is the Citadel on Byss.

[ryandude]

If you want to go back even further with this subject, to the earliest states, I highly recommend the article "Early Mesopotamia: The Presumptive State" by Seth Richardson.

'The concept of the "presumptive state" in early Mesopotamian states (2800–1600 BC) is that these states were claimed powers that they did not necessarily have. They did this by making vague and unfalsifiable claims to power, and by establishing their "voices" as generically valid, whether through legal codes or other large public displays. This process of people coming to believe in something they did not necessarily imagine before led to the gradual emergence of Mesopotamian "state power".'

[Arcadia_warlic]

6:50 That sounds like the inspiration for the Tarkin Doctrine.

[tk-]

I would argue that Palpatine was more like a self made dictator akin to Stalin, Caesar and so on rather than like a traditional European monarch. While European monarchs were very powerful, as you said, they were very limited by the aristocracy, church and so on. Whereas, Palpatine's limits seemed almost self made since he chose not to engage in direct rule of the Empire and chose to allow his subordinates to do all the governing for him while he focused mainly on Sith experiments and other weird stuff, much to the chagrin of Vader,

[uriustosh]

The absolutism of the Empire is more akin to late czarist absolutism.

[Seyhawk]

Oh man, this is one of your best (in my opinion). Loved the inclusion of Weber's state monopoly on violence. As a scholar of nationalism, I can't help but think about the effects that standardization and uniformity the Empire inevitably brought to far-flung systems would have on creating a sense of belonging to a unified polity. Benedict Anderson obviously points to common language and the advent of widespread print and literacy being the flashpoint for the development of national identity in our world, and I suppose there's a potential argument to be made in Star Wars for Basic and Aurebesh playing a similar role, but that's so far back in galactic history I wonder how fleshed out that debate would really be.

[Quintus_Fontane]

Fascinating. I always thought it was more directly analogous to Napoleon, or more likely the Romans he tried so hard to copy, given the Roman senate's system of electing dictators in times of crisis, with the risk of said dictator then acquiring and cementing more power. When Caesar did it he did so pretty much by force which is a difference, but after naming himself dictator for life and then emperor, then transitioned Rome from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire, with the moffs also perhaps being analogous to the Roman military governors that were appointed to rule over and pacify provinces in the empire.

The prevalance of the idea of divine right in medieval Europe kinda stems from Caesar too, given how he created the Imperial Cult which was the idea that he and some relatives were beings granted divine sanction to rule by the gods, and long after that, a lot of Christian monarchs in Europe had a thing for trying to ape the half-remembered glories of Rome, which also sometimes included a similar 'I'm chosen by god' thing. France was in some ways under its monarchy, but ESPECIALLY in Napoleon's 'republic' after that, trying to LARP as ancient Rome pretty hard given the consuls, imperial eagles, the "I'm an emperor but this is a republic, honest" shtick, and declaring war on almost everyone trying to forge a vast European and Mediterranean empire shenanigans.

[heavyarms]

I know this is a little off topic, but I don't like the new canon use of the Jedi Temple as the Imperial Palace. There's no way you can possibly argue that Palpatine could use the Jedi temple as his palace without people knowing and understanding why that's significant while also writing the Jedi out of history.

I prefer the idea we saw in Legends - for once not just because I grew up with it - in Legends Palpatine's Palace was a lot like the Death Star - a show of power and wealth that eclipsed anything that came before it. The Imperial Palace in Legends is supposed to eclipse even the largest mountains that existed on Coursacant. I remember the scene from X-wing when Kirtan Loor remarks that they couldn't land a shuttle in the tower because it was too small - but then the pilot explained it was because they were STILL so far away from the thing.

But at the same time - I guess that only works in legends. When would he have built it in the canon timeline? Fair enough.

[axo]

Damm this is so snap on!!! Crazy!! Not only that the Galactic Empire was originally just inspired by Natzi-Empire which kinda worked differently.

[PenguinofDmxxx]

I know I've said it a bunch, but I really love these videos. They're a great intersection of my interests.

The implementation of power via Palpatine's legitimacy goes a long way to explaining the dysfunctional nature of the Imperial Remnants in both Cannon and Legends. Without the unifying figurehead, there is simply no legal basis for one Moff to be in charge of another, and so you get Warlords and Pretender Empires.

[thetarkinist]

Great video. Would love to see one similar to this one regarding the influence of the Core Worlds and how some of them were able to get away with being a little more vocal in the Senate, like Chandrila or Alderaan, without direct repression until the DS was operational.

[knutibktopplindenhoff]

Great video Corey, i do love your historical/policy videos.
There are realy good, Thank You!

[marshal]

Lovely video. Keep up the great work!

Would like to see you maybe attempt a political approach on the Galactic Triumvirate or the Federation, maybe even how politically possible was the splintering of the empire after Endor into warlord holds!

[miniaturejayhawk]

Hutt space was its own thing seperate from the republic, similar to bothan space. They wre basically independent countries so the empire couldnt enforce its will without an invasion. And while bothan space was small enough for occupation hutt space was not.

The hutt cartel is a different organisation in itself. Its not the government of hutt space (that would be the hutt council), its the combined personal force of jabba, his relatives and his underlings.

[edwardkarppi]

A Common History video? On Corey’s Star Wars Lore Channel? What is this? A crossover episode!

In all seriousness, I love this content! I hope we get heaps more of it. No one else is doing this kind of thing on YouTube it seems.