How the Senate Works in Star Wars

The Galactic Senate has stood for 25,000 years, but its organization leaves a lot to be desired, with many gaps in representation. In this Politics of Star Wars video, I break down how the Senate works, and more importantly, why it often doesn't, with several examples from within the Star Wars Expanded Universe. This is really how liberty dies.

0:00 - Intro: 0:00
0:55 - Separation of Powers
4:49 - The Senate Under the Empire
7:08 - Mechanisms of Representation
11:00 - The Republic as a Federation
16:50 - The Problems of Representation
25:55 - Political Parties in Star Wars
30:25 - How do Elections Work?

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[CoreysDatapad]

This one's been in the works for a while, so I hope you enjoy it. Let me know if there's other similar style videos you'd like to see.

There are few areas where I could have made comparisons to places like Germany rather than Canada/UK/US, but I figured with the bulk of th audience being from those palces, it made more sense using those as the basis of comparison rather than explaining another system as the basis to compare what we were talking about.

[gavinsmith]

The hodgepodge nature of the Senate actually makes a lot of sense. Remember that it existed for thousands of years. The Republic changed, was destroyed and reformed, multiple times across history. So it only follows that it would be a conglomerate of very old, slightly old, or completely new laws and precident. Before the modern period, this was very common. There is a perception that the Roman Empire or Pre-Revolution France were absolute unitary states but this could not be further from the case, Every city and internal division had its own customs and laws, and agreements with the central polity. These often changed and changed back multiple times. And ti seems like the Republic was much the same.

[kingkusnacht]

The Duros or even the planet of Duro not having their own senator doesn't really make sense. They are supposed to be one of the few founding members of the Republic . It's unthinkable that they'd agree to founding a federation in which they have no say.

[isd_chimaera]

Corey actually just put in the time and effort to make a 40 minute video breaking down the entire political structure of the Republic. What a legend

[shadowulfhedinn]

I've been looking forward to this, the political schemes in star wars, especially prequel era and just prior imo, are very interesting! Great breakdown, 10 "I am the Senate"s out of 10

[yiggdrasill]

Given the mass of historical precedent on laws and the sheer amount of planets and peoples the republic was trying to represent I think flaws were inevitable. That the Jedi went from watching the republic and working to uphold morality to serving the senate as a law enforcement agency would not have helped.

[jordanjames]

It is amazing that the senate ever got anything done. Just imagine all of the differences between just human and near human members. Then add on top of that some of the species with more "alien" physologies and it is a miracle it even existed.

[ericremotesteam]

And to think people say politics in Star Wars are boring. 😏

[nicholaswalsh]

So on a recent watch-through of the Prequels, I have found something.

In "The Phantom Menace", Chancellor Valorum introduces Palpatine by saying, "The Chair Recognizes the representative of the SOVEREIGN SYSTEM of Naboo". Sovereign System. Interesting choice of words but surely just a one-off, right? Wrong. In "The Clone Wars" Season 1, Episode 15 "Trespass", Pantoran Chairman Cho describes Orto Plutonia as "Sovereign Pantoran Territory" and even declares the conflict between Pantora and the Talz to be an 'Internal affair", which relegates both Senator Chuchi (and by extension the Senate) as well as the Jedi to merely being passengers during his efforts to effect a genocide upon the Talz. It is not until Chuchi contacts that Pantoran Assembly and they declare Chi Cho out of order that she is able to negotiate with the Talz.

What this indicates is that the Galactic Republic is not a Federal State or even a nation in the conventional sense but rather something more akin to the United Nations or the European Union. Member states have near total autonomy on internal matters and, as seen in neutral systems throughout the Clone Wars, foreign policy. Indeed, the use of the word "sovereign" to describe both Naboo and Pantora is telling. To be sovereign is to have "supreme or ultimate power". If Naboo is a Sovereign System, then the laws of Naboo ultimately supercede those of the Galactic Senate, unless accepted by the Naboo. Similarly, if Pantora is able to declare Orto Plutonia sovereign territory, then they are able to exercise authority superior to that of the Republic and the Republic is only able to act based on the will of the Pantoran government, rather than Republic Law.

When this is all combined, many of the inconsistencies of the Republic make more sense. The issue of representation becomes the result of planetary sovereignty, with more powerful member worlds able to exercise their sovereignty to a greater degree and leverage representation in the Senate. It also explains the Senate's impotence, as the sovereignty of member worlds means that any action must be taken with general acceptance by the parties involved. It also explains why the Jedi were the only means used to attempt to solve the conflict between Naboo and the Trade Federation. The Republic is limited only to the deployment of "Peacekeepers", much like the UN is. And those peacekeepers have a very limited mandate off Coruscant. As Qui Gon says, "I can't fight a war for you." It also, handily, explains why so many worlds both joined the CIS and looked the other way as many CIS generals committed heinous acts of brutality. Many of the worlds mentioned as siding with the CIS lacked Senate representation, which they gained in the Confederacy's parliament. As such, those worlds are likely to have viewed the brutality of Grievous and Dooku as necessary actions in the service of the greater good: the protection of their sovereignty and their representation.

Indeed, I find this interpretation of the Republic to be far more interesting than a galaxy spanning, centralized power structure. It explains the Republic's failings, the existence of entities like the Hutts, the Hapans, and others, the lack of Republic influence on worlds like Geonosis or Tatooine, and many other such things. And it makes the Clone Wars a far more interesting affair, as well as adding additional weight to the appointment of regional Governors in Revenge of the Sith and the dissolution of the Senate in A New Hope. The Clone Wars sees the conquest of the Galaxy by the Sith Empire, largely without a shot being fired. The dissolution of the Senate is merely the final formality, the final tone of the death rattle of planetary sovereignty. And with that context, it is small wonder that so many were willing to fight so hard against the Republic and the Empire.

[rejvaik]

I got to tell you a republic lasting for 25, 000 years before turning into an empire is actually pretty dang good streak of time

[catmonarchist]

It's basically if the Weimar Republic was unicameral and fully parliamentary. The hodge-podge representatives based on ancient history rather than population and being sometimes appointed rather than directly elected (like the US pre 17th amendment) is like their upper house and the rest is basically ran as their lower house, including having the head of government named Chancellor rather than prime minister.

Makes sense from the 'rise of national socialism' parallels

[Tyranidus]

Given the numbers of worlds involved in universe a representative government was going to get stupidly complicated and gridlocked all the time no matter how this was structured lol. Makes Palpatine’s efforts seem almost understandable.

[tonyjohnsen]

Me as a 8 year old «Star Wars yay! Lightsabers go

Me now: ah yes the ruling counsel

[MatticusSama]

I love videos like this. It is interesting to see how authors of various books had such different outlooks on how the government of the Republic would work, and how that leads to a bit of clashing lore at times.

[gabrielbrito]

I kinda love that corporate personhood and government representation in the Star Wars Universe is directly related to a evil bald guy setting off a gigantic magic thought bomb that killed a bunch of people.

[ninja]

In many ways, the Galactic Republic reminds me of the structure of The Dutch Republic, under the United Provinces before Napoleon, With the Senate being closer to an Estates-General in function and design.

[philloraptor]

I've been really looking forward to this video and it turned out great! It helped bring some clarity to one part where I had always some issues (namely the extent of who a single senator represents).

[adamjensen]

Really enjoyed this Corey, the politics and economics was one of my favorite elements of the prequels. I’d love more of this stuff!

[cioccolata]

I always think about how many of the people in the most important positions in the senate must be of almost superhuman intelligence, charisma and political talent as they are literally the best candidates in thousands of star systems. Assuming that the best candidates are chosen, of course. I mean, look at Palpatine. He's perfect for politics. He's charismatic, highly intelligent, ruthless with his enemies and supposedly fiercly loyal with his friends.

Edit: I'm talking about Star Wars specifically, so I don't think that ruthlessness is needed for a good politician in our world.

[thesinfultictac]

This is interesting contrast to the United Federation of Planets from Star Trek.
As even though the UFP is federal constitutional republic with certain rights and powers enumerated in the UFP charter and constitution ( though only a few of them are actually talked about in any length in a few pieces of media)

The biggest being membership.
No caste system, must have FTL capabilities, must have a unified world government that represents the majority of the population, must be willing to share tech and science, must allow recruiting for Star Fleet; must believe in Justice, liberty, equality, and peace; and I might be missing a couple.

In contrast the Old Republic (especially after its formation in the Great Hyperspace War) routinely invaded planets that had never achieved FTL and either purposely or accidentally colonized the population.

Admittance to the UFP is rigorous and members have to be a democracy of some kind. Whereas with the Galactic republic doesn't really care if the members states are practicing democracy at home.

The biggest is that each member of the UFP is it's own nation-state, more akin to the UN in certain respect, leaving the governing of each planet (and its colonies) to its local population. Though each citizen of the UFP is both a citizen of its world and the UFP.