Politics in Star Wars

Nor'baal

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"And don't forget she's a politician. They're not to be trusted."
―Obi-Wan Kenobi, about Padmé Amidala​

Star Wars - When we look at everything from the prequels, all the way through to the current movies - have in my view had somewhat of a focus on Politics. I was discussing this with a friend the other day, and decided that maybe I should put pen to paper and express it here as well, so it would be great to get your opinions on this, members of SWRP!

Within Star Wars, there have always been different Government Factions, and when one digs deeper, it is easy to come across the stray names of some of the Political Groups within them. Building on this, I was thinking ‘How would the Politics of Star Wars match up with real world Political Schools?’ - and well, here are those thoughts.

  • The Senate
    • The Core Faction
    • The Rim Faction
  • Noted Senators & Politicos
The Senate

When it comes to the Senate, I think there is often a tendency to view them as a ‘Sci Fi Version’ of the United States Government - a tendency that I think is incorrect. For clarity before I go, I am referring here to the Senate as we see it in the Prequels. Personally, I feel that the Senate is much more like the United Nations - as we see many times people within the films and books complaining that it has little real power.

Taking the Naboo Blockade as an example - there are several times that the United Nations was effectively powerless to intercede in wars, genocides and more in other nations. Reading into this further, the Senate doesn’t actually have a huge amount of power, indeed, acquiring further powers is what causes many of the ‘Nice’ Senators to sound the alarm, and leads to an Empire being founded.

In the prequels, I do think that the Political Element of Star Wars drives the story a lot more than the war does - and furthermore, I think that they have a very odd system of views and beliefs - say in comparison to today. Take for example the influence of the Jedi Order - which is (if I was to be harsh) a Religious Order, into which only those born with the correct qualities may be admitted.

To go off on a slight sidetrack here - I have said before, and I will say it again - I cannot understand why a large number of people see Princess Organa, Padme and others as such awesome and charming people? Character Wise they’re lovely, but they found themselves born into power (admittedly, the Skywalker Family is kind of the main point of star wars I know) but removing plot devices from this - Padme and Bail Organa did no more to earn their place than Palpatine did.

Padme was selected based on her IQ as a child, and then fell in with the elite from there.

Bail Organa was literally born into it.

Then dearest Padme has the audacity to say ‘’And this is how democracy dies….’’ when the Senate gives the Chancellor more and more powers and declared him Emperor. Had CNN been in the films, the headlines would have been wonderful ‘’Selection of Hereditary Monarchs complain about unelected boss.’’

Anyway, back on track.

The Jedi - thanks to their Force Abilities - hold an almost mystical place in society, permitted to observe the Senate, they have unmonitored access to the Chancellor, and their power and influence is vast. In itself, this in my mind almost makes the Republic close to a Theocracy - and it is easy to start to understand why some of the Separatist States had been so easily won over Sidious.

Looking at the Senate in more detail: From my limited understanding of planets in Star Wars, it looks to me like there is a vast gulf between the wealth and development of the Core Worlds, and then those in the Outer and Mid Rims. This in itself would lead to a natural division between the senators of those worlds (and actually splits them into factions as I go into later).

The information I can find on the senate factions comes from the Plagiues (or however the hell you spell it) book, and then is amended by my personal observations.

The Core Faction

This faction within the Senate was, as the name would suggest, founded by Senators from the Core worlds, and is described as being “politically liberal, and so advocated increasing, or at least maintaining, the authority and powers of the Republic government.” we also know that it was from this faction that Bail Antilles, and Finis Valorum hailed.

In my mind, this has always been the more traditionalist faction - however, upon closer inspection that may be far from the truth. Actually, I think that may come from my simple understanding of it - and a mix between UK and USA politics, which are very very different.

Almost all members of this faction are human, or near human, coming from older, wealthier and more developed planets in the core. A significant number of these worlds are ecumenopolis planets, and many actually founded the Republic itself. It is therefore hardly a shock that they advocate for a strong government.

From my personal reading, and do let me know if this makes sense, or you disagree - I would say that they fall into the following areas. Economically Liberal, these planets follow the idea that Government should not intercede in the affairs of big business (hence why many of them did not like the idea of restricting the Trade Federation) whilst at the same time they hold Social Conservative values - in a sense that they back supporting the Monarchy/a Civic Class. I would also add that - given the history of the worlds, and then their future - they are Colonialist, and then later Imperialist (name a core world who stood against the Empire, and had a monarchy?).

All in all, I would say that this faction is ‘Conservative Liberalism’ in nature.

The Rim Faction

This faction is meant to be the one that represents the Rimward worlds - and it is in my eyes a bit of a miracle they don’t dominate the Senate more - as there seem to be ‘bloody thousands of ‘em’. Made up primarily of Aliens, they are described as ”They were a politically conservative party and so advocated reducing the power and influence of the Republic government, especially in economic and trade matters.’’.

I think this description can be taken with a pinch of salt, as it seems (using the Clone Wars as an example) that this group was exceptionally corrupt, and their policies changed with the wind - maybe answering my earlier question as to why they did not dominate the Senate more. This group moved to back Palpatine (even though he was an Independent) and then promptly changed their policies to back his pro-Imperialist Agenda.

In all honesty I would say it is damn hard to actually call what they stood for, but based on the official line they give, I would say you have a ‘Conservative Nationalist’ group. I think a noted shift in their policies, backed by a hell of a lot of bribes, came when Valorum stepped down, and they backed Palpatine, who defeat Bail Antilles for the role of Chancellor.

Imagine how different Star Wars would have been, if Antilles had won?

Noted Senators and Politicos

With the split of the Senate being a choice between ‘Right Wing or Right Wing’ that leaves most of the ‘interesting’ Senators as Independents - for example, Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, Padme Amidala and the might Sheev Palpatine had ways of thinking that defied the popular trend in their factions.

Padme Amidala is probably the most well known Senator in Star Wars, and aside from her husband's controversial view on sand, was in my view, obviously intended to be the polar opposite of Anakin in how she saw the world. Anakin sees the Galaxy as something to be controlled, Padme sees the Galaxy as something to be cared for.

Despite this, I still am not a fan of her. She is always held up in my eyes, as some sort of angelic figure, but I do not think this is accurate of her beliefs at all. She was a consummate elitist in my opinion, spending more time in both books, comics and films with the elites of the galaxy than with anyone else.

That being said, it is the role of a Senator in Star Wars to act as Ambassador for their Planet's Government, and not to circumvent their Planets leader - so I suppose she was doing a good job there.

When we look at two of Padmes political allies Bail Organa and Mon Mothma I think we see two people with views that stood out like a sore thumb in the Senate. Taking the Expanded Universe, Mon Mothma is in my opinion, one hell of a character - and despite her calm appearance on screen - she is a crafty and strong willed political operator. Throughout the EU, she always advocated against a strong central Government, and at one point actually tried to disband the Rebel Alliance Council as a ‘secret council reeked of empire’. I would say that she was Classically Liberal in nature.

Taking a look at Bail Organa however, and he is a different kettle of fish all together. A Monarchist, strongly pro-Jedi - I would say that he was slightly more anti-Government that the rest of the Core Faction - which is maybe why he was able to get on with others in the Rim Faction so well? There is also a great comic in the EU in which he actually finds Valorum after he goes into hiding, and begs him to come back and help stop Palpatine becoming Emperor - very interesting, as Valorum and Bail had never been on good terms at all.

So, after a lot of frantic typing - there you have it, my first little nerdgasm around the politics of star wars, and no doubt there will be others to come. I may do another one on the Separatists at some point, but, if you can be bothered to read this massive post - let me know what you think!

A few questions for you all -

1 - Do you think the Jedi had too much power in the Republic?
2 - Do you agree that the Padmes and Bails of Star Wars are hypocritical to call out Palpatine for making himself Emperor?
3 - What are your views on how the Senators of Star Wars align to real world politics?
 

Jinan B

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1: To be honest I find this to be a bit of a give or take. While (as we all definitely know), the Jedi are far from being a body that is capable of sound judgement a lot of the time, I don't think it is quite fair to call them a religious order (in a way that compares them to one in the traditional sense). While, yes, they are an order based around a religious lifestyle and philosophy; the focus of their religion is clearly very real.

(Going on a slight tangent rant, I've always hated how "atheists" are treated in star wars, where they go "oh hurr durr the Force doesn't exist" after literally seeing someone levitate rocks with no other discernible reason for it besides the Force. Some of these examples are more egregious than others (think SWTOR's Tharan Cedrax, who sees the force on an almost daily basis, VS Han Solo, who lived in a time where all the Jedi were both dead and also delegitimized by the Empire, and once he actually saw the force in action he kinda came around in time))

At the end of the day, I wouldn't really be inclined to compare the Jedi to anything in the real world. They are, quite simply, the Jedi, and end up being some kind of mix between a religious order, and a private semi-affiliated army/diplomacy branch of the government that doesn't actually charge the people they work for (wow how do you even describe their role). Personally I don't think there’s anything wrong with them having influence, but it could definitely benefit from being more structured and, you know, having the people who make decisions be actually reasonable.

Also, in their capacity as diplomats, I feel that (what should be, at least) an absolutely neutral body is a somewhat ideal group to handle that sort of thing within such a government.

2: No. While the political system of Naboo is hardly perfect, Padme WAS elected as queen. A near absolute dictatorship is still a very different thing compared to a flawed democracy (though while I say that, is Padme being seen to be intelligent at a young age, and then being able to become ruler despite not starting out as a noble, kinda a good sign for your democracy?). While Bail's claim was not quite as good in terms of democracy, legends did show that there was some level of contention still.

I would say that their complaints are also valid because of the scale of it all, however. The political system of Alderaan ultimately pales in comparison to that of a body that (if only technically) governs over hundreds of planets. At the end of the day, the republic still functioned as a republic as a whole, and Sheeeeeeev subverted that. The Padmes and Bails are within their rights to not want the larger governing body to change from being a democratic system.

As an added note, I don't think there's really anything saying that Bail really thought Alderaan's system of government was the best one. I wouldn't see it as being overly out of character for him to have wanted to change it into something closer to a reasonable democracy (of course he couldn't, what with the need to look after one of the chosen two and also get rebel against the Empire.)

3: Sjoe

As an added note, I wrote this all in a hurry and I'm probably wrong on every point.
 

The Captain

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1). Yes, absolutely, one-hundred and ten percent. You have a hereditary, militaristic religious order with mystical powers operating just barely within the jurisdiction of the Galactic Government, usually just the Executive. They can circumvent borders, try their own people separately from the government, have no vetting or safe exit process, and are granted official power over most forms of law enforcement or military. The Jedi even have separate political and military clout outside of Republic territory. Sure, the Jedi are trying to do right by the galaxy, but I seriously doubt if the UN gave the Vatican its own separate military and court system whose agents had jurisdiction everywhere over almost everyone short of the UN Executive we'd all be cool with that.

I won't deny that they make a good neutral party for diplomacy and its a good idea for the government to keep channels open with them. But there's a difference between letting someone into your house and giving them the keys.

2). Pretty much, yeah, but it doesn't necessarily make them wrong. Having unelected, hereditarily chosen leaders complaining about someone taking Imperial power is almost textbook hypocrisy, especially since their empires haven't fallen into total fascism under their control. But for some reason when someone develops totalitarian power over them they suddenly take issue.

However, tu quoque does apply here. Just because someone is a hypocrite doesn't make them wrong. If Charles Manson told you that murder is wrong it wouldn't suddenly make murder right. Likewise, if a group of monarchs say that total, imperial power is wrong they aren't wrong just for being self-interested hypocrites.

3). The political spectrum in Star Wars is a total cluster-kriff. The core is largely composed of corporatist, elitist, human-centric tools who talk a far better game than they actually play. And the rim is largely composed of species stereotypes and caricatures of sleazy, openly corrupt politicians. Its a wonder that civil wars aren't a weekly practice honestly, given how half the government is detached and ineffectual and the other half is self-serving and sycophantic. The spectrum isn't right to left, or authoritarian to libertarian, its choosing who you want to screw you over and how you want it to be done.
 

Pippa

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1. I think it's very hard to gauge how much power the Jedi actually had in the galaxy. Mystically, there are stories that they are unkillable paragons of justice, righting wrongs at the edge of a magic cuts-through-anything sword. Anakin in particular firmly believes these stories when we meet him and over the course of menace he is quickly disillusioned of that story. That combined with characters like Hondo Anaka who has almost no idea what a Jedi even is, in an era where they were arguably the most public that they had ever been, acting as generals and commanders for the clone army leads me to believe that there really can't be very many Jedi in the galaxy, even at the time of the prequels when they are at the height of their canon population. And while there is more to power and control that sheer numbers, if say the number of Jedi was only in the thousands (we certainly don't see canon evidence of more than a hundred at any one time in a scene that I'm aware of) compared to the populations of just one or two systems that are often in the millions if not billions the Jedi are outnumbers so astronomically that is a surprise to me that it took as long as it did for anyone to try to kill them off.

Sure individually they potentially have great powers, with their magic and weapons, but, even if they weren't a slow moving, seemingly easily manipulated pacifist organisation that is prone to shockingly bad decisions for people that have members with literal powers of precognition, they are frequently decentralised. Sending out 1-2 person teams out into the world as missionary/detective peacekeepers around the galaxy. Now truthfully we don't know if the events of episode one were a unique situation, where the order was doing a favour for Valorum and interceding in the affairs of the trade federation and Naboo by sending a knight and his padawan as "negotiators" so that the senate could perhaps feign a lack of interference with the situation. But if the order is prone to doing such jobs for the senate, we mostly see them performing body-guarding or rescue roles for various senators, though in canon mostly Amidala, then a lot of their forces would be spread through out the galaxy, doing good/ working for the senate/ looking for new force sensitives to recruit. Meaning that the main power they would wield would have to be political in nature.

However the order is rarely, if ever, seen as being any kind of savvy political operator. For the most part they come off badly in every deal they make, they seem to be roped into much of what the senate does and despite being a mystic wisdom prone organisation, no one ever seems to take their advice. (Though that could possibly be due to the other factions being actually aware of the Jedi's historically poor performance as an organisation?). Rather than powerful, I would describe the Jedi as privileged. They are afforded special access and have their own archives of information and personal abilities but this seems to come with the unspoken provision that they don't really use any of it. The Pontifical Swiss guard are probably well trained in their duties (I wouldn't know), but I don't think they have any real influence on the Vatican or the Pope's actions and decisions.

So I'd argue that no, not only did the Jedi not have too much power, but they didn't have much real power at all outside of their use of the force.

2. So I'd say that form a certain point of view they aren't technically hypocrites, decrying someone for taking power when you were given power isn't so much hypocrisy as it is mean and protecting of an unbalanced status quo, if they are decrying him for having power, then yes that is absolutely hypocritical and would be regardless of how they obtained that power but that's a pedantic argument mostly about choice of vocabulary.

As a real answer, it depends I feel on if you think Palpatine rose to power outside of the legal channels of the republic. His abuse of a stupid person, given wholly too much responsibility, Jar Jar, in order to call a vote to grant Palpatine temporary dictatorship status (pretty much the same way the roman republic senate used to do in times of peril), which passes, is clearly an actual part of the senate's democratic process. It couldn't have happened if it wasn't. Then unless there is a law that prevents him from doing so, and without reading a full republic constitution or charter I have nooo idea if such a thing exists, he would be fully within his legal rights to declare what he wants. (As an aside I'm sure there would need to be a process of some kind to allow for dissolution of the power of senate which should have legally stalled him somewhat, the roman republic had a system to try to prevent elected dictators from doing exactly that, not that it always worked, but by that point Palpatine may have been too politically powerful for anyone to have stopped him).

Assuming then that Palpatine's actions were done within the legal confine of the republic's system, then objections are completely petty. Granted, we know he's a cartoonishly evil person and some of the characters know this, but outside of some shady stuff that goes on during the clone wars series, the republic on the whole believe him to be a perfectly okay guy. And if the objectors don't know he's evil then they are objecting because they don't want him to be the one in power, which is pretty hypocritical.

3. The closest I could come to drawing analogies to the real world for the politics of the senate and the senators in particular would be to treat each delegation like a separate country. Then much like global spanning voting events like the UN or The Eurovision song contest, delegates can often vote in predictable patterns in groups or blocks. In the Republic senate there are only really two real blocks, the core and the rim, like was mentioned before. I feel part of the reason why there is a conflicting nature for these blocks is the attempt to pretend to be portraying worlds upon worlds of different cultural systems and political divides, something I've always felt that star wars basically fails at. This is especially true in this instance where in a galaxy of potential diversity we still end up with essentially two party politics with the smaller party holding similar sway to the larger party by dint of having a more consistent political stance, and deeper historical routes within the political system.

Essentially the politics of starwars a far too simplified version of something that should be far more complex than anything our world would have to offer and as a result drawing a proper comparison is all but impossible in my opinion. Otherwise, I feel that your descriptions of their political affiliation and stance is about as accurate as can be possible in the situation. :)
 
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