Galactic Republic (Star Wars)

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Galactic Republic
Image:Galactic Republic.JPGEmblem of the Galactic Republic
Form of GovernmentFederal Republic-Unicameral-Parliamentary
Official languageBasic
CapitalCoruscant
Judicial BranchSupreme Court
Legislative and Executive BranchGalactic Senate
Senate Chair and Head of StateSupreme Chancellor
Assistant Senate HeadVice Chair
Establishment 25,000 BBY
Reorganization into the Galactic Empire 19 BBY
Re-establishment 5 ABY
CurrencyGalactic Standard Credit (Republic Dataries)

The Galactic Republic is the name of the interplanetary government used in the fictional Star Wars universe prior to the establishment of the Galactic Empire. By the time of the original Star Wars trilogy, it is referred to as the Old Republic. It was a benevolent, though eventually ineffectual, constitutional republic tied up in layers of bureaucracy.

The Republic, as it was commonly known, had a highly republican government that was able to sustain itself for over twenty-five thousand years (according to the Expanded Universe, as implied by Obi-Wan Kenobi's line in A New Hope that "for over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic.") It is said that its complete history would "fill ten thousand libraries."

Contents

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History

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The Republic itself was formed over 25,000 BBY when the first Galactic Constitution was signed on Coruscant. Whether this means that Coruscant was the original homeworld of humans or simply the most powerful world at the time is still up for debate, and there has been little said about the event other than that it occurred.

The Republic was made up of about a million worlds. The Clone Wars, which occur from 22 BBY to 19 BBY, was the first full-scale war since the Republic's re-formation after the Battle of Ruusan.

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The Galactic Senate

Image:Galactic Senate1.JPG The Republic began as a mutual protection and economic alliance among a number of planets in the galactic core. Each member state (system governments) returned a representative (a senator) to a central legislative body (the Senate). Senators were ambassadors of their homeworld, and member worlds were able to maintain their government and society in accordance with local beliefs, customs, and traditions. There were a wide variety of different local governments along the political spectrum: from monarchies to republics to hive-like communes. In some systems, the senator was elected to that post, in others the world government appointed the senator. Naboo's monarch appointed their senator, while the Alderaan Council of Elders elected their senator out of their own ranks (usually the heir to the Royal House of Organa, as the heir was also the leader of the council).

When the Republic's power and influence expanded, many new areas of the galaxy were incorporated into the Republic. A reorganization of Senatorial representation occurred 1,000 BBY during the Ruusan Reformation. The most common organization for these new territories was to group regions into Sectors of about 50 inhabited worlds. Each sector is represented by a Senatorial Delegation. When the number of sectors became too large, sectors were organized into roughly a thousand regions, each represented by one delegation to the Senate.

Image:Senate front.jpg The Senate served as the governing body of the Galactic Republic, while the Jedi Order served as its defenders. Soon thereafter, the Senate, and therefore the seat of government, was established on the planet Coruscant, coordinates 0-0-0 in the standard galactic coordinate system, signifying its central location in the galaxy.


The Senate, according to the Star Wars.com Databank, was an enormous building containing 1,024 floating platforms, each of which contained several senators. Each platform in the senate represented a "sector" of the galaxy, with one senator for that sector accompanied by a delegation of aides and advisors. Some platforms represented individual worlds bringing special pleas to the senate, others the special interest guilds such as the Trade Federation. Along with the senators, the leaders of the individual member planets apparently also had the power to vote in the Senate and introduce legislation. Each senatorial delegation had one vote.

Image:Galacticsenate.jpg The members of the Senate then elected a Chancellor from amongst their ranks who served as the Senate's presiding officer and as the Republic's de facto leader. The Chancellor was assisted by the Vice Chair, who is presumably elected in the same manner as the Chancellor; the same Vice Chair is present throughout the entire prequel trilogy. Based on the films, we can see that the Senate followed pseudo-parliamentary rules. In Episode One, Chancellor Finis Valorum was forced out of office by the Senate in a motion of no confidence, introduced by Queen Amidala of Naboo.

Senators received one vote in all matters, procedural and substantive. The Chancellor was elected from within the Senate for a set term (presumably up to two terms of four years, though exceptions were made in cases of emergency, as given throughout various books and movies of the prequel trilogy.) The assembly was in turn divided into individual committees, each specializing in specific fields of government administration, and which were responsible for creating legislation to be reviewed by the full assembly. The Senate had some form of judicial power as well, although the Republic's judicial branch was the Supreme Court and the Senate's power in this area may have been limited to trying its own members.

Although legislation passed by the Senate was binding to all member worlds, most of the everyday legislation followed by citizens of the Republic was created at the planetary, sector, or regional level. Therefore, the main functions of the Senate were to mediate disputes between members, provide for the common defense, and regulate inter-system trade. The Jedi, who answered to the Chancellor, became traveling representatives of the Senate responsible not only for protecting the Republic and its citizens, but also to serve as representatives of the Republic and as mediators for individual disputes.

The Republic's greatest failing was its lack of formal organization. Much of its operation is based on non-binding constitutional conventions, which were often ignored and undermined by corrupt and power-hungry politicians. Coalition governments were common with special interests defining the legislative agenda.

Image:Senate.jpg However, the waning years of the Republic were a time of corruption and great social injustice. The Senate became divided between those who genuinely wished to uphold the values and ideals of the Republic and those who wished to further their own goals. After a series of weak and ineffectual Chancellors and a crisis involving the invasion of Naboo by the Trade Federation over a tariff passed in the Senate, the time came for strong leadership to end the corruption.

After Palpatine became Chancellor, he increased the power of the office from acting as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic to the institution of his personal bodyguard, the Red Guard. The rights of many, including the Galactic Senate, were relinquished in the name of security. The removal of privacy screens in the Galactic Senate, which allow senators to discuss issues before the Senate in private resulted in many senators afraid to voice their response to a vote because of the installed surveillance hovercams listening in on every word and reporting to the Senate Security Chief. The Galactic Senate also met less often as the Chancellor was voted more powers.

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Galactic Senators/Politicians

Politicians include Senators, the Chancellor, the Vice Chair of the Senate, the Administrative Aide, various Representatives from each system, and the members of the Jedi Council. Non-council Jedi aren't necessarily not politicians, but the special status of the Jedi Council enabled them to have a substantial degree of power and moral authority. One Jedi master, Luminara Unduli was the only non-council member to get as much power in politics as a council member. Below is a list of many politicians important to the Galactic Republic.

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The Jedi and Jedi Council

The Jedi, functioning as a police force in the Republic, wielded considerable political power. The Jedi with the most power were members of the Jedi Council. Yoda and Mace Windu as the two leaders of the Council had the highest authority of all Jedi. The Chancellor had nominal authority over the Jedi Council, although this power was rarely invoked before the election of Palpatine. The Chancellor also had a holographic projector in his office so Jedi on very important missions could contact the Chancellor, any senators, and any Jedi there. When Obi-Wan Kenobi contacted Coruscant from Geonosis after witnessing Count Dooku's meeting with Separatist forces, his hologram appeared at Palpatine's office while being witnessed by Palpatine, Yoda, Windu and many senators, Jedi, and Council members.

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The Republic Military

For most of its history since the Battle of Ruusan, the Republic did not maintain an army except for ceremonial purposes. This was to display the Republic's peaceful ideals, as the Republic used Jedi Knights as "keepers of the peace."

Several trade organizations, such as the Trade Federation and Commerce Guild, kept armies of droids in order to protect their profits, but they often abused this power, such as when the Trade Federation invaded and occupied Naboo, resulting in the historic Battle of Naboo. Individual sectors also maintained their own security forces, such as Naboo Security Force or CorSec from Corellia, and these were sometimes used to combat small threats. However there was no centralized command, and the members of the Republic were loath to change this.

The Clone Wars changed all this. The Republic had no standing military to combat the Confederacy of Independent Systems and a Military Creation Act was proposed, which was strongly opposed by many of the Republic's pacifist leaders, such as Padmé Amidala of Naboo, who feared the possibility of going to war. Supporters included Orn Free Taa of Ryloth and Ask Aak of Malastare.

However, a Clone Army had already been created in secret on the planet Kamino ten years before. When it becomes clear the Confederacy had no intention of negotiating with the Republic, the Republic adopted this army as the Grand Army of the Republic, along with AT-TE walkers, gunships and other military vehicles.

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The End of the Republic

By the time of The Phantom Menace, the Republic had grown unbearably corrupt. Palpatine became the Chancellor in 32 BBY after his predecessor, Finis Valorum, was thrown out in a no confidence vote in a wave of protest against his handling of the conflict with the Trade Federation. Traditionally, the Chancellor could only serve two four-year terms, but Palpatine stayed in office much longer, due to the prolonged Separatist Crisis.

The crisis occurred when several of the Republic's member Star Systems and organizations united in order to separate from the Republic. This unified organization became known as the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Tensions between the Republic and the Separatists eventually escalated into all-out war, and the conflicts that would later be known as the "Clone Wars" began (chronicled in Attack of the Clones).

The Senate granted Palpatine emergency powers to deal with the Separatist Confederacy in a motion introduced by Representative Jar Jar Binks. Palpatine's first move, widely supported at the time, was to create a vast army of clone warriors to serve as the Republic's fighting force against the Confederacy. The Republic had not previously needed an army, since until then any small conflicts with in the Republic could be solved with the peacekeeping Jedi. However, the fact that the Confederacy had access to an enormous army of droid soldiers required the Republic to construct a more formal military to effectively fight.

In the ensuing years, the Senate increasingly ceded its power to Palpatine, who became the war's political Commander-in-Chief. Such actions were justified in the name of security, and eventually Palpatine did not need the approval of the Senate for many of his actions. Since the chancellor held a vast majority of supporters in Senate, this was considered a perfectly reasonable way to increase the wartime government's efficiency.

Tension between Palpatine and the Jedi began to grow as the war progressed. Many members of the Jedi Council remained skeptical of Palpatine's growing powers, especially at the expense of the Senate- the only body they were contractually bound to serve. In time, the Jedi began to believe that Palpatine would not surrender his power at the end of the war, and made contingency plans to remove him from power. After the death of Separatist leader General Grievous, and the discovery that Palpatine was actually Darth Sidious, the Jedi made their move, and attempted to remove Chancellor Palpatine from power. The attempt was thwarted, and shortly after Palpatine secretly issued Order 66, a galaxy-wide instruction for all clone troops to slaughter their Jedi commanders.

Many of the Jedi serving as generals of the Army of the Republic quickly fell victim to the clone trooper forces. They overwhelmed the often isolated Jedi, who were taken by surprise due to clones' complete lack of emotion when it came to following orders; there was no treachery for the Jedi to sense in the minds of the clones that surrounded them. The Jedi remaining in the Temple on Coruscant were eliminated by a detachment of clone stormtroopers led by Darth Vader, who single-handedly cut down many Jedi himself — including many children studying as padawans there.

Image:Palps Senate.JPG At the conclusion of the Clone Wars, Palpatine addressed the Senate. First he related the story of the unsuccessful "assassination attempt" by the Jedi, and declared the Order to be enemies of the Republic. Then he announced that the Galactic Republic would become a Galactic Empire so strong as to never be threatened by outside forces again. The Chancellor, who by this time had been grotesquely disfigured (he claimed this was from the Jedi assassination attempt), proclaimed himself to be the first Emperor of the galaxy. Deluded by Palpatine's charisma and skill (and perhaps also by his considerable dark side power), the majority of the Senate cheered him on loudly in approval, which provoked one of Senator Padmé Amidala's most memorable lines: "So this is how liberty dies: with thunderous applause." After so many millennia, the Galactic Republic had ceased to exist.

The Senate continued to exist after the formation of the Empire, as the "Imperial Senate," but was rendered virtually powerless. Palpatine remained the final authority on all laws; at most, the Senate could simply delay and discuss legislation. As the Clone Wars were winding down, however, Palpatine's once near-unanimous support began to falter. As depicted in the Revenge of the Sith novelization and deleted scenes from the film itself, a bloc of senators began to emerge, even before the Clone Wars had ended, who opposed the Emperor's authoritarian ruling style and resented his treatment of the Jedi and other opponents. This bloc, originally led by influential politicians such as Senator Bail Organa, and later by his foster daughter Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, eventually became the political voice of the emerging anti-Empire Rebel Alliance.

Decades later, shortly before the Battle of Yavin, Palpatine found the continued existence of open political dissent a hindrance to his total control, and disbanded the Imperial Senate — sweeping away the last remnants of the Galactic Republic. He placed all regional powers of governance in the hands of the regional governors of the Imperial Military, thus abolishing civilian control of government. The Senate Building, however, still remained visible on the Coruscant skyline at the time of the destruction of the Second Death Star.

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Rebirth of Freedom

After the fall of the Empire and the end of the Galactic Civil War, the Galactic Republic is re-established by the Rebel Alliance as the New Republic which is reorganized into the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances after the Yuuzhan Vong captured Coruscant.

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External links

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