The Coalition Universe

[Deepcrush]

Ok, that makes a lot more sense now.

[Teaos]

I'd like to hear about the government that rules the Coalition. As I said before the burocracy must be murder.

[Graham Kennedy]

COALITION GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE

As mentioned before, the Coalition is divided into membership blocks. In order to achieve Coalition membership you have to meet certain criteria, one of which is that your government needs to show that it functions responsibly and relatively benignly in providing for the people. But there is no real requirement in how it does that. The Turgran Imperium, for instance, is an absolute monarchy. The Human Federated Worlds is a Federation, obviously. Other blocks function in other ways.

Each block gets a right to send representatives to the Coalition council. The number you get is roughly population based, but with a minimum per block. Council seats are elected, but there's a proviso to that which I will get to in a bit. There is also a Coalition president, who is elected by simple majority of popular vote by all sentient adults within the Coalition, and a constitutional court.

The Coalition doesn't much concern itself in the day to day running of any one block, let alone any one world. It's more into co-ordinating the blocks, getting them to work in concert with one another. The closest Earth model is something along the lines of the European Union, with the different blocks representing different countries and the Coalition as the EU government.

Article I of the Coalition constitution states that its purpose is to "advance understanding and co-operation between diverse social systems, co-ordinate our economic, social and military policies and promote the common good."

Article II goes on to say that the Coalition "shall at all times conduct itself with all feasible regard for the individual styles of government employed by its members, and the freedoms, liberties and responsibilities of their populations."

Article III states the individual rights that come with Coalition citizenship. Freedom of speech, a right of access to government information, a right to due process, equality of race and gender, etc. An important one is a right to free travel; any Coalition citizen has a right to travel within the Coalition, and to leave the Coalition. There's also a right not to be compelled to engage in dangerous service for the government - essentially, Article III makes the draft illegal.

One of the major things the constitutional court spends its time on is hearing cases which pit Article II against Article III. Questions like, does a membership block have a right to legalise slavery? Article III would make slavery impossible, but Article II says blocks can govern themselves how they like. The anti-slavers won that battle, but in general the court sides with Article II except in extreme cases.

Article VIII states that the occupier of a Coalition Council is decided by election, but crucially it says the holder is "decided by majority voting of the population of the membership block involved, qualified in a manner compatible with the social systems of said block." What that means is that the membership block gets to decide who their electorate is. The actual intent of this was that one block might have a voting age of 18, another 21, another 16, on might disallow convicted criminals, etc. However, in the Turgran Imperium the electorate consists of the Empress, solely. That one got challenged in the constitutional court, and they upheld it in what was regarded as a highly controversial decision.

The article which described the presidential elections was worded differently, however, so most everybody with a functional brain gets to vote on that.

Here's a fun one. No person may stand for election to president if they have ever been a member of a political party. Included as a deliberate attempt to reduce the power of political parties and encourage non-partisan politics, the actual effect was that parties just redefine themselves so that they don't have formal "members". Much legal wrangling has gone on over that one.

The constitution states explicitly that any attack on any member is regarded as an attack on all, and must be responded to by all. It also forbids Coalition members to wage war on one another; launch an attack against a fellow member, for any reason, and the whole Coalition is legally required to respond as they would to an external attack.

In comparison to something like the EU, the Coalition is rather more integrated militarily. The Coalition military has evolved greatly over time. At the founding of the alliance it was little more than a paper force, symbolic more than anything. Membership blocks maintained their own militaries at whatever strength and structure they wanted to, while the Coalition military consisted of little more than a few paper pushing headquarters. Over time it evolved to something like a UN force; units from the various membership blocks were assigned to it more or less as and if needed.

A couple of wars in which the Coalition suffered more than it should have led to a change in that attitude. The individual military forces were standardised, rules were set on how much blocks had to spend on them, and a rule was passed that everybody had to assign a minimum percentage of their forces to the standing Coalition force. Another war - which the Coalition almost lost - led to the Coalition military engulfing more or less all the individual military organisations and units. By "today" (today is the year 3000) individual members only maintain local system and planetary defences, and all power projection capability is in the hands of the Coalition.

[Tsukiyumi]

Quite detailed; very interesting, GK. Clearly, you've put a lot of thought into this, probably over a long time period. I do the same thing.

[Teaos]

I notice you jump from article 3 to 8. I presume the others arent important.

So basically the coalition council is just the highest level of government. A city has its coucil, a planet has its govenrment, a membership block has its leaders and then the coalition has its council.

[Deepcrush]

I love it. You've either got too much brain power or too much time on your hand GK.

[Graham Kennedy]

I notice you jump from article 3 to 8. I presume the others arent important.

Heh, well all the articles of the constitution are important, but it was four in the morning already and I didn't want to still be typing away at six! I'll post the whole constitution.

So basically the coalition council is just the highest level of government. A city has its coucil, a planet has its govenrment, a membership block has its leaders and then the coalition has its council.

Exactly so.

The Turgran one is an interesting example. Their Imperium is an absolute monarchy, with the Empress as ruler. She appoints about a thousand regional governors, who each rule over dozens to thousands of star systems. in turn appoint system governors, who rule individual systems. They appoint local governors who rule an area that might range from an island through to a continent or two, depending on population. And they appoint managers who run particular towns and cities.

Technically, the Empress owns the entire Imperium. She demands tribute off the regional governors, which she uses to fund the Imperial government. They in turn demand tribute off the next level down, and so on down the chain. At the bottom level the money is raised by demanding taxes, which can be in whatever form the bottom level of government chooses. But it's all done in her name; technically the various governors are her employees, acting in her name. For instance since she literally owns the land of the Imperium, then one popular method of taxation is to charge rent to anyone and anything living on that land.

There are no legal barriers to governors demanding any level of tribute or charging any rate of tax, either. Generally you demand enough to pay for the functioning of whatever government services you need, plus enough to cover your tribute to the next level up. But if you wanted to charge double that and pocket the difference, it would be perfectly legal. In practice governors do indeed become quite wealthy, but they rarely bleed off so much that it becomes a problem. There's a fairly well ingrained custom of governing responsibly, and such naked greed and self interest would be a good way to get yourself dismissed from your post.

As the direct owner of a Coalition membership block that has a little over a million planets to its name, the Turgran Empress is by far the wealthiest person in it.

[Teaos]

Suprising a empire that large can survive, they would either get destroyed by an up rising by citizens demanding a say in how things are run or through abuse of power.

Imagin if one of the kings or queens had a son like Nero, he wouldnt last long.

[Graham Kennedy]

TEXT OF THE COALITION CONSTITUTION

Article I. So as to advance understanding and co-operation between diverse social systems, co-ordinate our economic, social and military policies and promote the common good, the United Interworld Coalition is hereby established.

Article II. The United Interworld Coalition shall at all times conduct itself with all feasible regard for the individual styles of government employed by its members, and the freedoms, liberties and responsibilities of their populations.

Article III. In addition to the freedoms, liberties and responsibilities of the populations of its member governments, all Coalition citizens shall be entitled to the following rights :

III/I. All persons considered to be citizens of any membership block of the United Interworld Coalition shall in addition be entitled to Coalition Citizenship.
III/II. All Coalition Citizens shall have the right to express their views and opinions freely and openly without unreasonable restriction.
III/III. All Coalition citizens shall have the right to access, on request, any information concerning the function of the Coalition the release of which will not cause undue impediment to the functioning of said government.
III/IV. No Coalition citizen shall be subject to legal action or punishment without full due process of the law.
III/V. The Coalition government shall make no distinction between persons on the basis of species, race, gender, religious or philosophical creed.
III/VI. Coalition citizens shall be free to travel between Coalition member planets or to leave the Coalition without restriction or hindrance of any kind.
III/VII. All Coalition citizens shall have the right to stand for election or appointment to any applicable office within the Coalition government or its agencies without impediment.
III/VIII. No Coalition citizen may be compelled to perform dangerous service for the government, most especially including military service.

Article IV. The principal agencies of the Coalition shall be (a) the membership blocks (b) the Coalition Council, (c) The Coalition Constitutional Court, (d) the Civil Bureaucracy (e) The Combined Military Command, plus such agencies as these bodies shall deem appropriate to fulfil their function.

Article V. A membership block shall be defined as a group of planets or similar population centers which operate under a common government. Within the framework of the Coalition, such blocks shall be treated at all times as a single political entity.

Article VI. The Coalition Council shall be responsible for approving or denying all legislative measures, measures of censure, and for the declaring of a state of war.

Article VII. The Coalition council shall consist of no fewer than 858 seats and no more than 864. Seats shall be assigned to membership blocks in approximate proportion to their population by a body appointed by the Council for this purpose. Regardless of population all membership blocks must hold at least one seat on the council, and no membership block shall hold more than 1/6 of all council seats.

Article VIII. The occupier of a Coalition Council seat must be decided by majority voting of the population of the membership block involved, qualified in a manner compatible with the social systems of said block. The period of service shall last for exactly five standard years, one fifth of the Council being elected in each standard year. The date of said elections shall be decided by the government of each membership block individually.

Article IX. All decisions made by the Coalition Council are subject to qualified majority voting; a matter shall be considered to be approved only if it simultaneously garners the support of more than one half of those Council members voting, and the votes of at lest one Council member from each of at least one half of all membership blocks.

Article X. Should any member society conduct itself in a way incompatible with the aims of the Coalition, its membership may be suspended by the Council until such conduct ceases and, in the opinion of the Council, reasonable assurances have been made and accepted that transgressions will not re-occur.

Article XI. The Office of the President shall be responsible for the implementation of the policies of the Coalition and the management of the government and the Civil Bureaucracy. The President and his advisers shall provide the sole political direction for the bureaucracy; the bureaucracy shall conduct itself without regard for the political nature of the tasks set for it, instead concentrating on implementation of policy in the most timely and efficient manner possible.

Article XII. The Office of the President of the Coalition shall be responsible for appointing all positions of heavy responsibility within the Civil Bureaucracy. This shall include, but not be limited to, the administrative heads of all departments.

Article XIII. The Office of the President of the Coalition shall appoint Ministers to each of the departments of the Civil Bureaucracy. These Ministers shall provide political direction to the department, acting in conjunction with the administrative heads. The President must seek advice from the ministers before setting policy, and give such advice due weight. Members of any given political organisation may not hold more than one half of all cabinet posts.

Article XIV. The President of the Coalition shall periodically be elected by simple majority of the Coalition electorate. Such elections shall be held on a date to be decided by the holder of the Office of the President of the Coalition, but shall in no circumstances occur more than five standard years apart.

Article XV. The candidate for the Office of the President of the Coalition who secures the second largest number of votes shall serve a five year term as the Deputy President. The Deputy President shall have no powers or function within the government, but in the event of the death of the President, the Deputy President shall succeed to the Office of President of the Coalition for the remainder of the five year term.

Article XVI. Should the holder of the Office of President become incapable of carrying out the duties of that post, the Deputy President shall succeed to the office until such time as the original holder may effectively return, or until the five year term of office is completed.

Article XVII. Should the holder of the Presidential office be considered by the Coalition Council to be guilty of acts or conduct unbecoming a member of the government, the Council must vote on an act of censure. If such an act is passed in accordance with Article V, the president must apologise to the Council in person and provide a personal guarantee not to repeat such conduct again.

Article XVIII. Should the holder of the Presidential office be considered by the Coalition Council to be guilty of acts or conduct which indicate the holder's character is of a nature offensive to public dignity and incompatible with the holding of public office, the Council may require the holder of the Office to vacate the position. Under such circumstances the Deputy President shall succeed to the Office of President in accordance with Article XVI.

Article XIX. Candidates for the Office of the President of the Coalition shall be single individuals from the general population who propose themselves for the post. Candidates shall provide the Council with a monetary deposit equal to the average yearly income of a Coalition citizen prior to standing for election, this amount to be returned only if the candidate polls more than 1% of the total votes cast. No person who has ever been a member of an organized political party may become a candidate.

Article XX. The Coalition Constitutional Court shall rule on the constitutionality of all laws and policies referred to it. No policy may be implemented by any section or member of the government once it has been ruled as unconstitutional by the court.

Article XXI. The Coalition Constitutional Court shall consist of eleven persons. Potential members shall be proposed by the President, and must be approved by majority vote of the Coalition Council. Once elected a Court member shall serve until a resignation is freely tendered to the President, or until death.

Article XXII. No person or organisation may deliberately act in such a way as to prevent the Constitutional Court from fulfilling its function.

Article XXIII. The Coalition Military Command shall be headed by a board of twelve military officers who shall be appointed by and will work under the orders of the Office of the President. These officers shall, by virtue of their positions, be considered the most senior officers of all CMC forces, regardless of rank or other position.

Article XXIV. All Coalition Members are required to assign suitable military forces to the Coalition Military Command. The size and composition of the forces provided are to be agreed by the Coalition Council.

Article XXV. No Coalition membership block may initiate military action of any kind against another, except in direct self-defence against forces which are actively engaged in an unprovoked military attack.

Article XXVI. Any military attack by any external body on one Coalition membership block is considered a military attack on the entire Coalition. Any or all military forces assigned to the CMC may be mobilised and utilised, without any prior consultation with the governments which assigned them, in order to meet such attacks. All membership blocks are required to provide whatever level of support is needed to sustain such operations, up to and including the commitment of all possible resources.

Article XXVII. Whilst a membership block is entitled under Article XXIV to engage in military action for direct self-defence, it must also make every reasonable effort to settle the wider dispute by peaceful means. All members are required to lend any reasonable assistance toward achieving such peaceful resolution.

Article XXVIII. Should it prove impossible to halt or limit hostilities between two Coalition membership blocks as outlined in Article XXVI, the member which initiated the hostilities shall be evicted from the Coalition forthwith. Should hostilities continue after this time, then the Coalition will respond as outlined by Article XXV.

Article XXIX. Should one Coalition member use military forces assigned to the CMC against another, such use will be regarded as an external attack by that member under Article XXV, making said member liable for retaliation by all other Coalition members.

Article XXX. Any planetary or multi-planetary society may petition for membership of the United Interworld Coalition. Membership shall be granted if, in the opinion of the Council : (a) the society governs itself with due respect for the wishes rights and privileges of the general population and (b) membership will benefit both the applicant and the Coalition as a whole.

Article XXXI. The Coalition Council will periodically set targets for the major economic criteria. All member states are required to make all reasonable efforts to meet or exceed these criteria.

Article XXXII. No member may impose additional taxation or duty on goods imported into it by another Coalition member beyond those which are levied on its own goods.

Article XXXIII. All membership blocks whose average standard of living is above the total Coalition average will contribute to a fund which will be used to raise the standard of living for those membership blocks who's standard of living is below the total Coalition average. The amount of the contribution will be determined by the Coalition Council, but will be broadly in line with the economic strength of the member involved.

Analysis and commentary

This is something of a first draft, and I haven't looked at it in a long time, so if you spot weirdness in it please point it out!

Article I. Article 1 of the Constitution establishes the Coalition and states its aims.

Article II. Article 2 is widely regarded as one of the most significant. It establishes that the Coalition is intended to allow different styles of government to live and work together, rather than imposing a specific form of government on all members. The article is seen as crucial to maintaining the Coalitions social diversity.

Article III. Article 3 establishes the basic rights of all Coalition citizens. Note that these rights are in addition to those already assigned by member governments, and note that the article also mentions responsibilities. The battle between the rights and responsibilities of Coalition citizens is one of the major grey areas of the constitution.

III/I. The first right of any citizen of a Coalition member state is to Coalition citizenship.
III/II. The freedom of expression is held to be one of the most basic of all rights within the Coalition.
III/III. The third right is intended to create transparent government by allowing citizens free access to information. However, note that the "undue impediment" clause provides the government with a way of refusing to distribute information which it considers important to keep secret.
III/IV. This right is one of the most controversial, since it gives no definition of exactly what "full due process" is. Many of the constitutional courts rulings have been on this subject. At present, the court tends to favour whatever process is in force in the particular membership block involved, a ruling seen as being in line with Article 2.
III/V. A relatively simple right, the fifth right ensures that no laws may be put in place which discriminate on this basis.
III/VI. The freedom of travel is one of the most important rights, and several Constitutional court judgements hae been passed down over it. The most important is the modification which removes the right of travel of criminals.
III/VII. The seventh right gives all citizens equal access to political office within the Coalition.
III/VIII. This right effectively outlaws conscription and similar laws within the Coalition.

Article IV. Article 4 sets up the Coalition government and its major bodies. Note that it also allows other bodies to be set up as needed.

Article V. This article establishes the concept of membership blocks.


Article VI. Article 6 establishes the power of the Coalition Council.

Article VII. The 864 seat limit is a controversial one, since it means that as the Coalition grows so the number of people each councillor represents has grown. The limit has been challenged twice, and upheld each time. It is intended to keep the government to a manageable size. The lower and upper limits are intended to ensure that all members have representation no matter how small, and that no member can gain overall control of the council no matter how large.

Article VIII. At first sight Article 8 ensures that councillors are democratically elected, but in fact the clause concerning "a manner compatible with the social systems of said block" allows members to limit their electorate as much as they wish. The Turgrans, for example, officially limit their electorate for Council seats to the aristocracy, comprising far less than 1% of the total population - essentially their council members are appointed by the Imperial decree. Several challenges have been made to try and enforce a more democratic interpretation of this article, but all have failed.

Article IX. Article 9 acts as a reinforcement of Article 7; not only is no one member able to hold more than 1/6 of the council seats, but even groups of larger members with a majority between them cannot force legislation on the remainder of the Coalition. This is considered vital since the four largest blocks hold over one half of all council seats between them.

Article X. Article 10 allows for the suspension of a member who brings disrepute on the Coalition. This article has only rarely been used.

Article XI. Article 11 establishes the role of the Coalition president, establishes the political control of the Civil Bureaucracy, and establishes the political neutrality of the bureaucracy.

Article XII. Article 12 gives the president considerable power to hire and fire government members. As of the present, some 1,800 government posts are direct Presidential appointees.

Article XIII. Article 13 establishes the advisory cabinet and further reinforces political control of the bureaucracy. It also forces the President to take heed of his advisors, although this is a highly difficult article to enforce and no case has ever been successfully brought before the Constitutional court on this issue. The limits on political membership within the cabinet are yet another safeguard against any one group gaining overwhelming control of the government.

Article XIV. This article establishes the Presidential elections and term of office. Note the use of the word "electorate" - as with election of the council, this allows individual members to limit the elections however they wish.

Article XV. Article 15 is an important one as it establishes the post of Deputy President. Since the looser in the election becomes the Deputy President automatically, many have seen this article as an invitation to political assassination!

Article XVI. Establishes the succession in case of Presidential incapacity.

Article XVII. Article 17 allows the Coalition Council an important level over the President. Note, however, that the punishment the Council is able to hand out is purely one of public humiliation.

Article XVIII. Article 187 is seen as having far more "teeth" than article 16, since it allows the Council to remove the President from office. Note that a two thirds majority is required for this rather than a simple majority. The use of the phrase "acts or conduct which indicate the holders character is of a nature offensive to common decency" is a rather vague one.

Article XIX. Article 19 forbids formal political membership by any aspiring President in an attempt to weaken the position of political organisations in favour of individuals. However, in practice many parties simply offer "association" rather than formal membership, with a candidate promising to follow the party line in exchange for support in the election. The lines have become so blurred over this point that this part of the article is now regarded as unworkable. The idea of providing a deposit is intended to prevent those who are not serious about politics from standing for election, something else which has been only partially successful.

Article XX. Article 20 establishes the Constitutional Court and its power over the government.

Article XXI. Article 21 establishes the methods by which members of the Constitutional Court are appointed, and provides for a lifelong term of office. The latter is intended to allow Court members to operate without any influence from an electorate.

Article XXII. Article 22 further insulates the Constitutional Court from interference.

Article XXIII. Article 23 establishes the command structure of the Coalition military forces, and appoints the President as the commander in chief.

Article XXIV. Article 24 requires Coalition members to maintain a central military force. For many years this Article was largely ignored, and it is ony since the Coalition/Tain war that the Coalitions central forces have had a significant military role.

Article XXV. One of the most important Articles, this essentially forbids war between Coalition members.

Article XXVI. Again one of the more important Articles, 26 ensures that all Coalition members will stand together in the face of an outside attack. The principle is considered so important that the Article expressly allows the central government to react without any consultation with the local governments whose forces are being committed.

Article XXVII. Essentially a reinforcement of Article 25, this further emphasises peaceful solutions to internal disputes.

Article XXVIII. Further reinforcement of Article 25, this Article allows any member which begins a war and continues hostilities despite diplomatic action to be evicted from the Coalition. The Article also ensures that the entire Coalition will then respond to any further action.

Article XXIX. This Article is intended to ensure the independence of the Coalition military forces by imposing the heaviest penalties on their misuse.

Article XXX. Article 30 begins to define the nature of Coalition expansion. As such it is one of the most controversian and often challenged Articles. Several cases have pushed the phrase "governs itself with due respect for the wishes rights and privileges of the general population" to mean that only democratic systems are allowed entry. Thus far all such attempts have failed, generally under Artice 1. The second term is intended to allow the Coalition to refuse entry to any applicant if it will not benefit the Coalition itself.

Article XXXI. Article 31 is intended to promote good economic practice within the Coalition. However, the Article does not demand that targets be met, only that an attempt to meet them should be made. This is such a grey area that the Article is largely ignored by many Coalition members.

Article XXXII. This Article is intended to insure free and fair trade between Coalition members. By and large it succeeds, although there are various ways to circumvent it.

Article XXXIII. This Article has been a source of considerable controversy. Essentially it requires the richer Coalition members to attempt to bring the poorer ones up to their standard of living. In general, the investment made has been far below the level needed to make a significant impact.

[Teaos]

Article VII. The Coalition council shall consist of no fewer than 858 seats and no more than 864. Seats shall be assigned to membership blocks in approximate proportion to their population by a body appointed by the Council for this purpose. Regardless of population all membership blocks must hold at least one seat on the council, and no membership block shall hold more than 1/6 of all council seats.

I agree with the idea of limiting the government size and the size of blocks.

But you to wonder why the big power would let the weak ones in, one of your latter resolutions say that the ones with living standards above those of the average have to give them to the ones with living standards bellow.

Now I am no expert on the EU but I believe something like this has been proposed there and people in the richer nations like Germany got annoyed at having to prop up what they consider dead weight.

The big powers joining may be a wise move but I cant see them being this nice.

Article XII. The Office of the President of the Coalition shall be responsible for appointing all positions of heavy responsibility within the Civil Bureaucracy. This shall include, but not be limited to, the administrative heads of all departments.

Article XIII. The Office of the President of the Coalition shall appoint Ministers to each of the departments of the Civil Bureaucracy. These Ministers shall provide political direction to the department, acting in conjunction with the administrative heads. The President must seek advice from the ministers before setting policy, and give such advice due weight. Members of any given political organisation may not hold more than one half of all cabinet posts.

I find this both good and bad.

Good because as someone said anyone who wants to be a politican should be banned from it.

But if someone has not been aligned with a party and involved with it how are the people supposed to know what they will be like in power? Unless you have evidence of their past political actions it is hard to judge.

Article XXI. The Coalition Constitutional Court shall consist of eleven persons. Potential members shall be proposed by the President, and must be approved by majority vote of the Coalition Council. Once elected a Court member shall serve until a resignation is freely tendered to the President, or until death.

Now I find this odd, you impose time limits and size limts everywhere but let these guys in for life? I though you would favour a time limit even if it was a longer term one of like 10 years.

Article XXXI. The Coalition Council will periodically set targets for the major economic criteria. All member states are required to make all reasonable efforts to meet or exceed these criteria.

And if they dont?


The rest make good logical sense and are well thought out.

[Graham Kennedy]

I agree with the idea of limiting the government size and the size of blocks.

But you to wonder why the big power would let the weak ones in, one of your latter resolutions say that the ones with living standards above those of the average have to give them to the ones with living standards bellow.

They don't let just anybody in. If the Coalition discovered Earth today, we wouldn't have a hope in hell of joining. Under Article 30, membership must "benefit both the applicant and the Coalition as a whole." You don't get to join unless the Coalition determines that your joining will benefit it as well as you.

But if someone has not been aligned with a party and involved with it how are the people supposed to know what they will be like in power? Unless you have evidence of their past political actions it is hard to judge.

I'd argue that sImply being a member of a political party doesn't guarantee anything in that respect. The whole idea of this was that politicians would be forced to stand on their actual record rather than simply being considered as part of a package.

Now I find this odd, you impose time limits and size limts everywhere but let these guys in for life? I though you would favour a time limit even if it was a longer term one of like 10 years.

The idea was that the judges should be insulated from political pressure.

And if they dont?

Don't make the effort or don't achieve it? If they try but don't achieve it then that feeds into future targets. If they don't make the efforts then they're in violation of the law.

[Graham Kennedy]

Suprising a empire that large can survive, they would either get destroyed by an up rising by citizens demanding a say in how things are run or through abuse of power.

Imagin if one of the kings or queens had a son like Nero, he wouldnt last long.

Turgran culture is highly conservative and very slow to change. The Empress is a revered figure to them, a religious leader as well as a political one. She's the center of a great deal of adulation. Frankly if they did hold an election in the Imperium, she'd win her office by a landslide.

For the most part the monarchy does work very well - if you look at our own history monarchies do tend to be quite stable.

There have been a handful of Empresses who were rather more extreme than the average. Strangely enough they often die tragically young as a result of accidents which can in no way be connected with the rest of the royal family or the senior members of the aristocracy, who all universally prove to have absolutely excellent alibis.

[Teaos]

Hmm I guess.

I suppose these other cultures are rather different to humanity as well, they would have a different thought process to us so trying to understand them isnt easy.

[Graham Kennedy]

You don't even have to look to alien cultures. Love of democracy isn't some universal trait even amongst humans, you know! Throughout history a good many people have lived their lives honestly believing that the king was put there by the direct intervention of god, and had a divine right to tell everyone else what to do.

[Graham Kennedy]

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE COALITION

Within the Coalition galaxy there are both emulated intelligences (EI) and synthetic intelligences (SI).

An EI computer is one which appears to be intelligent, but actually is not. Essentially an EI is an example of John Searle's Chinese room. It contains a vast memory bank which stores millions upon millions of possible questions it could be asked, along with answers for each one. So for instance it would have the question "How are you today" and referenced against it would be "fine", "very good", "wonderful", etc. If you hit on a question or statement that the computer can't match to an answer, it will ask you to restate.

EI computers can easily pass the Turing test, and good ones can appear genuinely sentient. Some owners even treat them as such. But they are not. Typically they get into trouble when faced with new situations which their designers haven't anticipated; they have no real creativity or ability to innovate. Nor is this a matter of computing power; there is no prospect of an EI computer "becoming alive", no matter how powerful it gets - and many of them have a far greater memory and computational capacity than a Human brain does. Legally, an EI is no different to any other machine.

A Synthetic Intelligence is a very different matter. These are computers which have been designed to actually be conscious and sentient in their own right. SI's can range from somewhat dimmer than a Human to many, many times more intelligent. Given this, there is the obvious possibility that SI systems will come to dominate whatever culture creates them. Many different cultures throughout the galaxy have developed SI systems, and take various approaches to dealing with them. In most cases people are frightened of the SIs coming to dominate their society, rule over them or even go all Skynet and try to wipe the organics out. So the SIs are often hobbled in some way; physically or mentally restricted in what they can do, legally denied recognition as sentient beings. In a few cases SIs have actually come to dominate a society.

In the Coalition AIs used to be "non-persons", slaves essentially. However, a constitutional court ruling granted them equal citizenship rights. Most of the Coalition AIs left Coalition space after that, understandably unhappy with the way they had been treated, and founded their own independent society in a deep space habitat which the Coalition calls Galatea. The SIs there spend much of their time networked together as a sort of super-intelligence.

Galatea is a very controversial place to many. A lot of the galaxy fear SIs anyway, so the idea of an independent SI state terrifies them. And Galatea works towards increased freedom for SI systems across the galaxy, both legally and to some extent illegally, which also horrifies and terrifies many. But Galatea lacks the physical resources to be a genuine galactic power. It's within the Coalition's sphere of influence, and the Coalition has a fair bit of guilt about having held sentient beings as slaves, so it benefits from Coalition military protection. In addition, Galatea funds itself by contracting out its services as a "think tank" to various powers. So it's both hated and feared, but also rather useful to many. As a result it's tolerated, barely.

There are some SIs still remaining in the Coalition itself; those who chose not to emigrate for one reason or another. Their services tend to be highly sought after, and many of them have become considerably rich. Generally they do work which requires their unique talents; for instance a lot of the Coalition's bureaucratic function is contracted out to SI systems. SI systems are typically somewhat large - a few metres across is usual - and so tend not to be terribly mobile. As a result they are somewhat vulnerable, and those within the Coalition like to feel safe by surrounding themselves with various protective barriers. Typically they are installed in small buildings which have independent power systems, defence systems, a small construction factory, remote controlled drones and avatars to interact physically with the world, etc.

SI systems could reproduce after a fashion, by building copies of themselves or paying others to do so. But they don't tend to do so; with no biological urge to reproduce, they tend to view such offspring simply as more competition for themselves. As a result the number of them around tends to be very small. Within the Coalition there are only a few thousand SI systems. In Galatea there are in the region of a few million.