Democracy in the Modern Galaxy
Democracy in the Modern Galaxy
Why the concept of restoring the Republic harms it
- There are few on either side of the current Galactic conflict - be it the Imperial Union, led by it's titular founding Government, the Galactic Empire or by the various Rebel Blocs in the form of the Rebel Alliance, The Resistance, the Blue Star Dominion, and others - who would argue that the Old Republic was not corrupt. Depending on which side you ask, that very corruption is either what allowed the Sith Order, led by future Emperors Vodo Bonias and Suntzu, to successfully infiltrate the highest levels of the Republic and destroy it from within, or what necessitated the actions of another future Emperor, Hiram Drayson, aided by Suntzu and Bonias, in dismantling the Republic and reorganizing it as the first Galactic Empire.
- Whatever the case may be, the fact nevertheless remains that the Republic was irreparably corrupt and could not continue on in it's then current fashion. Yet despite this obvious and incontovertible fact, it has remained a tenet of the Rebel Bloc that the key to galactic peace lay not only in the defeat of the Galactic Empire, but in a return to the Republican form of governance. Leaving aside the also irrefutable fact that any form of Government other than it's own is repugnant to the Empire and it's allies, it is not outside the realm of pragmatism to suggest that the Republican style should be repugnant to the Rebels as well, but is actually the greatest threat to the ostensibly democratic aspirations of these Governing bodies.
- In every form the New Reublic has taken, from the very first attempt at the merger of the original Rebel Alliance and SoroSuub Corporation to the most recent iteration that was decisively defeated under the auspices of Emperor Seele, it has failed. Lootings, assassinations, coups, and chaos have been the norm, almost without exception. The Resistance, a fully militant Rebel Bloc with almost no civil government to speak of, exists solely due to the failure of the New Republic. The current Rebel Alliance is only a shell of it's former self and has largely abandoned all but the pretense of Democracy in favor of a highly centralized socio-military Regime. The Blue Star Dominion has not even the pretense to hang on - it too is a war machine, one that more often finds itself embroiled in conflicts with the villainous Zann Consortium and it's satellite organizations than with the Imperial Union. Meanwhile, the States of the Imperial Union, confident in their victory over the failed New Republic, have largely moved on towards building their already formidable economies into veritable superpowers.
- Where, then, does this leave those vaunted democratic aspirations?
- In the ashes of continual failure to readopt a corrupt model of Government, democracy is threatened with extinction. So long as the Republican vision remains, Democracy will never rise again. It is time to divest Republicanism from Democracy. There can be no other way forward. Corruption will always plague any broad, galaxy-wide attempt at a Republic. I say, let the Rebel Blocs focus on developing their individual territories into formidable states in their own right. And as repuganant as it may seem to both sides, it may also be time to put the destructive conflicts in the past. While the Imperial Union and the Rebel Bloc may never find common ground on most issues, peace may well be the answer in the long run. The Empire has proven it's superiority over Republicanism in many ways, but if Democracy is to prevail over tyranny - Imperial or otherwise - it may be time to realize that attempting to replace the Empire with it's predecessor is doomed to failure. It already has.
- Republicanism has failed. Do not let Democracy fail with it.
Lady Amara Shailene
- High Priestess, Order of the Black Rose
- Landgrave of Xi
- Marchessa of Axelos
