Structure and Government of the Empire

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Introduction

The total population of humans in the galaxy is beyond reliable estimates, but known to number in the trillions. Each settled planet has its own independent system of government, and the planets form groups and alliances. As well, there are interstellar corporations not tied to any planet. The relations between all these are shaped by the geometry of space and by political factors. The result is a system so vast and complex that we can only begin to describe the depth of it here.

The Empire

The legal structure of the empire is dictated by a series of treaties signed by its member worlds and organizations. The most major of these, from oldest to newest, are:

• The Expanded Treaty of New Mecca is the most ancient body of human space law, delineating the limits of government power and defining the doctrine of separation between planetside and interstellar government.
• The Shared-Force Pact lays out the rights and obligations of member planets and organizations in regard to military force, with the aims of maintaining defences in general and of ensuring a large enough force remains in existence to counter unforeseen threats.
• The Spacefold Treaty governs the use and exploration of spacefold routes, as well as providing protocols for settlement.
• The Universal Agreement on Commerce sets general guidelines for interstellar trade and establishes the Imperial Banking System.
• The Human Heritage Covenant embodies the laws and traditions by which other Imperial bodies are governed, as well as providing an overall body of law related to interstellar matters.

The Emperor

The title Emperor (or Empress), although in very widespread use, is unofficial and a bit misleading, suggesting that the sovereign holds only one office. In fact, he or she holds multiple positions at the same time, as defined in the governing treaties. The Emperor is Supreme Commander of the Imperial Navy, Governor of the Imperial Bank, Chancellor of the Imperial Library, and Speaker for Humanity — in addition to numerous other minor titles and roles, and faction-specific offices.

During different dynasties, the exact titles held by the emperor have sometimes changed. For example, the Freyr and Lind emperors were Governors of the Senate, but since Abdullah the Great devolved power upon his ascension, this office has customarily been filled by senate election. Chancellor of the Imperial Library is a relatively recent title, since the Library was only created by John 14th — yet it is a cornerstone of the emperor's power, and focus of much of the current succession debate.

The Senate

The structure of the Senate is given in the ETNM, with various powers delegated to it by other treaties. It represents member worlds, and consists of exactly one representative from each, who vote with equal weight. The Senate's responsibilities include advising the Emperor on matters relating to member worlds, and overseeing the administration of several Imperial government departments.

Since the interests of the member worlds are very widely disparate and the ETNM prohibits direct interference in planetside government, it is very rare that the Senate votes on issues of direct concern to them. The most common such cases are rare (and usually temporary) tax increases. A much bigger part of their work is to guide government policy and fill government offices. Since actual voting on these matters is infrequent, much of a Senator's time is typically filled in diplomacy, meeting and negotiating with other senators. In a very real sense, Senators can be seen as ambassadors of the member worlds. Cynics have opined that, like many formal ambassadors posted outside the empire, the real job of many of them is to collect as much intelligence as possible, especially if it brings wealth to their world.

The Magistracy

This is the governing body of the Imperial legal system, a small council of judges overseeing a system of courts. Their jurisdiction, as always, is limited to interstellar matters, most commonly trade disputes. The ruling judges are chosen from within the Imperial court system, nominated by senior magistrates and confirmed by the Emperor. To counter the tendency of this system towards corruption, entry-level judges are scrutinized and vetoed if they possess family, biological or business ties to current magistrates. Despite this, past emperors have occasionally found it necessary to dismiss entire courts and their officers.

The Clan Council

The Clan Council is the official body representing the aristocracy. As such its members are essentially the independently powerful within the Empire; corporate heads, faction leaders, and rich nobles — but never seated planetside officials. It varies in size, with members appointed directly and solely by the Emperor. All the Great Clans — and a few other factions — hold patents entitling them to elect their own members to the council, granted by past emperors in perpetuity. Even in this case the emperors must confirm their selections, although by tradition they almost never refuse candidates. The only official responsibility of the Council is to lead and govern the Imperial Navy, but in practice it wields far more power than this suggests, through an informal network of ties with corporations and planetside governments.

The Imperial Navy

Under the terms of the Shared-Force Pact, member worlds are obliged to maintain military starships and provide personnel, in proportion to their populations and industrial output. Although it usually happens that the crew of these ships come from the planets which pay for them, as a matter of policy naval officers are rotated to ships from other worlds, to avoid segregation. On many poorer worlds, the Navy is seen as the most promising way for capable young people to get ahead in the empire, with the result that it is almost a faction unto itself, with a distinct culture and headed by the emperor. Even in these fractious times most see the Navy as a separate power rather than a power likely to separate.

While most Navy starships are owned directly by the navy, with maintenance agreements reflecting their origins, there are worlds and factions which maintain their own military forces, sometimes quite large (the Spartans being the obvious example). These fleets are sometimes seconded to the Imperial Navy, generally maintaining their own commands.

The Court

The "Imperial Court" is a catch-all term denoting members of the aristocracy, including Senators, Magistrates and high-ranking Naval officials. It has no oficial definition but could perhaps best be distinguished as those who have the right to meet the Emperor in person, and therefore circulate in the uppermost social circles.

Government Branches

Most government administration takes place under the supervision of the Senate, in a few departments.

Finance Department

This is the bureaucracy that administers the UAC and liases with the Imperial Bank. Although often seen as evil tax collectors, in fact taxation is only a minor part of its work, in which the Library plays at least as important a role. The department's major function is monitoring trade balances and the use of currency, with an eye to maintaining stable trade across the empire.

Standards Bureau

The Standards Bureau administers and arbitrates the fine details of trade policy and agreements. It works closely with the Finance Department, ensuring free flow of goods and information by defining standard units and formats. A lesser-known part of its work is granted to it by the Human Heritage Covenant; this is the government body with the supremely important job of defining exactly the meaning of "human," with attendant consequences for individuals and planets whose genetics drift outside allowed parameters.

The Imperial Library

The Library is the central repository of knowledge for the entire empire. In addition to its function archiving reference works in various formats, it also administers the Imperial Census and the Name Registry. This makes it the semi-official record and arbiter of Clan affiliations To the public, the Library is mostly known through the facilities of the Imperial Encyclopedia. However, most of its work occurs behind the scenes, maintaining an extensive intelligence-gathering network and marketplace. This capability naturally makes it a very valuable asset to the government, and the emperor in particular.

The Imperial Survey Office

This is the governing agency for administration of the Spacefold Treaty. Technically it is a branch of the Library, but because of its importance it is granted a high degree of autonomy by treaty. The Survey Office maintains the central Spacefold Registry, administrates the assignment of new settlements, and arbitrates claim disputes. its head reports directly to the Senate and by custom the emperor avoids involvement in its affairs.

The Security Branch

Although often seen as interstellar police, the Security Branch is mostly administrative. It does oversee the Imperial Constabulary and Emperor's Guard, which together are responsible both for protecting facilities owned by government bodies and enforcing decisions by the magistracy against individuals and small groups. However, for large-scale operations such as anti-piracy patrols, it usually liases with the Imperial Navy. The Security Branch also houses the offices of the Genetic Regulation Division, which regulates genetic engineering activities and adjudicates claims of genetic drift with the goal of maintaining overall human intercompatibility (as defined by the Standards Bureau).

History

A long-drive observer arriving from the days of the Great War would still recognize much of the Imperial Government: Its structure has evolved slowly over time, accreting new organizations while losing little.

The Terran Union was defined by the Treaty of New Mecca. Its characteristic feature was the autonomy of individual worlds, with the expectation that they share a common government. Closely tied to its origins on earth, with almost all trade flowing directly between centre and colonies, the Union never developed much of a government structure in its relatively short life.

The Human Federation maintained the loose structure of the Union, and added the Free Travel Treaty to address its own characteristic issue — the use of the new C-Tunnels. The Free Travel Treaty remains in effect and resembles the Spacefold Treaty. It stipulates that free access must be given to c-tunnels but that factions may claim the right to build stations on collapsar orbitals, operating them on a fee basis under various regulations. The other major feature of the Federation was its adherence to the Human Heritage Treaty. This far-sighted body of law aimed to maintain the human species as an integrated whole in the face of inevitable drift caused by separation. It committed its members to ongoing exchange of cultural material spread by automated media. More important, it also specified a system of protocols and rewards by which citizens were encouraged to raise children fertilized using genetic material imported from other worlds, with the goal of avoiding genetic drift and active management towards that end.

With the advent of the Great War, Federation members also signed the Grand Alliance. This ended formally with the downfall of the Crucians, but led naturally to the Shared Force Pact and the Imperial Navy. Some of the other treaties defining the Empire are equally clear extensions and additions to the Human Federation's governing organs. The Spacefold Treaty supplements the Free Travel Treaty, and the Human Heritage Covenant is an expanded versionj of the earlier Treaty, reflecting lessons learned from experience. The Extended Treaty of New Mecca is little different from the original written some thirteen thousand years ago, merely adding protocols to deal with particular situations that have arisen (for example, the need for a central authority arbitrating settlement claims).