Galactic Republic/Legends

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Using their

Government and politics
"I love democracy. I love the Republic."

- Palpatine

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 the ambassadors of their homeworld, and member worlds were able to maintain their government and society in accordance with local beliefs, customs, to republics 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 in the year 1,000 BBY, during the Ruusan Reformation. The most common organization for these new territories was to group regions into sectors of approximately fifty inhabited worlds. Each sector was 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.

The Senate served as the governing body of the Galactic Republic, while the Jedi Order served as its defenders. Soon thereafter, the Senate&mdash;and therefore the seat of government&mdash;was established on the planet Coruscant.



The Senate was an enormous building containing many floating platforms, each of which contained several senators. Each platform in the Senate represented a "sector" of the Galaxy, with one Senator from each planet in that sector. Some platforms represented individual worlds, others the powerful corporations and guilds such as the Trade Federation. Along with the senators, the leaders of the individual member planets also had the power to vote in the Senate and introduce legislation.

The members of the Senate would then elect a Supreme Chancellor from amongst their ranks who would serve as the Republic's head of government (and, by default, head of state) and chief diplomat. The Senate followed such parliamentary rules as a Motion of No Confidence, such as that introduced by Queen Amidala of Naboo which forced Chancellor Finis Valorum out of office in 32 BBY.

Senators received one vote in all matters, procedural and substantive. The Chancellor was elected from within the Senate. 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.

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 Senate, 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 was based on non-binding constitutional conventions, which were often ignored and undermined by corrupt and power-hungry politicians. Coalition governments were common, with special interest defining the legislative agenda. The Senate, in the later years of the Republic, was so ineffectual that large corporations could essentially do what they wanted.

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 the planet Naboo by the Trade Federation over a tariff passed in the Senate, the time had come for strong leadership to end the corruption.

Economy
The Galactic Republic's influence on the galactic economy was linked to its regulatory powers, production of Republic dataries, and authorization of relevant bodies.

At heart of the galactic economy was planetary trade. Intraplanetary trade could support a local economy, but, in many cases, the high levels of government spending required for an advanced society could only be funded only by interplanetary exports. While some planets maintained their own shipping fleets, most relied on large freight firms, such as Xizor Transport Systems, or independent freight haulers to carry their goods along major hyperlanes.

The Corporate Sector was first formed in 490 BBY to free the Republic lawmakers and the Corporate moneymakers from their differences. In the last millennia of the Galactic Republic, commercial interests began to form guilds to increase their influence on relevant legislation and achieve greater efficiency. While most of these guilds, like the Trade Federation, Techno Union, and the Commerce Guild, collapsed after the Clone Wars, a number of surviving members flocked to the Corporate Sector Authority.

Thousands of currencies were used across the Galaxy. The Galactic Republic's dataries were perhaps the most widespread form of currency. Because of the Republic's exceptional membership, dataries were accepted on all but the most remote planets.

Society and culture
"The Republic is civilization. It's the only one we have."

- Mace Windu

The Galactic Republic had a very diverse culture. Member worlds were able to maintain their own culture in accordance with local beliefs, customs, and traditions. There was a wide variety of different cultures within the republic: from religious communities like the Jedi to hive-like communes.

The republic had a liberal policy towards arts also. The dominant aesthetic style of Galactic Republic-era was opulence and ornamentation.

Although humanocentrism was technically outlawed by the Rights of Sentience clause of the Galactic Constitution, it still very much existed throughout the life of the Galactic Republic. Human-led companies such as Czerka enslaved entire non-Human races, while planets such as Taris reserved the best sections of the world for Humans, while forcing nonhumans into ghettos. The majority of slaves in the Galaxy were non-Humans. At the time the Clone Wars broke out, there were still lawsuits pending about pro-Human bias in the Republic government.

Military

 * Main articles: Republic Army, Republic Navy, Grand Army of the Republic, Republic Military, and Republic Armed Forces.

"I will create a Grand Army of the Republic to counter the increasing threats of the Separatists."

- Palpatine

The Republic's earliest days were not peaceful ones, since, as the Republic expanded across the Galaxy, it encountered many warlike species. The Republic realized the need for an army and navy to keep the peace. The Republic's military forces would serve throughout many conflicts, including the Great Hyperspace War, the various conflicts of the Old Sith Wars, and the New Sith Wars.

After the Battle of Ruusan, the Republic decommissioned much of its military, retaining a small force only for security purposes. This force would later become known as the Judicial Department. This was to display the Republic's peaceful ideals, as the Republic used Jedi Knights as "keepers of the peace."

Several trade corporations, such as the Trade Federation, the InterGalactic Banking Clan, and the Commerce Guild, kept their own security forces in order to protect their profits, but they often abused this power, such as in the Battle of Naboo. Individual sectors also maintained their own security forces, such as Naboo's Royal Naboo Security Forces or CorSec from Corellia, and these were sometimes used to combat small threats. However there was no centralized command, and the members of the late-period Republic loathed change.

The Clone Wars changed all this. The Republic had no standing military to combat the Confederacy of Independent Systems, and thus 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 of the Military Creation Act included Orn Free Taa of Ryloth and Ask Aak of Malastare.

However, a clone army had already been created in secret on the remote planet Kamino, ten years earlier. When it became clear the Confederacy had no intention of negotiating with the Republic, the Republic adopted this army, along with AT-TE walkers, LAAT/i and LAAT/c gunships, A5 and A6 Juggernauts, Victory I-class Star Destroyers and Venator-class Star Destroyers, among numerous other craft and vehicles, in a combined force known as the Grand Army of the Republic. The army was unleashed in 22 BBY on Geonosis against the Separatist droid forces. These loyal troops would serve on many battles throughout the conflict on worlds such as Muunilinst, Mon Calamari, Jabiim, Cato Neimoidia, and even Coruscant.

In 19 BBY, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine transformed the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire. The loyal clone troopers of the Grand Army of the Republic would become the dreaded stormtroopers of the Stormtrooper Corps, while the regulars and starships were segmented into the Imperial Army and Imperial Navy, respectively.

Astrography
The Galactic Republic was composed of a significant portion of the known Galaxy, stretching from the Core Worlds to Wild Space, though it was widely believed that the government held little power in the outlying regions, and preferred to focus its attentions on the Core Worlds.

The capital of the Galactic Republic was Coruscant, a planet considered to be the cultural and economical center of the Galaxy, despite being located outside of the Deep Core. To signify its importance in galactic affairs, Coruscant was given coordinates 0-0-0 in the standard galactic coordinate system.

Behind the scenes

 * In the Expanded Universe, the Republic is well established to be extant for 25,000 years, based on Obi-Wan Kenobi's line in A New Hope that the Jedi had been "the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic" "for over a thousand generations." For a long time, EU sources were the only works set during the Republic era &mdash; most notably, the popular Tales of the Jedi sagas. However, in Attack of the Clones, Palpatine mentioned the Republic had "stood for a thousand years." This would seem to conflict with both the C-canon EU history, and the G-canon internal continuity within the films. However, the Ruusan Reformation&mdash;in which the Republic is reorganized following the already-established defeat of the Sith a thousand years prior to the films&mdash;was invented by subsequent writers to give an alternate explanation on Palpatine's line, thus bringing all these sources into relative harmony.


 * The Republic was said to belong to a "Type 3" civilization (in the Kardashev scale &mdash; whereas Earth is home to a "type 0.7" civilization). This scale takes into account the level of integration and civilization between peoples (albeit this integration also involves different species, rather than just racial variations of only one sentient species, as it is on a sole planet), which in essence form one single "galactic civilization," given the political unification (despite the few separatisms) and the integration of the worlds in spite of the considerable distances (with effective means of transportation).

Appearances

 * Tales of the Jedi series
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
 * Star Wars: Battlefront
 * Star Wars: Bounty Hunter
 * Star Wars: Republic
 * Star Wars: Republic Commando
 * Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars
 * Star Wars: Clone Wars
 * Star Wars: Obsession
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Reversal of Fortune
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope