Lit Do you approve of the (canon) New Republic's government?

Now that the spoiler period is over for Episode VII, and the Visual Dictionary that came with it (as well as earlier sources like Aftermath)... what's your opinion of the new Republic's government?

By the way, it seems to be referred to as both the "New Republic" and simply "the Republic," I wonder which is the official name?



Anyways, it underwent a lot of reforms, according to Aftermath and the TFA Visual Dictionary. These reforms were for both the idealistic loyalists who became Rebel Alliance founders (people like Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, Padme Amidala) as well as to draw in the idealistic former Separatists who wanted a more decentralized government.

*direct, democratic elections for every Senator (no more appointments)
*worlds were temporarily elected as the capital of the Republic, from Chandrila to Hosnian Prime and likely more (no longer Coruscant-centric)
*a weakened Chancellorship (and no longer called "Supeme")
*equal votes/Senators for worlds
*worlds were given more power, having their own local starfleets and defense forces, with the blessing of the Senate
*a reduced galactic military, passing the http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Military_Disarmament_Act]Military[/url] Disarmament Act
*Galactic Concordance with the Empire, which became the First Order, establishing peace while also fiercely sanctioning Imperial worlds in known space
*its foreign policy focus, shortly before the destruction of Hosnian Prime, was improving trade relations with the neutral Trans-Hydian Borderlands
*it occupied a vast territory from the Inner Core to the Outer Rim



Yet, on the other side, it seemed ignorant of the First Order's aggressive intentions. But at least some within it were secretly sending resources to the Resistance, or at least accepting of the Resistance.

Leia also felt her life might be in danger if she went to Hosnian Prime, because of how unpopular she is among her former colleagues in the Senate.

Some Senators were even receiving funds from the First Order, secretly cooperating with it through connections with Corporate Sector Authority and other corporations.

There were also military corporations that were using legal loopholes to fund the First Order, in addition to arming the Republic.

Lor San Tekka says there is a lot of despair in the galaxy.

And after TFA: Hosnian Prime is destroyed, its Senate is wiped out, its galactic Starfleet is wiped out.

What's your opinion of this new Republic, so far?

Do you like its reforms? Do you wish its reforms had gone further? What other reforms are you hoping for?

What do you think it could do to work on its major flaws, going forward? And before that, how do you think it will recover from the Starkiller attack; will it recover?

 

I think New Republic is the official name but people call it "the Republic" for simplicity sake. Hux drops "New Republic" in his big speech because it's a big historical moment for the First Order. (I will admit to minor geek agita upon first viewing of TFA because I wanted to hear "New Republic" since it's established that is the name but the crawl said "Republic" and everyone uses that term throughout the film, save for when Hux finally says it. Then I felt better.)

 

I'd have to think a lot more before giving a detailed political analysis, but I know my gut reaction so far has been that it is so kriffing satisfying after the last, like, 10 years or so of the EU to see a New Republic whose biggest flaw seems to be that it's too idealistic.

 

I remember reading in aftermath that Mothma was going to cut the military and I was like "Yeah cos the galaxy never needs a massive army in star wars!"
I'm guessing in canon Mon Mothma is an idealistic idiot with no common sense

 

The main question is, how practical are those reforms actually. Sure they sound good on paper but in the light of cold, hard reality ... .

- how likely is it, that all those monarchs, kings and queens we've seen ruling over planets in the GFFA are willing to let the unwashed masses decide, who represents them in the Senate?
- the Supreme Chancellor has always been a toothless Rancor, that only changed with Palpatine gaining emergency-powers to fight the Seperatists. I can hardly imagine, how the Chancellor having even less power is supposed to work.
- equal votes/senators for worlds: so a world that has 200,000 inhabitans (Tattooine) would have as much to say as a world with trillions of citicens (Coruscant)? Very democratic.
- world given more power and their own military forces means you have systems, that can field Star Dreadnoughts, while others can be glad to get a squadron of fighters into space. Need I point out, where that leads, especially when the central military that would have to keep those system-forces in line is cut down.

 

In Black Fleet Crisis - a point was made that having worlds get a number of votes proportionate to their population would result in a "tyranny of fecundity".

Shield of Lies

"Alderaan's membership is neither a courtesy nor a violation of the Charter. The New Republic is an alliance of peoples, not planets."
Leia nodded an acknowledgment. "Something often forgotten, even here."
"Then I will presume to remind you that the structure of the New Republic was crafted to avoid dominance by the most populous worlds--to prevent what Kerrithrarr called a tyranny of fecundity," Ackbar said.
Leia laughed tersely, tossing her hair. "I remember that argument."

Maybe a similar issue was raised in the newcanon-verse?

 

And still means, that while all citicens are equal, some would be more equal than others. And that doesn't even account for the hive-species and collectives. And as far as I know, no NuCanon-source so far has adressed the issue and the solution of the NR for it.

 

In theory, the New Republic sounds nice. In a peaceful galaxy, a minimal military and a rotating capital sound like improvements over the Old Republic.

The problem is that its not a peaceful galaxy and the New Republic wasn't as vigilant as it should have been. Even with much of the First Order based in the Unknown Regions, the state of Leia's reputation shows how... ignorant the New Republic was. In Before the Awakening we heard about a Senator being paid off by the First Order to derail any military spending. Poe Dameron quits the Republic military so he can actually do something with the Resistance.

Leia has to send someone else to advocate her case on Hosnian Prime (basically not-Coruscant), as she's been smeared a warmonger. While the Galactic Concordance disarmament treaty sounds nice, the First Order is already fielding Resurgent-class Star Destroyers, which are clear violations of the treaty, yet most in the Republic don't think they even exist.

Leia's Resistance is stuck using T-70 X-wings, as there aren't many military contracts left, and there's always corruption to deal with. I think the Visual Guide mentioned that at one point.

When Mothma started talking about disarmament in the Aftermath novel, I knew that was a bad sign. Having Starkiller wipe out the capital and probably a good chunk of the Republic fleet (if not the whole thing, which doesn't make sense, I know, but Star Wars doesn't always make sense, especially given how fast the war turned around in the years after Endor, especially in nuEU) doesn't make the Republic look competent either. It sure would have helped if we actually saw the Republic in the movie, but oh well, the movie had other priorities (like tentacle monsters).

Yes, yes, 30 years of peace, although at least the last five years before TFA have not been pleasant for the heroes of Yavin (Luke gone somewhere, Han and Leia separated over the grief from their son turning out to be a monster, Leia stuck building up a resistance with no official support). Given what they named the Chancellor, its clear what they were going for. I don't blame them for not expecting Starkiller, but having a Republic and Resistance at the same time seems silly.

Right now we don't really have that many details, so its hard to judge, and I hope the Republic continues to play a role in the rest of the sequel trilogy (and I really hope they don't just dumb it down to Resistance vs. First Order in VIII and IX).

More than anything I'm just disappointed we didn't get to see the fruits of the Rebellion's victory. NJO had an incompetent New Republic too (though LotF and FotJ would take it to truly ludicrously incompetent and corrupt and moronic galactic government), but at least there it felt like the heroes had won the previous war, holding the galaxy capital for a while, having large fleet battles, etc. I know, post-RotJ stories will fill in the 30 year gap eventually, I just don't think TFA did a good job of seeming like a post-RotJ story.

 

The idea of cutting the galactic military while allowing local systems to build up their own fleets seemed to me like it was just begging for a return to the Phantom Menace era galaxy, with private armies able to run amok under an incredibly decentralized, weak-ass government. At least the new armies would be answering to planetary governments (presumably elected by the people, though that may be presuming too much) and not corporate boardrooms, but still.

 

What you're overlooking is that for 25 years the galaxy has been crushed and the main tool of that oppression was the Imperial starfleet.

To win the galaxy over in the aftermath of Endor, the one thing the NR cannot do is appear to be akin to the Empire.

Nor is devolving it to systems necessarily that bad an idea either, if system X wants to have a massive fleet - fine, but it's got to pay for it. The bigger question, which is far harder, is how you go back to peace after having known war for so long.

Plus, I could see them doing with those planetary defence forces what Snyder and co did at the end of the Batman Eternal series. At the finale of that, everyone was Batman, sounds weird but it worked. I could easily see Leia advocating the members of the Republic to stand together, that they and their fleets are the Republic. (At which point HUx is %$£!", that's, how does it go? Oh yeah: "Game over, man, game over.")

 

I think Nobody145 is pretty close to my views.

From an OOU perspective I appreciate that they're keeping the general outline of something from the EU which makes sense to bring over, but doing it in a way that builds off of the developments of the prequels, and also goes differently from the EU in a way which makes it unique without disrespectful to the EU. I like the stuff like the rotating capitals, the emphasis on elections, and the pacifism as not only being a welcome bit of idealism in contrast to the EU (and honestly TFA) but also because it makes sense as a government that is not only trying to fix the problems of an Old Republic which caused the Empire, but also the Separatists.

That being said, I think it's way too early to judge it. From the Bloodline snippet and stuff from the Journey to TFA, I'm worried we're soon going to be in a situation where the New Republic is actually filled with collaborators and would-be dictators and petty selfish idiots who have no problem outright murdering the hero of the Rebellion if she appeared before them.

 

This is one of the things that I consider to be very stupid on the part of the writers, who frankly should have known better.

It looks exactly what it is - a crude, dumb story device. It makes Luceno's Triad of Evil look like a masterclass in subtlety.

 

While I generally agree, I can't help but suspect you may have more... idiosyncratic reasons for wanting Senator Casterfo to not be a clear-cut villain.

 

Well said! All democracies fall into complacency, the good ones eventually wake up (usually via a tragic event, ala Hosnian Prime), rally, and confront the evil head on.

Though I'll add this discussion is probably best suited for the Endor to Jakku Thread, which is our catch all discussion place for this sort of discussion.

--Adm. Nick

 

What do you all mean by this? I don't get the meaning behind the Disney Canon Chancellor's name. Can someone explain?

 

Lannevar Villecham is close to an anagram of Neville Chamberlain

 

Oh.. and they said Denning and Traviss' War on Terror allegories were bad. This is probably Godwin's Law applied as directly as possible, especially when you have the First Order and lil' Huxtler in mind.

 

I don't think it's meant as an anagram, it's just Neville Chamberlain.

(Actually I didn't know they'd given him a first name).

Edit: Also, I have to say that comparing WWII parallels in the ST era to War on Terror parallels in the Clone Wars and LOTF eras sort of rubs me the wrong way. Yes, "Chancellor Villecham" is a fairly hamfisted name (though I can't stress enough that if names with an obvious meaning bother you, you're probably in the wrong fandom). But World War II's been woven into the background of Star Wars from the beginning, and it's 70 years in the past, so I find it much less problematic compared to the attempts at "relevancy" like "Triad of Evil" that just come across as hyperbolic and dated now.

(And I should be clear that I don't see this as a matter of things I like versus things I dislike, because I really like LoE in general).

 

The problem is, peace is worth fighting for, but this New Republic doesn't seem to be interested in fighting for peace and they apparently paid the ultimate price for their serious lack of vision.

 

Confusing a reluctance to fight with no interest in doing so isn't a good idea.

 

If all of these planets are able to have their own individual fleets and militaries, look out any First Order invasion!