Lit Is the Rebel Alliance a dictatorship in canon?

They're left wing guerillas, so they rebels are probably a dictatorship of the proletariat.

 

Damn, I forgot to pull out the RO Visual Guide last night to post the relevant quotes. Interestingly enough, I believe the Alliance is described as a government-in-exile at one point, which would be an interesting difference from the old Legends concept of the Alliance. I suspect that Dan Wallace's Rebel guide coming out this fall will answer a lot of our questions about the exact nature, makeup, and form of the Alliance.

It's clear that Pablo incorporated large chunks of the old setup from WEG, but added some new tweaks as well.

--Adm. Nick

 

Ender Sai

I wish. How did you conclude they were left wing and proletariat?

 

Well, it's pretty hard to define it. To me, its a rogue military force underneath a bunch of idealists. Very similar to the Continental Congress and the Continental Army. It definitely isn't a democracy, at least not during its rebellion stage, because as has been mentioned, the goal of it is fighting to restore democracy.

Of course, in nu-canon, the 'Alliance to Restore the Republic' is also the very first Imperial Warlord state, as has been made clear by Mon Mothma illegally claiming the position of Chancellor and claiming that HM Sheev I's government is illegitimate. That's the very definition of a warlord.

 

An armed group primarily led and funded by wealthy politicians and other oligarchs from the old regime, seeking to restore said old regime (one of such unrestrained capitalism that corporations could field armies and invade planets to strongarm trade concessions without provoking a decisive government response). One which rallies people to its cause by railing against the government's nationalization of key industries.

Sounds like a reactionary conservative counter-revolutionary movement to me.

This message brought to you by COMPNOR, friend of the (ideologically pure) proletariat.

 

They're not anti-intellectual butchers, so no. They can't be.

 

I was thinking of the Contras, tbh.

 

I think it's undoubtedly a left leaning Rebellion. The best analogue I can come up with to it is the Castro rebels in Cuba. Liberals, nationalists, Marxists, all fighting a conservative fascistic dictatorship.

 

conservative liberals? You mean right leaning, but still liberals?

 

Are you American?

 

no

 

OK, that's a good thing because Americans have misdefined "liberal" for so long now that they don't even know it's wrong.

Liberalism as a centrist ideology can lean right or left. It really depends on a number of factors but the general tenets the same. Progressive liberalism and conservative liberalism overlap more than they diverge, and it's mostly on economics.

 

do you think white armies of the russian revolution are a good analogy for sw rebels? I mean, in real life they lost, but Is white armies:the rebels as the red army:the empire a good analogy?

 

No, they're Browncoats.

El Cubano Libre!

 

I think the Rebellion is basically the French Resistance under Mon Du Gaulle. Government in exile, rogue leaders from the collaborating government, and a mix of military as well as civilian allies.

 

Actually, I'd say the Rebels are probably more like the Americans during the Revolutionary War, or maybe Mao Zedong's Communists during the Chinese Civil War. You had a mostly rag-tag army whose first order of business was to always live to fight another day. That means avoiding combat with superior enemy forces and melting back into the shadows whenever faced with a disadvantageous situation. I guess this sort of revolutionary army is closer to a dictatorship than anything else, because even if your intention is to create a democracy after the war is over (in the case of the Americans at least) you still have to control territory and impose your system over the population in order to achieve your aim.

 

In Canon it seems the rebellion is actually pretty decentralized-given what is depicted as a sort of war council in Rogue One. In Legends Mothma, Iblis, and Bail were the three main leaders and then Iblis went on his own.

 

No military is a democracy. They don't operate that way, so the RA is a dictatorship only if you have no understanding of what a dictatorship is.

They don't even start to begin governing until after the war. You can argue, as Jello does pretty much all the time (misguidedly, IMO... Lol), they became a dictatorship then.

But the question in itself is a non-sequitur.

Sent from my Moto X-Wing

 

Lol. Right?

Sent from my Moto X-Wing

 

A better question is whether the New Republic is a dictatorship?

In the Old Legend EU, I'd say it's a dictatorship against the Imperial Remnants until the Gavrisom treaty.

In the New EU, They certainly weren't a dictatorship against the FO, that is why they fail.

 

In Legends I wouldn't say the NR was a dictatorship maybe a nepotistic weak government whose only useful politicians were Leia and Mothma.

In Canon from what I understand the situation was somewhat different.

 

There are definitions and then there is usage. Denotation and connotation. I'd argue the definitions don't matter very much.

Definitions change as usage changes.

I agree the usage of liberal and progressive as understood by most Americans has diverged from the formal definition.

And my biggest thought is, so?

If your broader point is Americans are egregiously uninformed, I don't see how anyone could not agree with that general sentiment. I always knew...but I misjudged the extent of the ignorance. So much more than I had thought.

So very disappointing. Frightening even. I really had more faith in America. I was wrong there.

The formal definition of liberalism is small potatoes. And inconsequential.

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I resent that remark.