Why Does The Galactic Republic Not Have A Standing Army?

Yes. Naboo has one, but they call it a "Security Force".
Obviously the Trade Federation has one.
Technically, the Forest Moon of Endor has one.

There's no reason to assume that other planets don't have their own armed units.

 

If the Republic had a grand army of ragular people there would be no need for Clone Wars.

 

The main reason the Republic has no standing army is that it has never had a conflict of any sort since it was founded over a thousand years or so before the prequels take place.
Simply put, there was never any need for a standing army.

 

chances are, the Republic did not have a standing army, or if it did, it was in very limited numbers. Chances are that individual systems and mercenary's made up whatever troops that were needed for individual actions in this period.

Look at all the 'political' machinations required, for example, for the Jedi to be involved in conflicts: A Senate vote is required. Chances are, substantial military deployments in the era of the Old Republic, or at least at it's end, just did not make cost sense for the REpublic; chances are, its committment to social programs had overtaken, with the galaxy believing all threats to the Galaxy were gone.

At best, the REpublic itself maintained defense troops for Coruscant and other key worlds. as well as picket ships and stuff

 

I'm having a bit of trouble believing that the Republic maintained peace for a thousand years WITHOUT a standing army, a level of peace such as that would be next to impossible without a military presence, in my opinion. There has to be an oppressive force of some sort to basically keep the citizens in line. As corrupt as the Republic had gotten, I would have figured an army would be the only thing holding it together; otherwise the system would have probably collapsed YEARS before Palpatine even bothered vying for power.

 

Some of the major powers, such as the TF and techno union or whatever, could be sort of using their own armies to hold the Republic together for their own interests (maybe easier trade?). Also, chances are the diplomatic staff on Coruscant don?t tell their home systems how bad the situation is so they can keep up cashing in on it. Finally, it would take someone to lead the way (as happened when Dooku organized the CIS), otherwise the systems would probably simply suffer in silence.

 

Right. There were armies around to maintian order, but they answered to planets and groups instead of directly to the Republic.

And that's sort of why they were in such trouble.

 

I'm having a bit of trouble believing that the Republic maintained peace for a thousand years WITHOUT a standing army, a level of peace such as that would be next to impossible without a military presence, in my opinion.

They'd only need an army if there was dissension among the member planets of the Republic. Republics and democracies on Earth don't need an army to maintain peace within their borders. It's only with despotism or imperialism, which both breed internal strife, that an army is needed to keep peace within the borders. And since those aren't a problem, and since there simply aren't any outside threats, an army isn't necessary.

In the US, posse comitatus prevents the army from being mobilized on American soil. Which means that for the past 140 years, the US has not needed an army to deal with internal threats. And yet internal peace has still been maintained without a military presence. Same thing with the Republic.

 

The Republic had prevailed over every threat it had faced. Somewhere between the Battle of Ruusan(1,000 years pre-TPM) and TPM, the Republic decided that there was no longer any threat from outside governments(believe it or not, the Republic never did control the entire GFFA). The Sith as a people and an ideology were the primary threat for much of the Republic's history; when the Sith Order was apparently vanquished in the Battle of Ruusan, the Republic and the Jedi had concluded that the Sith would no longer be a threat; planetary defense forces would be adequate to protect the Republic's interests. In reality, the Sith had simply gone into hiding, and they figured since they couldn't bring the Republic down from the outside, they would bring it down from within(the Clone War).

 

Another question is, if Naboo was a peacfull planet then why would the Queen have a decoy??

 

She's a politician, and politicians are almost always the target of assassins.

 

If there is a fear of assassination, doesn't that take away the implication that the Republic is peaceful enough to not need an army? Naboo has a militia and a small fleet to protect itself, but from what?

 

Let's look at it this way:

The Trade Federation had an army. The Techno Union had an army. The IG Banking Clan apparently has an army. Also, there are various smuggling guilds and such that have been shown to be dangers. The Hutts have armies.

If private corporations like these can wield large armies, why not the Republic? Obviously, there was SOME kind of threat, for them to even have these armies in the first place.

I cannot believe that the Republic would assume that simple planetary millitias would be enough to stop these threats. Look how effectively the Naboo millitia stopped the Trade Federation from taking over {read: They didn't}

There is no reason not to have some kind of millitary force that is multi-planetary. The Jedi work for small conflicts, but as Master Windu pointed out, they don't have nearly enough numbers to fight wars with. Seeing how many small private organizations have millitary forces, if any of them grouped together, they could easily have overran the Republic. In fact, had the clones not been there, that's what would have happened. The planetary defense forces, if they are at all like the one on Naboo, are horridly ineffective.

It is foolish and downright stupid for the Republic not to have some sort of armed service, no matter how small. The Jedi obviously cannot be relied on to fight in major conflicts given their relatively small numbers, and the planetary defence forces, from what we have seen in TPM, are lightly armed and armored and also relatively small. The armies of the Trade Federation, however, seem quite powerful, and since they are composed primarily of droids, they can easily replace losses, and field huge numbers of troops should the need arise. In theory, it would have been possible for the Trade Federation to have upped production of war droids and taken many planets with small defense forces.

And, the fact that the Republic doesn't control the whole GFFA is ANOTHER reason why they should have an armed service. Since they don't have influence over the entire galaxy, there's nothing keeping the various factions that exist outside their borders from ganging up on them and conquering the Republic.

Indeed, one would think that after the affair on Naboo, the Republic would take heed and form some kind of armed service. Instead, it took the threat of civil war for them to even consider doing so, and even THEN, had the clones not been discovered, there is no reason to believe they would have formed one. Palpatine would have formed one since he had been granted emergency powers, but troops have to be trained and equipped. Had Palpatine not had the foresite to order the Clone Army himself, the very Seperatist movement he had started would have overthrown him.

That's one way the Empire is superior to the Republic in, at least they have a large armed service.

As for millitaries being the deaths of many republics, that is true. However, look at the U.S., we are a republic, and we have a millitary; but there has never been a coup, and it seems unlikely that there will be.


EDIT: Also, you never see any other planets trying to aid Naboo with the service of their millitas, so it's obvious that the Republic expects every planet to take care of themselves in terms of warfare. While more important planets like Coruscant and Corellia may field large millitias, there are many more planets, like Naboo, which have smaller forces, and some, such as Alderaan, which have none. These worlds would be ripe for the picking by organizations with large armies, like the Trade Federation or the Hutts.

 

The armies of economic organizations like the Techno Union and the Trade Federation were officially to protect them from pirates and other outlaws. However, as we all know, they used their military power to "persuade" planetary governments and used their forces in illegal ventures. Though the Republic attempted to regulate their militaries, many senators were "convinced" of the economic organizations' need for a large force. Obviously, that backfired when the CIS was formed and the Clone War broke out.

As for Naboo, the size of its military is probably unique to the Republic. It is a relatively weak, unimportant, and peace-loving society, and they hadn't a need for a large defensive force before TPM. More important and powerful planets, especially those in the Core, would have a much larger defensive force; plus, they would be able to obtain the resources from a large population and trade with other planets. Naboo probably would have been able to build-up a large military, but they didn't see the need and opted to spend their money on better things.

 

But I doubt Naboos size is the exception to the rule; rather, it seems like it IS the rule, and heavily populated planets like Corellia the exception.

We've only really seen one heavily populated world in the movies, Coruscant. In the EU there are a few others like Corellia, but there are many more sparsely populated worlds, like Chandralia, Alderaan, Dantooine, Bespin, and Naboo. These worlds could not field a very large armed force, and would be easy targets for more heavily armed agressors.

 

Alderaan is not sparsely populated, irrc. There are a lot of heavily populated worlds in the Core, though many of them are not well known-- Denon comes to mind. And remember, "sparsely populated" in the GFFA can mean billions of beings.

 

I swear there is already a thread on this somewhere...

In it, I said the Republic could be similar to the European Union. It has no standing army either.

 

Just a note: The Jedi were, for all intents and purposes, the standing army of the Republic until the Clone War.

Note how terrified the TF guys were when just two showed up for 'negotiations'? Methinks the Jedi were much more martial than we've seen.

IMO, the Jedi may well be Special Forces of a sort; they could defuse conflicts with either negotiation or direct action.

Another thought: Obviously, various groups around the Republic had their own standing armies. Perhaps they were allowed to do so only by promising to federalize their forces in the event of a war? There's an extremely swift army just waiting to be used.

Or: The Sith were the last major threat the Republic faced. Everything after them simply wouldn't measure up to that kind of threat, so perhaps the Jedi were considered all that was necessary? Obviously, mere mortals (pirates, mercenaries like the Mandalorians) aren't going to pose a mortal threat to a galaxy-spanning Republic.

Also, We've seen that even relatively unimportant places like Naboo have their own defense forces. I'd imagine this is the case across the galaxy; systems look to their own defense, with the Senate saying what's allowed, and the Jedi making sure that the laws are enforced.

 

In Japan, shoguns and the modern Meiji government had to deal with the demilitarization of their country because the continual maintenance of a standing army, much less the expense, was a threat to the continued existence of the reigning regime. The standing army threatened to depose the shogun or the government.

Shoguns, after they consolidated their control of Japan, began a cultural campaign to move samurai (who no longer had a military purpose) into economic and governmental jobs. They allowed the samurai to maintain their prerogatives and attempted to pay them a stipend which would discourage them from joining anti-shogunal forces. The shogun also encouraged samurai to develop non-military cultural practices such as tea ceremony, music, etc. to diminish military practice. At the same time, the shogun instituted a severe hostage regime in which families of the major domain regions had to live in Edo when the master travelled outside of the city. If he started a rebellion, his family would be held as ransom.

Similarly, under the modernization of Japan, liberal government officials and liberal-minded samurai discouraged samurai military arts because it posed a direct threat to the new government. The Meiji government succeeded in banning the samurai class and their privilege of carrying their weapons.

We don't quite know how the institution of the Jedi evolved, but there is a lot of circumstantial evidence which supports a Japanese-style demilitarization. (The Jedi were, after all, based on the samurai.)

In this country, there is no standing army (for use within the country -- it's actually forbidden). But the government does have the FBI and the ATF which ARE para-military/para-legal institutions which have jurisdiction anywhere in the US. Like the Jedi, they roam where ever they want and have a legal status that often trumps the jurisdiction of local constabularies. These agents are taught weapons training, the law, as well as specialized training that fits the needs of the government mandate, which, these days, is geared toward anti-terrorism activities.

It's quite clear that the Galactic Senate is the titular government of a confederation of intergalactic systems. It seems to work more like the US under the Articles of Confederation, which was eliminated because it did not create a national army needed to put down internal rebellions. See any similarities here?

Under the Lincoln, there was a rapid militarization of the country which had been building for years prior as cultural and economic differences between the North and the South exacerbated. Both sides created armies (sound familiar), and then at some juncture open warfare broke out. After the war, following George Washington's example in his farewell address, he called for a drawdown becuase Americans, in their experience as colonists, knew of the dangers of the military (Cromwell) directing the purpose of the government. That's why there is no American high command. The forefathers would not tolerate that kind of centralized military. If one commander sought to install himself as the leader, there was another centralized force ready to go against him.

A big historical question is whether we're in a new period of neo-colonialism in which the US, because of its unchallenged military power, will continue in a defensive (i.e. fearful) mindset. Or will the US draw down as it has after past wars. Lucas is all to aware that empires are easily rubberstamped by democratic movements.