Lit Who ruled Coruscant?

One thing I have always wondered is, who ruled the planet Coruscant from the planetary government perspective? I was thinking a possibility could be that when the Republic was founded, it became directly governed by the Chancellor.

In Legends, you had Coruscant fighting wars with planetary governments within the Republic like Alsakan, and I would presume others over time. Figured it might cause a lot of further discontent if Coruscant represented the entirety of the Republic, instead of just the individual system during such conflicts. Outside of the thirteen tribes of Zhell of long ago, I don't think there is a whole lot out there that would point to some kind of a planetary government. Though it would be nice if it were some nobility like many of the other Core Worlds

 

Coruscant had its own Senator - who represented it in the Senate. Maybe they also governed the planet? Certainly this was the case in the TOR era:


https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Vanara_Kayl

 

I’m guessing it could be similar to DC... the one place where the federal government basically rules the area surrounding its capital, and have a token mayor who can always be overruled by the federal government.

 

The DC inference is certainly how I tended to see it.

The bigger issue with governance of Coruscant, particularly in a republic...who is Coruscanti?

You are talking about a world with a transient population larger then the total population of humans on earth who ever lived.

Who gets a vote? How do you qualify?

I would think most citizens would want to maintain citizenship on other worlds where they might be able to sway opinion or bring more weight with their vote in a vastly smaller voting pool.

Could you imagine if a major political issue was at hand on Coruscant, the party machines trucking in FLEETS of transports with registered Coruscanti citizens from across the universe to sway a vote? Jammed Hyperlink channels. Polling station madness.

We tend to picture Coruscant as buzzing busily, and more to the point, efficiently, below the towers and skyhooks as the prefects and princes of the universe debrief their latest adventures. But if you actually think about how an ecumenopolis of that scale could function at all, the structures in place would need to be galactic in size just to manage the one world.

 

If Marvel portrays it I doubt they would go for anything like DC... but DC's darker gritty style would fit it far better than the colorful happy go lucky Marvel funiverse.

That is the sad truth... it is not one world managing the entire galaxy, quite the contrary, it is one world needing the entire galaxy to be manageable itself. We got minor nods all over the Expanded Universe to how entire series of agriworlds and energy producing worlds are needed just to feed, fuel and power the Core and Coruscant itself.

No wonder DOTF showed a dark, neardead Coruscant looking much more like Metellos rather than its old self.

In the New Sith Wars with the Republic reduced to the Core I wonder how living in the core was at all given all the support worlds beyond the Colonies were gone and out of reach with the BoSS/Holonet/Hyperlane Lockdown they put on the Sith dominated space. Did the Coreworlds instead of their usual go to support worlds bleed the Colonies and lesser Core Worlds dry for their own support? How restricted was Core life due to the shortages? What worlds profited and which suffered from that era? We only see the Rim and how the Sith dominated space got freed or infiltrated so far.

Did the Hutts support the Republic with deliveries in return for secret aid to their own stand against the Sith? How did Hutt Space fare under the Sith at all, or how did it manage its own against them?

Post Ruusan Hutt Space was largely untouched by the Republic that expanded back around it slowly. Hutt Space kinda was Space China used for cheap labor force production and turning a blind eye on people suffering or vanishing within. And the Hutts enjoyed the Republic corporate attention and thus did not expand or move against the Republic themselves (as the High Republic said they were quiet still back then). All that only later changed when the Republic had Corporate Sector to free themselves of Space China Hutt Space and moved in on Hutt holdings as Hutts criminally infiltrated the Republic black markets.

 

I may be a bit slow on the uptake today, but...



On a more relevant note, I wonder who the Coruscant Security Force reported to. The Wook seems to suggest that they had jurisdiction outside the Senate District, which was under the purview of the Senate Guards. So maybe the Senate District would be more analogous to Washington DC, while the rest of the planet had its own local governing districts.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Coruscant_Security_Force

 

Going purely on head-cannon here:

I suspect most galactic governments treated the day to day operations of Coruscant as their predecessors had. Change of uniform perhaps. Maybe a wrinkle of political policy (Empire's "New Order" xenophobic laws most notably), but I suspect a given security office on level 800 has been operating, more or less the same, for millennia.

We saw in the X-Wing series how the planet was divided into sectors and districts. No doubt, while the stormies may have marched throughout with impunity, the local cops new their turf and walked their beats accordingly. Other city services were also likely provided at the district/sector level, with credits to pay for this either being transferred into accounts in the same manner for so many centuries, no one could imagine them not coming, or, the services were completely automated and droid operated to the extent that one questions the need for governance at all when your trash is collected and the water comes out the tap, no questions asked.

At that point, one could start thinking of Coruscant as less of a civilization of citizens, and more as passengers on the largest ship in the universe. You pay your passage in tax and rent, and the machine of making life livable on Coruscant takes care of the rest. So much so, that even those who don't pay...the stow-aways, to keep with the analogy, can live and even thrive to varying extents far below and amongst the machinery of provisioning the needs of life.

In that scenario, The government in power is the captain of the ship, and if you don't care for the passage, you can get a cheap ticket out at any moment of the day you like.

Doesn't paint the prettiest picture of daily life for a native of Coruscant...but again I ask...is anyone REALLY from Coruscant? Obviously, there are, trillions...but do they embrace that citizenry, or do they cling to a familial tie on Corellia or Chandrilla? Are there great families on Coruscant, or did anyone with means bail for an estate in the mid rim long ago, leaving only the poor and disenfranchised to live within a planet-sized machine that cares for them to the extent that prevents strife and allows the mechanisms to keep on turning?

Edit: Addition: I was suddenly struck by the recollection of the fall of Coruscant to the Vong. Those that could, like rats from a sinking ship, they scattered.

Distopia-Coruscant: coming soon.

 

Looking at Wookieepedia, the Legends article on Coruscant indicates that it's government was the Galactic City Authority

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Galactic_City_Authority

According to its article the Galactic City Authority was responsible for both Police and Fire Services at the least, amongst others. However, the Galactic City Authority only makes one appearance, in Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines. So there is no firm indicator of whether the Galactic City Authority was in charge of Coruscant prior to the advent of the Galactic Alliance, or whether the alliance established the GCA. It is also indicated that the Galactic City Authority is considered a planetary government, not a city government, as the GCA is listed on the list of planetary governments page: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Planetary_governments

Further research indicates that Galactic City had a Mayor during the time of the Old Republic, the Empire, and the New Republic, and that the post was held through all of these eras by a character named Trey Duna, whose only appearance is in the guidebook Coruscant and the Core Worlds

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Trey_Duna

Now, this raises an important question. Are we willing to accept the idea that the person in charge of Galactic City was the same person in charge of Coruscant? Wookieepedia seems to be leaning in that direction, that administratively speaking Galactic City and Coruscant are one and the same, but I know there are some people on this forum who have alternate opinions.

It is, admittedly, rather silly to have a planet ruled by a Mayor, even by the standards of Star Wars. There are plenty of planets in Star Wars, and in other fiction, that are ruled by Kings, Presidents, Prime Ministers, Satraps, Chancellors, and dozens of other titles, both real and made up, but I've never heard of a planet led by a Mayor.

The idea that the Mayor was planetary Head of State of Coruscant is further reinforced by the Legends article on Galactic City itself, which includes the following quote under the 'Imperial Complications' sub-header: "During the time of the Galactic Civil War, Trey Duna was the mayor of Imperial City; presumably the position was similar to that of governors on other Imperial worlds. The city's security was handled by a succession of several Moffs"

As to what power the Mayor had, it seems, based on Trey Duna's article, that his powers were similar to those of the Mayors of Washington D.C. in the real world, ie, responsible for day to day affairs, but often overridden by the central government when it felt like it.

Regarding the question of Coruscant's transient population, we know that there was a Coruscant Ministry of Ingress responsible for immigration enforcement on the planet. https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Coruscant_Ministry_of_Ingress/Legends

That it is explicitly referred to as a Coruscanti organization implies to me that this was a Ministry responsible to the planetary government of Coruscant, not the Republic itself.

Edit: The status of the Ministry of Ingress is complicated by the fact that the article on the Ministry indicates that it reported to the Office of the Chancellor. This, however, might reinforce the idea that there was overlap between the Republic government and the government of Coruscant

 

Might Vanara Kayl have had two titles - Mayor of Coruscant and Senator of Coruscant, and ruled Coruscant as Mayor?

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Vanara_Kayl

I think Fost Bramsin

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Fost_Bramsin

was supposed to have been Senator of Coruscant all through that time (Wookieepedia doesn't mention it, but I vaguely recall it cropping up during the FOTJ books).

Presumably the Mayor and the Senator don't have to be the same person, but can be.

 

We know definitively that plurality of office was not prohibited during the Republic era at least, as Bail Organa was both Viceroy of Alderaan, First Chairman, and his people's Senator. We also had Passel Argente serving simultaneously as the Senator for Kooriva and the Magistrate of the Corporate Alliance. So I see no problem with a head Canon indicating that Senator Kayl was also Mayor during her time in office. That's not to say that the two offices were linked, and that becoming one automatically made you both, but if you ran for Mayor, got it, and then ran for Senator and won, you wouldn't have to pick and choose.

 

I could see Supreme Chancellors, at least, not holding a "Planetary Senator" post as well.

Dorian Janarus was Coruscant Senator before being elected Supreme Chancellor. Presumably, Vanara Kayl replaced him as Coruscant Senator after his election.

 

At the risk of dragging this entire thread off topic, for which I apologize, the position of Supreme Chancellor has always been slightly different from normal Heads of State/Heads of Government in the real world.

The Republic operates on a Parliamentary system, meaning that the Chief Executive is drawn from, elected by, and responsible to, the legislature. In the UK the Prime Minister is still an MP who represents their individual constituency even after becoming Prime Minister. The same seems to be the case in Germany, it's Chancellor is still a representative of the district that elected them in addition to being Chancellor.

But Star Wars has been consistent in showing that the newly elected Supreme Chancellor effectively has to resign from being a Senator in order to become Chancellor. Maybe since the Chancellor is both Head of State and Head of Government the Republic's founders wanted the head of the executive fully committed to the entirety of the Republic, as opposed to a smaller power base.

 

Doesn't Coruscant have a Senator though ?

Or was that only the New Republic in canon?

 

Since the New Republic government isn't based on Coruscant in the newcanon, I would presume that the Coruscant Senator does not have time to govern his home planet as well - the commuting would not be worth the hassle - and somebody else is head of the Coruscant government.

 

Fuel to the Fire: Does the Major or Senator of Coruscant also speak for its moons or did they have separate Majors? Hence a Senator of Coruscant representing all Majors then? And does the Senator represent also the other worlds in the Coruscant system? Or given Senators are Sectorsenators actually with only few old worlds sending Senators not representing sectors, does Coruscant's Senator represent its sector too, and all dependencies of Coruscant in there? I mean it'd be confusing if we had representatives for the planet, moons, system, sector all separate!

In the real world foreign nations hold embassies in foreign capitals and those kinda belong to their territory and laws. While the Empire and Republic hardly had any foreign nations to consider, those few that did exist.. did they have likewise? Is there a Hutt Space Embassy? Hapan one? Corporate Sector Embassy? on Coruscant or rather relegated to a moon?

We know of embassies of plenty of worlds but all of them were within the government, not foreign ones!

 

My original comparison to D.C. was more in how it was administered, as opposed to how it was represented. My apologies if I didn't adequately make my point. In both Canon and Legends Coruscant did have full senatorial representation during the Old Republic, Empire, and New Republic, but when it came to administrative affairs Coruscant had its own government that still had to deal with whichever central authority called Coruscant its capital.

Such an assertion can be justified by the fact that the article on Galactic City's mayor indicates that many say him as a puppet of the Republic Senate. Further evidence is that the government tab on the Canon article for Coruscant lists the Chancellor and the Senate as being their government. But as another poster said, it wouldn't make sense for the Senate to be engaged in the day to day affairs of the planetary administration.

So maybe the Republic/Imperial government is de jure in charge, but the Mayor and some planetary government is de facto in charge

As far as Coruscant's theoretical dependencies/colonies/patrons are concerned, I'm afraid that there isn't really any hard evidence. We know they existed, as during the Alsakan crisis there was competition in the Expansion Region over which planet and which corporations would colonize which region of space.

If I had to guess, I would assume that the planetary government of Coruscant was also in charge of any other inhabitable planets/moons in the Coruscant star system. Planet and system are used interchangeably in the Prequels when referring to Naboo's representation, and it is mentioned that Naboo's moons are inhabited. I don't see why the same couldn't be the case for Coruscant.

If I had to guess, I would assume that the planets and moons that were inhabited in the Coruscant system would be treated and governed the same way as the various districts and sectors of Coruscant itself. Perhaps its like New York City, where each borough has its own President. In Coruscant's case, each district/sector of the planet would have a regional administration, and these regions might be represented in a planetary "Galactic City Council" that serves with the Mayor.

That might be too silly though.

 

Coruscant and the Core Worlds does distinguish between Imperial City proper-- "a megalopolis the size of a continent"-- and the rest of Coruscant, so it seems safe to assume that Duna was not in charge of the entire planet.

We've little info that I'm aware of which hasn't already been presented in this thread on what the Coruscanti government looks like, unfortunately. But if you're open to speculation on a somewhat thin canonical basis I think an argument can be made that the administration of Coruscant during the Imperial era was an Oversector-tier post overseen by a Grand Moff. There really isn't a ton of evidence for this, but given Imperial Center's security apparatus alone falls under the purview of a Moff per Empire: Betrayal, Coruscant's extremely high population, and strategic importance, the planet (or perhaps the entire system) being equivalent to an Oversector command seems a fairly reasonable assumption. There's also a line in X-Wing: Wedge's Gamble that points in this direction-- after being ordered by Isard to stay behind and take charge of an insurgency on Coruscant following the New Republic's capture of it, Kirtan Loor excitedly asks if she is making him "in effect, the Grand Moff of Imperial Center". He could be speaking metaphorically, of course, but the phrasing does leave room for such a position actually existing.

As to who occupies it-- there's actually a fairly good candidate: Grand Moff Bartam, from Empire: Betrayal, who is depicted as living in Imperial City full time and whose remit is never specified. He is killed, of course, during Trachta's coup, and who his successor is is anyone's guess, but I'd submit one of the members of Hissa's Central Committee of Grand Moffs makes the most sense, since it's easy to imagine such a man having beef with Isard after she locks down Coruscant, his remit, under her direct control, and he wouldn't have enough of a power base of his own to go independently warlord. I like Muzzer for it myself.

 

This might be rather pedantic on my part, but it seems like there is a contradiction between the description of Imperial City in Coruscant and the Core Worlds and the descriptions of Galactic City found in both the films and in the other books. Most sources explicitly describe the city as global in scope, not merely continental. Obviously there are parts of Coruscant that aren't covered in cityscape, such as the Great Western Sea and the Manarai Mountains, but the indication seems to be that the areas that aren't covered are in the minority and aren't inhabited.

Don't get me wrong, I much prefer the idea that Coruscant was prestigious enough and important enough to warrant being governed by a Grand Moff in the Imperial, and would default to that if anyone asked me the main question this forum poses. But perhaps some of the sources we are using to base some of our arguments on aren't as reliable as they could be.

 

Retcons though had the sea(s) of Coruscant be artificial and tinier than initially intended by the original author that brought it up. Likewise the Manarai Mountains were reduced to artificiallity with Monument Plaza the last place with original soil of a mountain top. The mountain the Jedi Temple is supposedly built around must be deep down and not as ingrained into the modern elevated Temple as Incredible Locations depicted in crosssections sadly. At least canon gave Monument Plaza precedence over the Manarai etc. and lets not even talk about the polar ski regions and water piping to the city skyline. Either that is also artificial on top of ancient petrified cityscape, or it is natural and another place marketing forgot to mention when advertising Coruscants last piece of toucheable ground.

I think, Galactic City / Imperial City / Senate District etc. may not be synonymous at all. Coruscant is the planet, Imperial Center its renamed function. The Senate district only is a large yet not continental area and Imperial City around it may be continental. The part the Empire primarily used and updated, with Galactic City being the older global one beyond that.

 

Pity we never got a chance for that story to really continue. Because at the end of the novel, aside from Holdo, Stevis was clearly becoming a close ally to her and her role in the rebellion. But just like Thane and Ciena, Claudia may never get a chance to continue that thread (which I'd have preferred to some of what we have gotten over the past few years).

 

Oh cool I'd not come across that bit about it counting as a single sector. Supports my argument, I think-- it doesn't say it's not a priority sector (which is what I should have said rather than oversector). Moff Kadir's existence as chief of Coruscant Security is I think the strongest argument for it being a special case-- I can't think of any other instances where a full Moff has so narrow a remit. Of course he could be under another Moff-- this is the case with some subsector Moffs within regular sectors-- but Grand Moff Bartam's existence I think (plus the importance of the capital) points toward a Grand Moff being in overall control. And yeah, I agree, Loor's line is pretty thin-- if I didn't want the administrator of Imperial Center to be a Grand Moff it would be easy to dismiss. And yeah I'd imagine the administration of Imperial Center vs Sector Zero would be a bit nebulous and confusing, which of course is how Palpatine preferred things.

Oh no, sorry, Coruscant and the Core Worlds doesn't mean to say that there are regions of Coruscant outside of Galactic/Imperial City that are bare of cityscape-- just that the the term Imperial City properly applies specifically to the continent-sized equatorial region sprawling across the Manarai Plateau (my coinage, but I think accurate) and centered on the Imperial Palace. Cityscape covers the entire globe (sans the poles), but it isn't all the same city-- Imperial City is the Manhattan to Coruscant's New York City. Of course people often use Galactic/Imperial City to refer to entirety of the world's cityscape, but this isn't strictly speaking accurate. Presumably other "cities"-- really regions-- on the planet had their own mayors or other officials; we do know that at least one of the districts within Galactic City proper, the Uscru Entertainment District, had its own mayor, so. The governance of Coruscant at any point in history was likely a dizzyingly complex web of heirarchies and overlapping administrations; my assumption is that any Imperial apparatus was then simply installed on top of what already existed (as indicated by Duna still being nominally mayor during the imperial era.)

I think the latter is what's going on with Monument Plaza-- it's a thing that's bugged me as well for years, but not-quite-truthful tourist copy seems the most likely explanation to me for the discrepancy there.

 

Wait, wasn't the Ongree male Acros-Krik Mayor of just the Uscru Entertainment District?