Lit Centrists versus Populists? Which would you choose in the canon New Republic?

Only for the DoD....not all the other things we see in modern government...in effect the Republic is more a confederacy....A strong military that keeps the peace within and along the borders of the Republic and secures the hyperlanes and has PSFs that act as the National Guard.

 

Which faction? Neither, tbh. The whole point is that the polarization in the New Republic is not a good thing.

There has to be a middle ground. You need a government that has a good balance between federal & state (ie, member worlds) powers. The New Republic government should promote the general welfare of it's members, provide for the common defense, promote trade, ensure equality and rule of law, and speak with one voice in galactic affairs. It shouldn't do everything for it's members, nor should the members be able to do whatever the heck they want.

--Adm. Nick

 

Populists and Centrists really aren't apt names for them to use, but SW was never good on terms. Populist could mean.. literally anything, so I guess it could be used, but Centrist is moderates, usually between left and right.

 

In this context "Centralisers" might be closer - people who want power centralised - a strong executive and not much autonomy to individual worlds.

 

I don't know. Political parties with vague and/or non-indicative names happen a lot in the real world. Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Mexico gives us the magnificent contradiction in terms, "the Institutional Revolutionary Party." Lots of people think "Socialist" either no longer is or never was an accurate term for the moderate-left parties of several West European countries. Then there's the never-ending rotation of bland names used by the French center-right. Etc.

 

Maybe a bit more Centrist than Populist, but definitely far from the extreme of both parties.

--Adm. Nick

 

I'm mostly in line with Admiral Nick, I definitely feel like I lean centrist, a galactic government so decentralized that its isn't able to do any governing may as well not even exist, of course the widespread neo-imperial undercurrents existing within the Centrist party would make me very wary of throwing my lot in with them either.

The Old Republic brought a thousand years of peace to the galaxy, it should have been truly restored instead of discarded out of fear of a dead mans legacy.

 

Maybe. Personally I'd expect that once people trust the central government with one thing they'll trust it with another.

 

It seems about tied in the poll, so far.

On one hand, there's the Prequel Trilogy danger of the government centralizing too much it would be easy for Palpatine 2.0 to become dictator, even if they technically kept the titles of "Republic" and "Chancellor" (similar to what happened in LOTF).

On the other hand, there's the Sequel Trilogy danger of the government decentralizing so much it would be easy for First Order 2.0 to attack and invade (similar to what happened with the Yuuzhan Vong too).

*And as the movies have shown, as long as there's some military, there's corporate interests who want to produce and sell military ships/weapons/equipment/etc., who will instigate conflict so they can continue to make a profit and sell to the highest bidder... whether they're the Trade Federation, Techno Union, InterGalactic Banking Clan, Commerce Guild, Corporate Alliance, Mining Guild, or someone who gambles on Canto Bight as a hobby.

 

Don't forget there were more Senators that did not side with one of these parties than there were in either individual party itself. The New Republic senate wasn't quite the "red vs. blue" of modern American politics, those were just the biggest factions.

 

The best government is little government: policies that work well for the bigwigs on Coruscant won’t work well for polities on Malastare and Troydaria, and what works on Eriadu won’t necessarily work well on Chandrila. Keep what little you need at the center for defense, hyperlane maintenance, and the like, but otherwise let a thousand flowers bloom.

 

That wasn't my understanding. More like neither party had an outright majority, but they were the main factions.
Probably something like 45% Populist, 40% Centrist, 15% Neutral

 

So you're a Mothma-ist, then? That last part about planets building up their own defenses is kinda her shtick. Pretty sure that's what she was aiming for when she descaled the New Republic military, and ironically enough I eould think this would put MORE military presence overall into the galaxy if you add the NDRF despite numerous criticisms that the descaling would weaken the New Republic overall. Morhma's military model was a direct continuation of the Alliance's military protocol. It's military was made up of staff and ships from various worlds who volunteered to come together and fight a greater enemy.

 

Yeah, I suppose that I am a Mothma-ist. I agree that individual worlds building their own militaries would lead to a larger military presence in the galaxy. I also think that allowing individual planets to retain their own military traditions, tactics and weapons would allow for a broader range of military capabilities. My only stipulation would be that each world be given a military quota to fulfill. This would ensure that planets all shared the responsibility of collective security and that no planet was left defenceless.

Also, a large military spread throughout the galaxy would have made the destruction of Hosnian Prime less devastating to the military capabilities of the New
Republic, as there would have been large fleets in other systems throughout the galaxy.

 

The problem I see with each planet having its own powerful defense fleet is that some would inevitably use them to be aggressive towards others.

But the alternative of a very powerful, centralized fleet for the NR is they risk becoming another Empire and not being as in-tune to the needs of the people.


Padme was right, the re-introduction of militaries into the galaxy opened Pandora's box. Though it wasn't just on the Republic, since the Trade Federation was already using its droid security forces to become their own private military.

 

I'd think that the NRDF would be the "nuclear deterrent" for open hostility towards other planets. That's not to say that a interplanetary war couldn't still happen but I imagine that would be one of, if not the main justification for the NRDF's existence.

 

If the Republic is restored, I wonder how the post-ST will approach this conflict (particularly how to balance the power of the executive and the strength/presence of the fleet, between being too powerful like Palpatine and the Grand Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars, versus too weak like the situation of the New Republic during the events of Bloodline) as well as the problem of the galaxy's military-industrial complex and Senate corruption. Perhaps a move to eliminate all remaining titles of nobility, and towards either a population-based house of representatives as a second chamber or democratic referendums, would cancel-out any increase in power of the executive and the military (along with an investigative branch to investigate corruption and keeps the arms dealers and military corporations in check). Another way to balance a stronger executive could be to make it a triumvirate, or have a separately-elected executive like a president, or have the executive assigned the equivalent of Legacy's Imperial Knights (if the Chancellor goes dark, the IKs automatically remove the person from office).
It should definitely keep: direct democratic elections for every Senator (no more appointments); worlds being temporarily elected as the capital of the Republic (no longer Coruscant-centric); and allowing separatist worlds to peacefully secede and not trying to force worlds to join either.

This is all assuming the galaxy returns to a Republic, not fragmented into a multi-state galaxy or something else entirely.

 

Populist for me as a stronger planetary government system let’s each system decide what is best for itself. Inside of that I think the worlds/sectors themselves should be strong central governments and the new republic should be operating similarly to the UN but with a bit more bite with their although very reduced Navy. This also allows for a continuation of government if the large galaxy wide one fails as it did in TFA. Plus a stronger sector government can best address the needs for its people than a strong new Republic. A new republic will only be good for the overall galaxy or at worst special interests. The New Republic should only exist to solve treaty disputes and trade arguements between systems with some bite to enforce whatever decision is made.

 

I have to protest... this vote is manipulating its voters there is no third option of "neither", which is unfair and not representative of the truth. I demand a redone poll with properly chosen voting options!

Until then, once a scoundrel, always a scoundral! Pirate's life for me, yoho!

 

That's all good and well, but how do you draw the line for where the right balance is? And, while some autonomy is nice, what happens when a member state wants something (like say slavery) that blatantly violates a core principle of the federation?

 

That’s another use of the new republic. That’s why they should have a strong navy which of course they lack. To make sure no system decides to break some of the galaxy wide laws like slavery. The new Republic as we see them in new canon was flawed from the start. The Centrists nor the populists would fix that completely. One of its major problems was the New Republics lack of enforcement. That should change. Other than that the system should mostly be able to make their own laws that best benefit their people. There would also be hundreds if not thousands of important laws on the galactic level, but against stuff like Narcotics or slavery.

 

So then the question is, do the Centrists meet this criteria, or not? Do we, the audience, have enough information to actually be able to have an opinion? Information that happens to be provided to us by all-powerful author-gods who can change anything in-universe depending on what story they want to tell?

 

Who knows? I sure don’t. They were mentioned only in Bloodlines if I recall correctly. I am just stating what my ideal new republic looks like and as far as we know the populists fit that bill. At least more closely than the Centrists