Lit What exactly were the powers of the Imperial Senate?

What exactly were the powers of the Imperial Senate?

On one hand, we know the Empire was definitely an Empire after ROTS, with a strong Emperor.

On the other hand, the Imperial Senate discovering exactly what the Imperial military has been up to still makes Darth Vader (in Rogue One) and the Moff Council on the Death Star (in A New Hope) feel threatened, like the Senate could make all their plans fall apart if they knew what was really going on. And Rebel Senators in Rogue One still don't seem to think of the Senate as a lost cause. The Moffs on the Death Star find it unbelievable that the Imperial Senate has been disbanded, that the Death Star would be replacing it, and there they were meeting on the completed Death Star.

So, what exactly were the powers of the Imperial Senate? Did Palpatine declaring himself Emperor just make him keep the position for life, and those emergency powers permanent, with no new powers? Could the Imperial Senate still legally remove Palpatine and/or remove the emergency powers? Could they override a veto by the Emperor, or veto a decree by the Emperor?

 

My assumption on how the canon and late-Legends Empire worked is this:

* The Imperial Senate ruled over the vast majority of the galaxy like it did under the Old Republic.

* Palpatine had dictatorial powers which superceded the Imperial Senate but these were not often exercised.

* Imperial Moffs and Governors had martial law rulership over all former Separatist Worlds and their Sectors.

* Grand Moff Tarkin had martial law authority over the entire Outer Rim territories.

* Palpatine was appointed by the Senate and presumably the next Emperor would be appointed by him but this was never going to happen. Removing Palpatine from office would possibly be a Constitutional crisis.

 

A few EU sources seemed to indicate it had financial oversight (which would make it in line with the earliest functions of western legislatures), as the funding for the Death Star had to be hidden in the Imperial military spending.

 

I remember in the Tarkin novel, Palpatine and Tarkin discuss the Senate, stating that it "serves, rather than advises", and was needed only for the moment. Whatever powers it has are superceeded by the Emperor's. I always took the imperials concern about the Senate learning of the Death Star to be about fearing large scale uprising rather than political actions.The completed Death Star was supposed to make such uprisings impossible by terrifying everyone into submission

 

The Senate is a paper tiger and a rubber stamp but I figure that it actually handled the day to day governance that Palpatine hadn't put under his governors or advisors.

 

Its stated, I believe, that the Galactic Alliance Senate of Legends has similar powers to the Imperial Senate as opposed to the more powerful legislatures of the Old and New Republics. From this we can interpret that the Senate is largely bowing to the whims of the more powerful executive, in both instances.

 

And that worked out so well!

 

Super-strength, flight, X-ray vision, and an increased healing factor.

 

not since the cataclysm of Krypton.
#Kryptonwasaminingdisaster #ThereisnoDeathStar

 

I imagine whatever powers it did have could be overruled by the emperor and probably Vader and Tarkin at any time.

I suspect its role was largely ceremonial and advisory at best.

 

The Imperial Senate remained intact only because it's former Chancellor required it to maintain control over the thousands of star systems. Once the Ultimate Weapon was complete, the Emperor no longer needed the bureaucracy to maintain order in the Galaxy, and so he dissolved the council permanently, and with one decisive action, the last remnants of the Old Republic were swept away.

The Emperor came to regret this premature action after the battlestation perished at Yavin and the flame of a new hope for freedom was ignited from it's ashes. All that happened after that amazing upset at the Rebel's hidden fortress was but a delaying action on the part of the Empire. For the Emperor still needed a primary means with which to maintain control over the galaxy. That means was the second Death Star, and it was by his design that the Rebels discovered what they thought to be a critical error on his part.

The power that the Imperial Senate believed it had over the Galaxy was an illusion. A clever falsehood that the Emperor allowed them to believe so that they would remain his pliant tools. Imminently expendable tools as it happened, for he was only too happy to be rid of them when, after numerous setbacks and delays, the battlestation was finally complete.

 

Power is a shadow on the wall.

It belongs where people believe it does. If the Senate ordered Palpatine to step down....maybe it would have worked.

 

They had no power. It was an illusion. Vader and the others only worried about pissing off the Senate, because their is strength in numbers and if all the Senators pooled their resources into a Rebellion, the Empire would have problems. Thats why the Death Star was built.

 

I also imagine the senate provided a window into the workings and activities of the imperial government. If the senate knew of something the public likely did as well-it was so much as senators would be angered as it would spread word of the death star and the empire's tyranny(arresting a senator).

In contrast the activities of the moffs, imperial intelligence, ISB, and other sections of the imperial government were probably far more opaque and less open to public scrutiny.

 

heh I has a question im new here and how do you make post public to everyone
https://boards.theforce.net/conversations/valkorians-is-the-most-powerful-sith-deal-with-it.6958186/

 

im new and cant figure it out

heh I has a question im new here and how do you make post public to everyone
https://boards.theforce.net/conversations/valkorians-is-the-most-powerful-sith-deal-with-it.6958186/

 

I'm sure the Imperial Senate was realllly good at ribbon cutting. That's why everyone looked up to Bail.

 

The Empire in canon exists a lot more clearly as an essentially a military affair: the result of the introduction of a strong centralized Galaxy-scale military into a society that had not seen such a thing in a millennium. It seems clear that "the Empire" as a new phenomenon largely means, to most people, this new, centralized Imperial military, its command structure, & its many campaigns & operations & projects.

If this is the reality, then the Emperor's power can largely come from his direct control over the military, both through the appointment of military Governors & Moffs answerable directly to him, & through shadier means like Darth Vader. Palpatine literally created this new military structure, it's largely driven by personal loyalty towards him, & in the end he controls it as no other person in the Galaxy can or could.

The Senate is the vestiges of the older civilian government; it's not irrelevant, because as a matter of law it still governs the Galaxy, & no doubt still plays many of the same basic functions it always played. It also no doubt still has a lot of prestige with the people of the Galaxy: & more importantly, the Senate represents just by its nature a pretty massive concentration of power. Both the PT & the OT make it clear that Senators as a class are the elite of planetary & sector societies, & regardless of what the central government thinks or how it's run, this gives them a lot of very real power. The Rebellion is run in large part out of the resources & influence that Bail Organa & Mon Mothma have access to merely by being Senators & planetary & sector & Galactic elites with their own independent power bases. This is no doubt true for other Senators as well.

The question, then, I think is less what legal powers the Senate has & more how the Senate & the power embodied by it relates to the new military power structure. It's obvious that the military has more immediate & overpowering strength on its side, such that the Senate can be ignored & marginalized & finally shut down--but in the end, it's clear that the power once held in the Senate has a lot to do with the ultimate swift victory of the Rebellion.

It's an interesting dynamic, & may actually be more interesting in the new canon. We'll see how it's portrayed in the future.

 

I think the Senate provides LEGITIMACY to Palpatine.

Without it, he doesn't have it.

 

Yeah the elite aspect has always fascinated me-it gives a cynical vibe that the rebellion was formed by disaffected elites upset at the new power structure.

In terms of political power-it's probably some degree of prestige, public respect, as well as financial resources, and I imagine that while palpatine would have been happy to shut the senate down immediately-the senate was simply too respected an institution to do so-the corruption of individual senators aside.

 

In Leia: Princess of Alderaan, there’s several scenes featuring the Apprentice Legislature. I think this gives us a good window into what the Senate does.

Two of the things I remember the Apprentice Legislature having to vote on was “How should we punish this planet?” and “Where should we build the new Imperial academy?”


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Ah...no. There is a zero percent chance that Emperor Palpatine, Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith, would voluntarily step down from the throne he'd worked and schemed for decades to achieve. Sith do not give up power.

 

If the Senate removes Palpatine's status as Emperor, he is not Emperor. All he is, is an old man screaming at shadows.

 

If the Senate does that, those are their last words. Their replacements wouldn't be so foolish.