PT Why didn't the Republic have an army?

That's about twenty minutes in. Talonx was referring to the first five minutes of the film.

No, it's not. Palpatine took power that was given to him, then set up a bunch of regional governors who report back to him and created a giant death ray to keep control.

Except for the two Jedi and the young boy.

No, they formed a military to prevent an attack from the worlds that wanted to secede.

Uh, Mos Eisley isn't policed because of the criminals. The Stormtroopers are there for the Death Star plans and weren't there before then. They're not even there four years later.

You don't have any say in the Empire, either. In fact, you get annihilated if you do speak up.

 

Maybe it’s me but the Old Republic seems like a slightly more centralized version of the United Nations. Here each country may or may not have their own individual standing army and I would imagine that would be similar in the Old Republic and individual planets or federations. The problem may be that it’s not centralized enough to deal with conflict between individual planets. Just like if Russia invades the Ukraine, nations will wag their finger, but in the end it’s all talk and no action. With Palpatine gaining power and having a standing army, the Republic becomes more centralized.

 

that's basically what it was.
the old republic senators would put up with violations like that as well if it fit their agenda. like how the trade federation had senators on their bankroll and were able to get away with the naboo crisis

 

"There hasn´t been a full scale war since the formation of the Republic."

 

The Galactic Republic is a republic of sovereign systems. It is more akin to the confederation under the Articles of Confederation than a federal republic.

 

I assume that the Jedi are effective enough at being international peacekeepers, that there doesn't need to be a grand republic army. I'm sure individual systems have their own forces/defense force, like naboo.

It also seems like the Republic was able to function effectively for long periods of time without much corruption, prior to the movie era.