Why give Palpatine emergency powers?

What never made sense to me...why did so many seemingly agree to the idea of giving Palpatine emergency powers?

The Senate KNEW what it was about, they KNEW what Palpatine would decide on the matter of an army, so why the overkill, why not just decide upon the matter normally if there was no alternative anyway? A quick vote which surely wouldn't have taken so much longer, if at all, in the end.

Surely common sense would lead to that...then again, I'm no politician.

 

This plot point in Episode II is a direct parallel of what happened in Nazi Germany. Hitler became the Nazi regieme's dictator after being granted "emergency powers".

The reason for the emergency powers is simple - the Chancellor's supporters all agree on the use of Clones, but the rest of the Senate wouldn't. So...put the fear into the larger senators, convince the whole Senate that the Chancellor should have emergency control...and THEN he makes a unilateral Clone Army bill under his own authority, with no opposition from the Senate.



Clever boy!

 

Without being facetious, they gave him emergency powers because they thought there was an emergency.

Granted, the issue of the Army was the most immediate one, and everyone knew what he was going to do. However, you have to consider the other circumstances. I think there thinking went something like this:

Obviously, an army is going to be created because the Republic is about to enter into a war. In a war, we will need someone to make major decisions quickly, so that we can respond to the tactics of our enemies. Based on how long it took the Seante to come to a decision about even having an army in the first place, it might make sense to let one person do a lot more of this decision-making. Thus, emergency powers for Palpatine.

 

The discovery of the droid army is the key to this - Palpatine had cleverly, through the seperatists, created a climate of total fear, and once a solid threat had been percieved, the senators are more likely to give him his emergency powers. This has happened throughout history, if you look at how democracies turned into dictatorships:

- In Nazi Germany, shortly after Hitler took power, there was a fire (almost certainly staged by the Nazis) at the Reichstag, the German parliament building - Hitler blamed this on communist terrorists, and used it as an excuse to suspend a lot of human rights and freedoms in Germany in the Reichstag Fire Decree. Just over a month later, the Enabling Act was passed once all communists had been expelled from government, giving Hitler "emergency powers", and effectively making him a dictator. All based on taking advantage of fear.

- In Italy, Mussolini took power because of fear of communist and left-wing parties taking power - people turned to the fascists to stop this. After Mussolini gained power, a prominent socialist was assassinated, throwing Italy into political turmoil - and, surprise surprise, a few years later, Mussolini emerged as the strong dictator to bring Italy through its turmoil.

- Going back further, in France, when European powers began to form a coilition against France, and royalist powers became more popular within France, Napoleon was able to sieze power, and quickly turned democracy into dictatorship, saying he was the strong leader the country needed - he later crowned himself Emperor.

- Going back a long, loooong way, Julius Caesar was also the leader of a democratic government, and part of a Triumvirate of three that ruled Italy, and yes, they had a Senate. After Caesar's consulship term was over, he was ordered to Rome to give up power, but a civil war broke out, and in the wake of it, Caesar was able to become dictator.



There are common themes here - leaders always take advantage of a climate of fear and warfare to promote their own cause of strong leaders and gain more power. They play on people's fears for security. They tell the people that they are the ONLY ones capable of bringing the nation through it's crisis, whether it be civil war, war with other nations, or terrorism - and are given more powers, and people's human rights and freedoms are restricted. As time goes on, and the crises fades, they refuse to give up their powers, telling people that dicatorship is the only means of safety, and become dictators or emperors. This is pretty much what happened with Palpatine, only for him, the outside threat that caused so much fear was the seperatist movement. As he does with myth and religion, GL was looking for common factors of how democracies become dictatorships, and distilling them down into Palpatine.

 

I admit I had a hard time with this myself. It seems at first as though the Senate gives Palpatine emergency powers in order to cut through the red tape and create an Army of the Republic without needing to go through the Senate.

But if they're all willing to agree to this, why not just vote for the Army instead? They're all on the same page now that they've heard of this threat, after all.

However, we see it this way only because we're watching the movie, where the focus of the plot is this Clone Army. As others have said, the Senate gives Palpatine emergency powers so that he can do whatever is necessary (army or otherwise) without being tied up in politics, for the remainder of this threat. Creating an Army of the Republic just happens to be the first step he takes in countering the Separatists.

That said, does anyone else find it odd that Palps is given these powers without a vote? He seems to acquire this position by concensus. Granted anyone could probably force a vote by officially voicing an objection - but still, something this drastic should surely have required a formal vote, no?

 

I noticed that too.

But it's all over, in both TPM and AOTC. Apparently in the SW Galaxy, votes are measured in decibels. That is, all you have to do is yell real loud, and that counts as having your proposal approved.

 

The vote probably occurs off screen as did the vote to make Palpatine Chancellor in TPM. And I think the "emergency powers" which Palpatine obtains will be used for more than just creating the army, he will continue to use (and abuse) these powers in the future.

 

But it's all over, in both TPM and AOTC. Apparently in the SW Galaxy, votes are measured in decibels. That is, all you have to do is yell real loud, and that counts as having your proposal approved.

Exactly.

Sounds like a pretty bad governing body? A lousy way of going about things?

Well, you bet. That's exactly what it is, and Palpatine has no interest in changing it for the better. He uses the system to his advantage.

 

Guess it was the point of view thing. I would've thought that after finding out about Geonosis and it's direct threat, more would've turned to creating an army in the first place and the emergency powers issue would've been redundant.

From the senate's POV, isn't it a bit strange to leave all following war issues up to someone who was once the senator of Naboo, a completely peaceful planet?

Some sort of War Council would've made more sense to me.

But it's all over, in both TPM and AOTC. Apparently in the SW Galaxy, votes are measured in decibels. That is, all you have to do is yell real loud, and that counts as having your proposal approved.

I imagine each Senator has some sort of console to vote from. That they're yelling during the vote doesn't necessarily have to mean something

 

The people are afraid, and they are being lead by fear. Just like what is happening in the US today. The Patriot Act is no different that Palpatine's emergency powers.


!snap

 

Right. No difference at all.

 

It made perfect sense to me.

 

That said, does anyone else find it odd that Palps is given these powers without a vote?

From the film:

Bail: Unfortunately, the debate is not over. The Senate will never approve the use of clones before the Separatists attack.

Amedda: This is a crisis. The Senate should vote the Chancellor emergency powers. He can then aprove the use of the Clone Army.

Palpatine: But what Senator would have the courage to propose such a radical amendment?


I'm sure there was a vote - we just didn't see it. And more than likely many other (if not all) Senators were informed before Jar Jar made the motion.

But I think it's a moot point because Sidious had so much control in the Senate it doesn't really matter whether there was a vote or not.

 

Why give Palpatine emergency powers?

The dark side is influencing some of them. And others believe he is a good leader.

 

If you look at American History, Lincoln held emergency powers during the Civil War

 

And so did FDR during WWII, IIRC. It's not totally unprecedented-this is a major crisis and it seems the Senate is quite convinced the only way out is behind Palpatine. Also, the emergency powers thing might be seen as a political manuever against the Seperatists-"we're all behind the leadership, there is no more dividing us" idea. Not to mention that it would be quite a radical move in a Republic that has not seen major war in a thousand years-a sort of "we're not screwing around" move-perhaps the Supreme Chancellor assumed emergency powerrs during the last major galactic conflict as well? .

Plus with Palpatine having emergency powers, he is unhnindered by the red tape of the government, able to respond decisively to a threat. No political micro-managing here.

 

Some sort of War Council would've made more sense to me.

I think thats'where the Jedi come in