Federation Government ~ Who's who and what's what

[Kyan Mackenzie]

Good morning Fleeters of Shadow... Shadow.. Fleet.. ShaFlee...

Hi.

So, you all might know me as the killer midget on the Station but in real life, I'm a political junkie. I loves me some politics. And (happily for some I imagine) there isn't a whole lot of talk about the Federation government in Trek. We know that there's a President, and a Federation Council, and probably a judicial body of some sort, but outside of that, we really don't know a lot. Therefore, I propose the following: That we create the Federation government! (Subject of course to the approval of the admin types. ) I propose that a group of us (whosoever has interest) get together and flesh out the Federation government here, for our own site's purposes. So far, we have the following....

President of the Federation - ?? - elected by popular vote? <- This is assumed. It was never, to my knowledge, explained in canon.
Federation Council - 1 representative from each member world (150+)
Starfleet Command - Command Structure from the Starfleet CinC down to our own Admiral Kirok.
Federation Court system - ??
Ambassadors

So those are the entities that we KNOW exist in canon. But realistically there would be cabinet secretaries/ministers, etc, etc. I think that if we fleshed that out, it would open up a whole new vein of potential storylines of which sims could take advantage. we could also hold elections, etc etc. Some questions that I have...

Are there parties? We know that politics is a spectrum. So no matter what world you're from or what your species is, your opinion in issues is molded by your beliefs. You fall somewhere on the political spectrum. I believe it would be this way in the 24th century, and that the Federation might have several political parties, depending upon how their elections are set up. Are there only a few, like the U.S. Or are there several, like the UK.

Does the Federation Council have a Speaker? Majority Leader? Does the President of the UFP preside?

What's the order of succession?

How often are there elections for President, Federation Council, etc.?

Anyways, these are just a few things that I have been pondering. If anyone else is interested, and the Admins are ok with it, I would love to get a group together and see if we can't flesh this thing out.

[Solluk]

"Are there parties?"

I think that within any system where votes happen, people will collectivize their power according to their interests and thus political parties will form along lines of shared interest.  It seems inevitable.

[Kyan Mackenzie]

I was pondering this last evening, and I believe that the Federation Government would look alot like an amalgamation of the EU and the United Nations, moreso than say the U.S. Government.

Also... This

http://www.st-minutiae.com/articles/treaties/charter.html#ch3

[Jada]

If you don't mind expanded-universe material, there's a tedious amount of detail on the Federation government and how it functions in the novels and RPGs, all on Memory Beta.

The Federation government shouldn't look anything like the US government. For, um, many obvious reasons.

Parties: Given the huge and varied population, there will probably be a million small and micro-parties, no major ones. Hence, no party can dominate and the Federation is led by minority governments, which necessarily have to negotiate, compromise, and cooperate to get things done, which feels rather fitting. 

[James H. Hawk]

Ooh yes, this is something I'm interested in...

There's not a lot of cannon material on this that I can find, and even the expanded universe info on it that Jada mentioned is fairly lacking in its actual structure. There's also from what I've read, a fair bit of contradictions. However, I think this is a really interesting discussion to have so here are my thoughts.

First off, I agree that the UFP's political system would be very different to the USA's one. As Solluk pointed out, formations of political parties would be inevitable and I'd also agree with Jada that there would likely be many smaller parties that form minority governments and form giant coalitions of parties, rather than a two party system like in the US government. Almost all present democracies IRL have many parties, the US's two party (yes I know technically there are third parties but in practice they might as well not exist, they have no influence) system is more the exception than the rule. A lot of countries have many small parties but politics are dominated by two parties (For example in Australia there is the right wing Liberal Party and the left wing Labor Party, in the UK there is the right wing Conservative Party and left wing Labour Party) but third parties do still have an impact, sometimes a significant one on politics. Anyway, I digress, I would think that there would be lots of parties that would probably group together in coalitions, maybe there would end up being two (or even more) major coalitions that tend to dominate politics while other smaller parties stay more or less independent.

I don't think there would be a Majority Leader, thats again an American thing that doesn't really matter, it's basically just the guy who is chosen to lead the biggest party (or the Á¢â,¬Ëœother' party in the case of the Minority Leader). In most parliamentary democracies, the Prime Minister (or equivalent) sits in parliament just like any other parliamentarian, he's simply the guy chosen by the government (and I use that in the sense of Á¢â,¬Ëœthe party/coalition currently in government), which in the case of the UFP would probably be a coalition of parties, to lead them. Given that one of the few things we actually know about the UFP's government is that the president is actually a member of the Federation Council and in fact is it's head (making him the Head of both the Executive and Legislative Branches of Government), the Majority Leader wouldn't be a thing, he'd probably be more like a Prime Minister. As for does the President of the UFP preside of the Council, the answer appears to be yes.

On the line of succession, here is what Memory Beta has to say: "When a president unexpectedly resigns, dies, or is otherwise unable to discharge the powers of the office, the Federation Council declares a councillor to be President Pro Tempore; the President Pro Tempore then serves for a short term length set by law, while a special election is then called by the Council." I personally actually like this system a lot better than the American one where the line of succession is just how old the cabinet department is, rather than if they're actually at all up for the job. Anyway...the line of succession in the UFP seems to be probably the most clear thing about its government if we're accepting Memory Beta as an acceptable source.

According to Memory Beta (I'm using Memory Beta more than Memory Alpha for this because it simply has more information) the Council of the United Federation of Planets is comprised of one Federation Councillor from every Federation Member State. How each councillor is chosen is up to that member's Government, for example the First Minister of Bajor appoint's theirs, the Andorian is chosen by whatever political party holds the most seats and Betazed is popularly elected (so by that I assume the whole planet votes on the Councilor).

I have some issues with the Council though. Mainly the whole thing where its just made up of one representative from each member state. According to Memory Alpha, Earth's population as of 2373 is 4.2 billion. Bajor had 3.8 billion and Vulcan had 4.9 billion. Andor however, only has 1 billion and Betazed has a similar number. These are probably some of the biggest member worlds, I presume there are many many smaller planets as member states. Now, what is my point? My point is that for a moment let's pretend that all Councilors are elected popularly by their planets population. In this case, a single Andorian's vote is worth nearly 5 times more than a single Vulcan or Human vote. This is inherently unequal because smaller member states (and I am pretty much certain that Andorian is by no means the smallest) have hyperinflated influence. It's simply not equal for my vote to count more than your's simply because I'm Andorian and you're Vulcan. Article 2, Paragraph One of the link you gave to the Federation Charter (I don't know how cannon that is, but I like it, it's a good starting point for our purposes, good find) states that "The Federation is based on the sovereign equality of all its members" but the system of "one Councilor per member state. That's it, it doesn't matter if you've got your mate and dog as the whole population or 25 sextillion population, you get one vote" is inherently unequal.

Both Memory Alpha and Memory Beta say that the Federation is a unicameral (that is one legislative body, not two. The US is bicameral as it has the House of Reps and the Senate, while Sweden is unicameral as it only has the Riksdag for example), though I think (and correct me if I'm wrong) it only states that because we have only seen one chamber, not that there has been explicit cannon references that there is only one. In other words "there could be a second one, we just haven't heard about it". Maybe an obscure book somewhere does explicitly state it, I'm not sure, I could be wrong. I propose that "our" Federation Government should be bicameral if we want to keep the whole "A state within a country is more important that the actual people as a whole who live in said country" thing. It could be like in Australia (and I think the US and many other countries with bicameral legislatures are similar) where the Upper House is made up of one Councilor per member state and the Lower House is made up of one Councilor for roughly every X number of people. So maybe every half a billion gets you one Councilor, Andorian gets two, Earth gets about 8.

I will add more of my thoughts on other stuff like Starfleet Command (I have a good amount to say about its Structure), the President (I would have added those bits but I don't have time right now), Court System and ambassadors.

I'm glad you started this, it's an interest conversation

[Kyan Mackenzie]

According to the Federation Charter, which is as close to canon as we'll get probably... the Federation government IS bicameral. There is the Federation Council, which looks more like the UN Security council than a legislative body. But then there is the Supreme Assembly, which is composed of 1-5 representatives from each member world. See below.

Chapter IV: The Supreme Assembly
Composition
Article 9
The Supreme Assembly shall consist of all the members of the United Federation of Planets. Each member shall be entitled to have not more than five (5) representatives in this body;

Functions and Powers
Article 10
The Supreme Assembly may discuss any questions on any matters within the scope of the present Charter or relating to the powers and functions of any agencies provided for in the present Charter and, except as provided in Article 12, may make recommendations to the members and the Federation Council or both on any such questions or matters;

Article 11
The Supreme Assembly may consider the general principles of cooperation in maintaining interplanetary peace and security, including disarmament and the regulation of armaments, and may make recommendations with regard to such principles to the members or the Federation Council or to both;

The Supreme Assembly may discuss any questions relative to the maintenance of intergalactic peace and security put to it by any member or the Federation Council, or a nonmember planetary social system in accordance with Article 25 Paragraph 2 and, except as provided in Article 12, may make recommendations with regard to any such questions to the members, the Federation Council, or the pleading planetary social system, or to all of them. Any such question on which action is necessary shall be referred to the Federation Council by the supreme assembly either before or after discussion;

The Supreme Assembly may call situations which are likely to endanger the interplanetary and intergalactic peace and security to the attention of the Federation Council;

The powers of the Supreme Assembly as set forth in this Article shall not limit the scope of Article 10;

Article 12
Where the Federation Council is executing the functions assigned to it under the present Charter with respect to any dispute or situation, the Supreme Assembly shall make no recommendation with regard to that dispute or situation unless so requested by the Federation Council;

The President, with the consent of the Federation Council, shall notify the Supreme Assembly at each session of any matters relating to the maintenance of interplanetary peace and security which are under discussion in the Federation Council, and shall notify the Supreme Assembly, or the members if the Supreme Assembly is not in session, immediately when the Federation Council completes its deliberations on any such matters;

Article 13
The Supreme Assembly shall initiate studies and make recommendations for the purpose of:

Promoting interplanetary cooperation in political fields and encouraging the progressive development of interplanetary law and its codification;
Promoting interplanetary cooperation in the economic, social, cultural, educational, and health fields, and assisting in the realization of intelligent lifeform rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to culture, sex, language, or religion;
The further responsibilities, functions, and powers of the supreme assembly with respect to matters mentioned in Paragraph 1(b) above are set forth in Chapters IX and X;

Article 14
Subject to the provisions of Article 12, the Supreme Assembly may recommend measures for the peaceful adjustment of any situation, regardless of origin, which it deems likely to impair the general welfare or friendly relations among the planets, including situations resulting from violations of the provisions of the present Charter setting forth the purposes and principles of the United Federation of Planets;

Article 15
The Supreme Assembly shall receive and consider regular and special reports from the Federation Council; which reports shall include an account of the measures that the Federation Council has decided upon or taken to maintain interplanetary peace and security;

The Supreme Assembly shall receive and consider reports from the other agencies of the united Federation on agreed upon regular periods or reporting;

Article 16
The Supreme Assembly shall perform such functions of intergalactic trusteeship as are assigned to it under Chapters XII and XIII, including the approval of the trusteeship agreements for areas which are not designated as strategic;

Article 17
The Supreme Assembly shall consider and approve the budget of the United Federation of Planets;

The expenses of the United Federation of Planets shall be borne by the members as apportioned by the Supreme Assembly;

The Supreme Assembly shall consider and approve any financial and budgetary agreements with specialized agencies referred to in Article 57 and shall examine the administrative budgets of such specialized agencies with a view to making recommendations to the agencies concerned;

All budgets of, and expenses of the United Federation shall be made and paid in the common interplanetary credit. The common interplanetary credit shall be the official medium of exchange within the United Federation treaty exploration territory;

Voting
Article 18
Each member of the Supreme Assembly shall have one (1) vote;

Decisions of the Supreme Assembly on important decisions shall be made on a two-thirds (2/3) majority vote of the members present and voting. These questions shall include: recommendations with respect to the maintenance of interplanetary peace and security; the election of non-permanent members to the Federation Council; the election of members of the trusteeship council in accordance with Paragraph 1(c) of Article 86; the admission of new members to the Federation; the suspension of the rights and privileges of membership; the expulsion of members; questions relating to the operation of the trusteeship system; and budgetary questions;

Decisions on other questions, including the determination of additional categories of questions to be decided by a two-thirds (2/3) majority, shall be made by a majority vote of the members present and voting;

Article 19
A member of the United Federation which is in arrears in the payment of its financial obligations to the Federation shall have no vote in the Supreme Assembly if the amount it is in arrears equals or exceeds the amount of the contributions due from it for the preceding two accounting periods. The Supreme Assembly may, nevertheless, permit such a member to vote if it is satisfied that the failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the control of the member.

Procedure
Article 20
The Supreme Assembly shall meet in regular periodic sessions and in such special sessions as occasion may require. Special sessions shall be convoked by the President at the request of the Federation Council or of a majority of the members of the United Federation.

Article 21
The Supreme Assembly shall adopt its own rules of procedure. It shall elect its president for each session.

Article 22
The Supreme Assembly may establish such subsidiary agencies as it deems necessary for the performance of its functions.

[Rayek trLhoell]

I am not the most politically minded of people.. I tend to avoid politics wherever and whenever possible.

But I tend to think that equality based on number of individuals isn't equality.  I think that any member regardless of it's population should have equal say.   1 vote per planet.  Just because one planet may have 20 billion and another less than 1 billion shouldn't give that more populated planet more voting power on the Council.  That type of political format seems to punish those worlds whose populations are less (either by culture or nature).  By having a 1 vote per planet regardless of population ensures that planet cooperate.. because otherwise the more populated ones will just take over the system.  Or so it seems to me. 

[Kinley Garrison]

Question? how would the Federation work on the local level? (i.e. the continental, national, etc level) it's already complicated already trying to get the local and Federal parts of our govt right now as is. How would they manage the extra planetary level?

[James H. Hawk]

Question? how would the Federation work on the local level? (i.e. the continental, national, etc level) it's already complicated already trying to get the local and Federal parts of our govt right now as is. How would they manage the extra planetary level?

It seems to me that planets mostly handle themselves. Some are probably highly centralised (I would guess Vulcan would be while others like probably Earth would be quite decentralised (we know that there is at least some concept of countries and states still exist, like Kirk saying he's from Iowa).

I think the Federation government would mostly leave governing planets to their own governments provided they abided by Federation common ideals. So, while planets can probably make their own laws to an extent, I doubt they could say legalise slavery and they probably have to be democratic for example. The Federation government would likey mostly just be responsible for trade, foreign relations, science and defence.

[guest1523]

Elijah was right I think. When you look at the federations charta, it's in large parts a copy of the United-Nations Charta. Verbatim. The Supreme Assembly in the federations charta works the same as the general assembly of the UN with all it's streghts and weaknesses. One member one vote. Consideration. Discussion. Call to attention. And of course the budget. (I was under the impression, the federation got rid of the concept of money. So there would be no point in having budget power. Which would make the supreme assembly even more of a paper tiger, than the UN-General assembly already is)
And as far as I can tell no legislative power. OK.

The Federation Council is an interplanetary copy of the UN-Security Council. Forget the assembly, forget the court, forget the president (/secretary general, actually not much more than the head of paper-pushing if you look at it), this is where the power is at. Permanent members, temporary members, veto-power for permanent members () and all the rest of it.

The author of that federations-charta in the star trek technical manual together sure didn't put a lot of effort into it. The UN-Charta, a post-world-war-II compromise with a whole host of problems in it, really doesn't make much sense as blue print for an advanced interplanetary "federation". If this federations-charta is to be believed, the federation is merely an international/interplanetary organisation with a very limited radius of action - if it wasn't for star fleet - of very loosely connected planets. Which is not the impression that I get from the federation from the series and movies.

In series and movies anyway there are a lot of mentions of constitutional things, that are nowhere to be found in that charta. Fundamental rights, articles that don't exist or have a completely different content and so on and so on.

I think on all things constitutional in Star Trek, we have a lot of potential for improvement on our hands.^^

[Solluk]

"(I was under the impression, the federation got rid of the concept of money. So there would be no point in having budget power."

As wonderful as Trek is, resources are not unlimited.  They have a very large but not unlimited supply of personnel and material resources.

The Federation could not, for instance, decide that next Tuesday they would like to have two million more starships and one billion more personnel to man those starships.

The 10 Trillion citizens of the Federation could not, upon waking up on Friday morning, decide that they each wanted to have a sailing yacht on a private beach.

Where there are limited resources, there will be a need to budget those resources, and there will need to be a unit of budgetary accommodation.   I think the Federation uses the credit.   Their propaganda about not having money is very much that.  Money may not be the motivating factor in the average citizen's life.  Money may not be a physical item.  But Money must exist in some form to represent the limited resources of the Federation, and it must be budgeted in some way.