Galactic Republic - Galactic Senate

Galactic Senate

The Republic began as a mutual protection and economic alliance among a number of planets in the Galactic Core. Each member world chose a Senator to represent them in the Republic Senate, a central Legislative body. Senators were ambassadors of their homeworld, and member worlds were able to maintain their government and society in accordance with local beliefs, customs, and traditions. There were a wide variety of different local governments along the political spectrum: from Monarchies to Republics to Hive-like communes. In some systems, the senator was elected to that post; in others the world government appointed the senator. Naboo's monarch appointed their senator, while the Alderaan Council of Elders elected their senator out of their own ranks, usually the heir to the Royal House of Organa and their bloodline, as the heir was also the leader of the council.

When the Republic's power and influence expanded, many new areas of the galaxy were incorporated into the Republic. A reorganization of Senatorial representation occurred 1,000 BBY during the Ruusan Reformation. The most common organization for these new territories was to group regions into Sectors of about 50 inhabited worlds. Each sector is represented by a Senatorial Delegation. When the number of sectors became too large, sectors were organized into roughly a thousand regions, each represented by one delegation to the Senate.

The Senate served as the governing body of the Galactic Republic, while the Jedi Order served as its defenders. The Senate, and therefore the seat of government, was established on the planet Coruscant, with coordinates 0-0-0 in the standard galactic coordinate system, signifying its central location in the galaxy.

The Senate, according to the Star Wars.com Encyclopedia, was an enormous building containing 1,024 floating platforms, each of which contained a senator and his or her aides. Each platform in the senate represented a "sector" of the galaxy, with one senator for that sector accompanied by a delegation of aides and advisers. Some platforms represented individual worlds bringing special pleas to the senate, others the special interest guilds such as the Trade Federation. Along with the senators, the leaders of the individual member planets apparently also had the power to vote in the Senate and introduce legislation. Each senatorial delegation had one vote.

The members of the Senate then elected a Chancellor from amongst their ranks who served as the Senate's presiding officer and as the Republic's de facto leader. The Chancellor was assisted by the Vice Chair, who is presumably elected in the same manner as the Chancellor; the same Vice Chair is present throughout the entire prequel trilogy. Based on the films, we can see that the Senate followed pseudo-parliamentary rules. In The Phantom Menace, Chancellor Finis Valorum was forced out of office by the Senate in a motion of no confidence, introduced by Queen Amidala of Naboo.

Senators received one vote in all matters, procedural and substantive. The Chancellor was elected from within the Senate for a set term. Presumably this term was up to two terms of four years, with the Senate able to give the Chancellor emergency powers as well as remove him from office when necessary, as given throughout various books and movies of the prequel trilogy. The assembly was in turn divided into individual committees, each specializing in specific fields of government administration, and which were responsible for creating legislation to be reviewed by the full assembly. The Senate had some form of judicial power as well, although the Republic's judicial branch was the Supreme Court and the Senate's power in this area may have been limited to trying its own members.

Although legislation passed by the Senate was binding to all member worlds, most of the everyday legislation followed by citizens of the Republic was created at the planetary, sectoral, or regional level. Therefore, the main functions of the Senate were to mediate disputes between members, provide for the common defense, and regulate inter-system trade. The Jedi, who answered to the Chancellor, became traveling representatives of the Senate responsible not only for protecting the Republic and its citizens, but also to serve as representatives of the Republic and as mediators for individual disputes.

The Republic's greatest failing was its lack of formal organization. Much of its operation is based on non-binding constitutional conventions, which were often ignored and undermined by corrupt and power-hungry politicians. Coalition governments were common with special interests defining the legislative agenda.

However, the waning years of the Republic were a time of corruption and great social injustice. The Senate became divided between those who genuinely wished to uphold the values and ideals of the Republic and those who wished to further their own goals. After a series of weak and ineffectual Chancellors and a crisis involving the invasion of Naboo by the Trade Federation over a tariff passed in the Senate, the time came for strong leadership to end the corruption.

After Palpatine became Chancellor, he increased the power of the office from acting as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic to the institution of his personal bodyguard, the Red Guard. The rights of many, including the Galactic Senate, were relinquished in the name of security. The removal of privacy screens in the Galactic Senate, which allow senators to discuss issues before the Senate in private, resulted in many senators afraid to voice their response to a vote because of the installed surveillance hovercams listening in on every word and reporting to the Senate Security Chief. The Galactic Senate also met less often as the Chancellor was voted more emergency powers.