Government
The Emperor's seat, and the heart of Imperial Administration, is the Imperial Palace, a massive construct that covers most of what used to be the continent of Asia; the "Inner Palace" is built on top, within, and under the Himalayan mountain range.
Though the Emperor is the nominal head of state, in practice the highest tier of command is the Council of the High Lords of Terra, based in the Inner Palace, that has ruled for over ten millennia in the Emperor's name. Under this top echelon is a multi-tiered hierarchy consisting of countless departments, agencies, and organisations, both military and civilian, charged with implementing the decisions of the High Lords, and with the day-to-day administration of the Imperium as a whole. However because of its vast territory and the great distances separating Imperial star systems, the Imperium is by necessity decentralised; the final, localised tier of Imperial Authority is usually the Office of Planetary Governor, whose responsibility is limited to a single world.
Outside and above the Imperial hierarchy is the Imperial Inquisition, the all-powerful and much feared secret police and main intelligence agency. The Inquisition may answer only to the Council of the High Lords; historically it has even had the power (and opportunity) to investigate and sanction individual members of the Council.
Read more about this topic: Imperium (Warhammer 40,000)
Famous quotes containing the word government:
“Good government cannot be found on the bargain-counter. We have seen samples of bargain-counter government in the past when low tax rates were secured by increasing the bonded debt for current expenses or refusing to keep our institutions up to the standard in repairs, extensions, equipment, and accommodations. I refuse, and the Republican Party refuses, to endorse that method of sham and shoddy economy.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“I have come to the conclusion that the closer people are to what may be called the front lines of government ... the easier it is to see the immediate underbrush, the individual tree trunks of the moment, and to forget the nobility the usefulness and the wide extent of the forest itself.... They forget that politics after all is only an instrument through which to achieve Government.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“We have got rid of the fetish of the divine right of kings, and that slavery is of divine origin and authority. But the divine right of property has taken its place. The tendency plainly is towards ... “a government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich.””
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)