Suppose we add the further sf premise of telepathy? In one of James Blish's branching futures (see The Haertel History), the galactic center is united into a telepathic Central Empire which is naturally hostile to non-telepathic races out in the spiral arms - which, in turn, are mutually hostile.
In Julian May's Galactic Milieu:
"The exotic legislators in the Orb World, acting within the mystery they called Coadunate Unity, had weighed the merits of every adult human operant. By means of unfathomable criteria, they had selected only one hundred - out of hundreds of thousands - to be inaugurated as the first human Magnates of the Concilium."
-Julian May, Jack The Bodiless (London, 1992), 8, p. 105.
The political institutions of the Human Polity are a curious blend of democratic and "operant" (telepathic) and May was wise to conceal the transition from pre-Intervention institutions between volumes.
The Terran Empire includes some telepathic races with limited abilities and has one powerful telepathic opponent. Dominic Flandry, defending the Empire, is concerned not about democracy but about legitimacy - which is lost in his lifetime. Flandry winds up serving a usurper.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, assuming a FTL drive, more political arrangements than the Imperial are possible. My view is that if STL is what becomes the norm, then political systems, as a practical matter, won't be larger than a solar system.
I am not at all sure I would LIKE the Galactic Milieu's political arrangements. And I find the absorption of Earth into the Milieu somewhat too SMOOTH to be plausible. MANY real human beings and nations would be far more resistant and hostile to that kind of annexation.
I believe legitimacy to be more important than democracy. The latter is merely what might happen if certain fortunate factors converge. And can only work when the regime in which it emerged is also considered legitimate. And democracies also need to have checks and restraints on its use of power!
Sean
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