Technics And Commons

The Enemy Stars, 1.

Any futuristic sf novel by Poul Anderson is going to have a carefully worked out sociological background that will differ from what the author and his readers are familiar with and that will be revealed gradually. 

Thus: 

there is a class distinction between technics and commons;

those of high rank do not work productively;

the viewpoint character, Terangi Maclaren, is in the company of a young woman who is "...of a carefully selected mutant Burmese strain..." (p. 9);

although she is under the guardianship of a drug-using General, this young woman scandalously flies about Earth without even an amazon for a chaperone;

she is used to the hectic life of the Citadel;

an Exploration Authority controls the orbits of the receding spaceships;

there is a head of state/head of government (?) called "'...the Protector...'" (p. 11)

That is all that we learn in Chapter 1 but there will probably be more although we also know that most of the action is off Earth.