![i am the senate star wars i am the senate star wars](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NwNwyeVZ0cc/maxresdefault.jpg)
The films make abundantly clear that the totalitarian, militaristic, and genocidal Empire must be overthrown. In a sense, the Senate’s weakness is also Star Wars’s weakness. * It's no surprise that when the Sith engineer a civil war in Episode II and III, thousands of star systems also secede from the Republic and join the “Confederacy of Independent States.” (George Lucas isn’t subtle.) Characters from wealthier worlds are surprised to discover slavery still exists on backwater Tatooine in Episode I, for example, despite its apparent legal prohibition. Nobody seems able to break a corporation’s trade blockade of a defenseless planet in Episode I until a native insurgency defeats its private army.Įlsewhere, the lack of regional governance means that rule of law seems completely abandoned. Local autonomy is so minimal that Queen Amidala, played by Natalie Portman, readily abandons her throne to serve in a legislative body thousands of lightyears away. Despite spanning almost an entire galaxy, the Republic is a unitary state without any apparent regional governance structures. The other crucial flaw in the Republic’s overcentralization is the absence of federalism. Jackson launches in Episode III, he arrests the Supreme Chancellor “in the name of the Senate.” Palpatine’s reply is obvious and accurate: “I am the Senate.” The films even acknowledge this problem: When Samuel L. The Jedi Council even acquiesces when Palpatine installs his personal representative, Anakin Skywalker, among its members. But they broadly defer to the Senate and the Grand Chancellor throughout the films, even in peacetime.
![i am the senate star wars i am the senate star wars](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/87/4f/0b/874f0b8ee47a17c69f523607374579a7.jpg)
In fact, the Jedi Order is the only clearly autonomous institution in the Republic’s governance structure. The prequel films make passing references to courts, but the judiciary apparently lacked either the ability or the will to curb Palpatine's rise. Taking office amid galactic crisis, Palpatine persuades the Senate to transfer more powers from itself to him until they are powerless to take them back. The unicameral Galactic Senate elects the Supreme Chancellor from among its ranks, who apparently wields some degree of executive power. Separation of powers is all but nonexistent in the prequel trilogy, and Palpatine, a politician and secret Sith Lord played by Ian McDiarmid, exploits this centralization to become a totalitarian dictator. The Republic’s greatest weakness is the Senate itself. But focusing on internal practices within the Senate to thwart a dictatorship seems misguided. Masket pins the blame for Palpatine’s rise on the members of the Galactic Senate and argues that, had opposition forces been more vigorous from the start, the totalitarian Empire would not have emerged. We don’t have a copy of the Galactic Constitution, but we can infer some government practices from the films. As Masket notes, Star Wars roots itself in deeply political issues-war, dictatorship, rebellion, genocide-without really addressing them in detail or depth.