Captain Shatner wrote:
We know, at any rate, that Soviet Russia must have survived into Kirk's day, even as a sub-state of the Federation. Chekov refers to Leningrad (modern-day St. Petersburg), which would indicate the the Soviet Regime had at least a nominal voice in the Russian government.
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Not really, as much as the current naming St.Petersburg would indicate that Russia is currently headed by a Czar (well, given Putin's propensity, not the best analogy, I know...). Maybe in the next 300 years the city is again renamed, not to honour the Soviet leader, but the Battle of Stalingrad against the forces of Nazism. We just don't know.
Captain Shatner wrote:
Obviously, the Federation as a whole is a democracy founded on American ideals, as demonstrated in the episode "The Omega Glory," Kirk can even recite parts of the Constitution!
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Again, not really. Due to widespread pop culture, I can quote parts of the US Constitution, and I'm not even American nor I live in a country founded on "American ideals".
Captain Shatner wrote:
Given the evidence, in comparison with later series, I would say the Terran Federation is not quite the ultra-pure democracy it is made out to be!
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It would be useful if you defined what you mean by "pure democracy".
T'Girl wrote:
Actual make a certain amount of sense. Right from the first pilot, we see alien cultures being able to access the Enterprise's computers, keeping some information (obviously not all) physically separate from the computer on individual drives ("tapes") would prevent them from being casually read if the computers aboard the Enterprise were to be hacked.
In TNG and VOY, look how often information is physically walk around the ship on handheld Padds, instead of being messaged electronically. |
Good point. The same was seen in the recent
Battlestar Galactica, with corded phones and no computer networks.
Jptrekker wrote:
I always assumed the UFP to be a confederation, not a democracy.
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The form of government and the set-up of the state are not the same thing. A state can be both a confederation (a confederated union of sovereign states) and a democracy.