Earth Politics

[Crewman47]

I know this has probably been asked before but in 23rd/24th century Earth is there an Earth President or Leader and where would he reside or does the Federation President double in this role, are there leaders and Senators/MP's for each Nation of Earth and lastly would there still be Royal families for the Nations that still have them just now and for the relavant one's would they still be in charge of there respective Nation?

I would assume that even in a United World government there'd still be some sort of leadership in the different countries like what we have just with a President/PM in charge of the whole country but having Senators/Governors/MP's in charge of there respective area of the country?

Any ideas?

 

[Timo]

We have heard only a limited number of titles pertaining to the UFP government, almost none of these on the local level. We know there is a UFP President, but we have never heard the title of the person who rules Earth, if such a person even exists. We also know that Ambassadors do some internal as well as external debating in the UFP, but we have never learned whether they really are the equivalent of Senators or MPs in the UFP government.

Various novels postulate various theories, and the most recent ones all rally under the flag of Keith DeCandido's Articles of the Federation, a West Winguesque novel that goes into the details of the UFP overall and also local government. But that's all speculation; onscreen material doesn't give enough data to establish these things.

We got a brief glimpse to Earth affairs in DS9 "Homefront"/"Paradise Lost", and saw the UFP President take charge of Earth's crisis, e.g. by declaring martial law. We never saw an Earth President or comparable official in action, but that doesn't prove that such an official didn't exist. After all, a State Governor need not be the center of attention when the US President declares the Governor's State a disaster area or sends in the troops...

For speculation, I recommend the DeCandido novel - and/or coming up with a structure of your own making.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[TheGodBen]

In ENT Terra Prime, there was a character called Minister Nathan Samuels. If he was a representative of the United Earth government then it seems that UE is led by a Prime Minister rather than a President. It is of course impossible to say if the UE government remained the same after joining the Federation.

 

[Timo]

Of course, there are types of government today that have a set of Ministers including a Prime Minister, and still have a President as the head of state. The division of power between Prime Minister, President and even a possible additional royal figurehead might be complex, but then again, nobody expects politics to be straightforward...

"Gambit" had a reference to a Vulcan Minister of Security in the TNG era, suggesting that a local government featuring that type of official is in existence on that planet - but this doesn't mean that all the member planets would have the same setup.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Sci]

United Earth was first established (chronologically) to exist as Earth's unifying world government in "Home" (in which we saw the UE seal for the first time) and again in "The Forge," where its name was clearly established on the sign of the United Earth Embassy. "Demons" established that very high-ranking members of the United Earth government receive the title of "Minister," implying a parliamentary government but not explicitly establishing it.

The novels have established more. In the ENT novels The Good That Men Do and Kobayashi Maru by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels, Nathan Samuels is established to be the Prime Minister of United Earth, and the UE PM is established to be the head of government. The UE PM is confirmed to exist as late as 2375, when the Prime Minister of United Earth joins the President of the United Federation of Planets and President of the United States of America in touring the devastated San Francisco after the Breen attack in the short story "Eleven Hours Out" in the anthology Tales of the Dominion War." The Corps of Engineers novel The Future Begins establishes that United Earth was also led by a President by the name of Lydia Littlejohn who was remembered for her inspiration of the populace during the Earth-Romulan War. The Parliament of United Earth is established as existing in A Less Perfect Union, a Myriad Universes novel whose turning point comes in ENT Season Four. Kobayashi Maru establishes the existence of something called the United Earth Council.

If we take the novels into account, all this implies that United Earth is a parliamentary republic, with a President of United Earth who serves as a mostly-ceremonial head of state, a Prime Minister who has real power and serves as head of government, and a Parliament that serves as the legislature. Exactly what the United Earth Council is isn't established in Kobayashi Maru, but I would theorize it to either be the official name of the cabinet, the name of the upper house of the Parliament, or another name for the United Earth Parliament.

The Good That Men Do refers to United Earth as being a federated government, implying that it practices federalism -- the division of authority between the central government and regional governments. As such, I'm sure that each member nation of United Earth gets to pick its own government and has its own areas of authority, provided that they're all liberal democracies. (I can't imagine that dictatorships are okay on UE.) We know from ENT Season One that Malcom Reed's dad expected him to join the Royal Navy like the rest of his family, which implies that the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom still exists. I would take this to mean that United Earth utilizes the armed forces of its member nations for some Earth-bound functions, and that the Royal Family of the United Kingdom still exists and still ceremonially reigns.

As for Vulcan, "These Are the Voyages..." established that after the dissolution of the High Command and the overthrow of Administrator V'Las, the Vulcan legislature was called the Vulcan Council. "Home" established that Vulcan was headed by a First Minister before the P'Jem incident in "The Andorian Incident," and that after this the First Minister was forced to resign and V'Las assumed power -- a military coup. Kobayashi Maru established that the new civilian head of government after V'Las was overthrown was once again titled First Minister, and that the Vulcan state was now known as the Confederacy of Vulcan. The Good That Men Do and Kobayashi Maru establish the First Minister of the Confederacy of Vulcan to be T'Pau -- which makes sense, since it was T'Pau that T'Pol appealed to for more Vulcan ships in "United."

Other novels have established that Federation Member States get to send one Federation Councillor to represent them on the Federation Council, and Articles of the Federation establishes United Earth's Federation Councillor to be a man named Matthew Mazibuko from Africa, whilst the Confederacy of Vulcan's is a woman name T'Latrek. There is no evidence from any source that the Federation directly governs Earth -- indeed, if it did, it would hardly be a federation (meaning a state that divides authority between the central and regional governments), now would it?

 

[USS Triumphant]

Wow. Great post, Sci.

I was familiar with a lot of that when I read your post, but before reading your post, the only things that came to mind were that stupid stuff with the Doctor pretending to be the President of Earth on Voyager (which I'm not sure reflected anything other than a character in Paris's holodeck scenarios), and the part in Spock's World where it talks mentions that Sarek met with the POTUS, and she joked about having the Constitution amended to let him be her running mate when she ran for re-election.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

And I'd just like to point out that there *were* supposed to be references to Earth's local government in Homefront/Paradise Lost, but it got cut for time.

 

[Sci]

And I'd just like to point out that there *were* supposed to be references to Earth's local government in Homefront/Paradise Lost, but it got cut for time.

Well, not exactly. Moore's comments imply that those references weren't even filmed.

From his comments posted on AOL back in the day:

Subj: Answers
Date: 4/7/97 1:49:04 PM
From: RonDMoore

<<IN "Homefront" the President said he never sought this position. DOes this
mean the Federation president is Appointed? Why no election? And why does
the Federation President put Earth into a state of Emergency? Does earth not
have it's own Government like all the other members of the Federation?>>

We assume the Fed President was duly elected, but that he reluctantly was
induced to run for the position. As for the Earth Govt vs. Fed Govt issue,
this was something we wrestled with in the story break. We wanted to tell
the story of an attempted military coup of the Federation and that meant
dealing with the Fed president. However, that meant the troops "in the
streets" had to be on Earth and that Earth itself had to be under martial law
since the Fed is headquartered on Earth. We discussed having the Prez
"federalize" the Earth defense forces or supercede the authority of an
indigenous Earth Govt, but the story kept getting too complicated and we
didn't want to start mentioning all these other players and organizations
that we weren't going to see. So in the end, we skirted the issue of who
actually governs Earth. Personally, I think there is an Earth Govt that
operates like more powerful versions of States do in the US system, but this
is all VERY murky water. Gene was pretty smart back in the 60s when he
decided not to discuss the exact outcome of Earth's political/social/economic
future and we've come about as close to doing just that as I think we should.

It's not so much a matter of something being cut for time as something never having been formally incorporated into the script in the first place because of needless complexity.

 

[dreadpiraterose]

We have heard only a limited number of titles pertaining to the UFP government, almost none of these on the local level. We know there is a UFP President, but we have never heard the title of the person who rules Earth, if such a person even exists. We also know that Ambassadors do some internal as well as external debating in the UFP, but we have never learned whether they really are the equivalent of Senators or MPs in the UFP government.

Various novels postulate various theories, and the most recent ones all rally under the flag of Keith DeCandido's Articles of the Federation, a West Winguesque novel that goes into the details of the UFP overall and also local government. But that's all speculation; onscreen material doesn't give enough data to establish these things.

We got a brief glimpse to Earth affairs in DS9 "Homefront"/"Paradise Lost", and saw the UFP President take charge of Earth's crisis, e.g. by declaring martial law. We never saw an Earth President or comparable official in action, but that doesn't prove that such an official didn't exist. After all, a State Governor need not be the center of attention when the US President declares the Governor's State a disaster area or sends in the troops...

For speculation, I recommend the DeCandido novel - and/or coming up with a structure of your own making.

Timo Saloniemi

Keith is a fantastic author and a really cool guy. I same him on a panel at a convention discussing what is canon and what is not. He always has an interesting perspective on Trek and its universe.

 

[USS Triumphant]

Keith is a fantastic author and a really cool guy. I same him on a panel at a convention discussing what is canon and what is not.

My god! Does he ever talk about anything else?!

(That's for his benefit if he reads this. )

 

[Crewman47]

United Earth was first established (chronologically) to exist as Earth's unifying world government in "Home" (in which we saw the UE seal for the first time) and again in "The Forge," where its name was clearly established on the sign of the United Earth Embassy. "Demons" established that very high-ranking members of the United Earth government receive the title of "Minister," implying a parliamentary government but not explicitly establishing it.

The novels have established more. In the ENT novels The Good That Men Do and Kobayashi Maru by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels, Nathan Samuels is established to be the Prime Minister of United Earth, and the UE PM is established to be the head of government. The UE PM is confirmed to exist as late as 2375, when the Prime Minister of United Earth joins the President of the United Federation of Planets and President of the United States of America in touring the devastated San Francisco after the Breen attack in the short story "Eleven Hours Out" in the anthology Tales of the Dominion War." The Corps of Engineers novel The Future Begins establishes that United Earth was also led by a President by the name of Lydia Littlejohn who was remembered for her inspiration of the populace during the Earth-Romulan War. The Parliament of United Earth is established as existing in A Less Perfect Union, a Myriad Universes novel whose turning point comes in ENT Season Four. Kobayashi Maru establishes the existence of something called the United Earth Council.

If we take the novels into account, all this implies that United Earth is a parliamentary republic, with a President of United Earth who serves as a mostly-ceremonial head of state, a Prime Minister who has real power and serves as head of government, and a Parliament that serves as the legislature. Exactly what the United Earth Council is isn't established in Kobayashi Maru, but I would theorize it to either be the official name of the cabinet, the name of the upper house of the Parliament, or another name for the United Earth Parliament.

The Good That Men Do refers to United Earth as being a federated government, implying that it practices federalism -- the division of authority between the central government and regional governments. As such, I'm sure that each member nation of United Earth gets to pick its own government and has its own areas of authority, provided that they're all liberal democracies. (I can't imagine that dictatorships are okay on UE.) We know from ENT Season One that Malcom Reed's dad expected him to join the Royal Navy like the rest of his family, which implies that the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom still exists. I would take this to mean that United Earth utilizes the armed forces of its member nations for some Earth-bound functions, and that the Royal Family of the United Kingdom still exists and still ceremonially reigns.

As for Vulcan, "These Are the Voyages..." established that after the dissolution of the High Command and the overthrow of Administrator V'Las, the Vulcan legislature was called the Vulcan Council. "Home" established that Vulcan was headed by a First Minister before the P'Jem incident in "The Andorian Incident," and that after this the First Minister was forced to resign and V'Las assumed power -- a military coup. Kobayashi Maru established that the new civilian head of government after V'Las was overthrown was once again titled First Minister, and that the Vulcan state was now known as the Confederacy of Vulcan. The Good That Men Do and Kobayashi Maru establish the First Minister of the Confederacy of Vulcan to be T'Pau -- which makes sense, since it was T'Pau that T'Pol appealed to for more Vulcan ships in "United."

Other novels have established that Federation Member States get to send one Federation Councillor to represent them on the Federation Council, and Articles of the Federation establishes United Earth's Federation Councillor to be a man named Matthew Mazibuko from Africa, whilst the Confederacy of Vulcan's is a woman name T'Latrek. There is no evidence from any source that the Federation directly governs Earth -- indeed, if it did, it would hardly be a federation (meaning a state that divides authority between the central and regional governments), now would it?

You obviously know your Trek novels cause that is more information than I expected to get. I never realised that novel writers had gone into so much detail. I wish we could've had this much detail about Earth in an episode or two, especially the above mentioned Homefront.

 

[Sci]

You obviously know your Trek novels cause that is more information than I expected to get. I never realised that novel writers had gone into so much detail. I wish we could've had this much detail about Earth in an episode or two, especially the above mentioned Homefront.

Thank you very much (and, now that I think about it, thank you to USS Triumphant above).

If you're interested, novels that go in-depth in Federation politics are A Time to Kill and A Time to Heal by David Mack and A Time for War, A Time for Peace and Articles of the Federation by Keith R.A. DeCandido. In particular, War/Peace features a Federation presidential election, and Articles follows the first year in office for the winner of that election.

If you're interested in the politics of Federation Member States, the novel Andor: Paradigm by Heather Jarman, in the volume Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Volume I, goes into some detail about Andorian politics, establishing the name of their legislature, the Parliament Andoria, and the name of the major Andorian political parties of the mid-2370s during a political crisis. The novel Trill: Unjoined by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels (from Worlds of DS9, Vol. II) delves into Trill politics, establishing the Trill Senate and President. And the Mission: Gamma novels, as well as Bajor: Fragments and Omens (also from Worlds Vol. II) go into detail on Bajoran politics. Fragments and Omens in particular goes into what life and politics are like on Bajor upon its admission into the Federation.

And, of course, there's always Memory Beta, the wiki for Trek novels.

 

[USS Triumphant]

In response to Ron Moore's post from almost 12 years ago , "never sought" could also mean that he ended up POTF because something (death, impeachment, etc) caused the previous officeholder to leave it, and he was next in line. Shades of Gerald Ford, maybe.

 

[Sci]

In response to Ron Moore's post from almost 12 years ago , "never sought" could also mean that he ended up POTF because something (death, impeachment, etc) caused the previous officeholder to leave it, and he was next in line. Shades of Gerald Ford, maybe.

It's possible, but Jaresh-Inyo is referred to as having been "legitimately elected" in "Paradise Lost." And in "Homefront," his exact words are, "I never sought this job. I was content to simply represent my people on the Federation Council. When they asked me to submit my name for election, I almost said no. Today I wish I had."

So he was probably elected. A Time to Kill established that Jaresh-Inyo was elected in 2368 (TNG's fifth season) and assumed office at the beginning of 2369 (TNG's sixth), and that he was actually running for re-election in 2372 at the time of "Homefront"/"Paradise Lost." Because of Leyton's being able to trick him into declaring martial law and the near-coup, he was defeated by Federation Councillor Min Zife of Bolarus, who took office at the beginning of 2373 (DS9's fifth season and the year Star Trek: First Contact took place) and led the Federation through the Dominion War.

 

[Timo]

One would think an advanced society would realize the problems posed by election years, and would make sure to have the terms of office last just one year, not four or six or eleven. The guy, gal or BEM sitting there would have to make and keep promises every year, then!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Sci]

One would think an advanced society would realize the problems posed by election years, and would make sure to have the terms of office last just one year, not four or six or eleven. The guy, gal or BEM sitting there would have to make and keep promises every year, then!

Timo Saloniemi

Maybe they think that the benefits of a President being able to act to make unpopular but wise decisions outweigh the potential benefits of constant elections. And they likely believe that having a permanent campaign will be detrimental to the president's ability to govern (as it certainly has been in real life).

 

[Timo]

...But we haven't seen truly constant campaigning yet. It's something that would have to evolve as a response to this "realtime oversight", as would a thick political skin that shrugs off the populist critique. After a decade or two, the voters would learn that kicking the current guy out of the office wouldn't necessarily turn matters to the better on the specific issue where they sought populist pandering.

This just as a futuristic experiment, of course, and not as a desired outgrowth of current systems. It would be interesting to see how it plays out.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

There is no evidence from any source that the Federation directly governs Earth -- indeed, if it did, it would hardly be a federation (meaning a state that divides authority between the central and regional governments), now would it?

Or...to play devil's advocate here, couldn't the situation with Earth compared to other worlds be more along the lines of how the District of Columbia relates to the rest of the US, or Mexico City to Mexico?

 

[Sci]

There is no evidence from any source that the Federation directly governs Earth -- indeed, if it did, it would hardly be a federation (meaning a state that divides authority between the central and regional governments), now would it?

Or...to play devil's advocate here, couldn't the situation with Earth compared to other worlds be more along the lines of how the District of Columbia relates to the rest of the US, or Mexico City to Mexico?

It could, sure. If the Federation wants to imitate one of the most disgusting aspects of American political culture that denies equality under the law and equal representation in the national legislature to over half a million American citizens in the heart of its democracy.

But I'd certainly hope they wouldn't do something so blatantly inconsistent with the principles of liberal democracy.

 

[Pyrobaculum]

It could, sure. If the Federation wants to imitate one of the most disgusting aspects of American political culture that denies equality under the law and equal representation in the national legislature to over half a million American citizens in the heart of its democracy.

But I'd certainly hope they wouldn't do something so blatantly inconsistent with the principles of liberal democracy.

The Federation is a militaristic regime controlled by the Starfleet Junta, more similar to the Klingons than they will like to admit. I might be off-tangent here but I treat the entire Star Trek franchise as "Federation Propaganda". I actually agree with what the Klingons in Kirk's time implied: that the Federation is actually a puppet of Starfleet. On the surface, Starfleet appears to be an exploration-oriented organization but dig deeper and this illusion fades.

Starfleet vessels are over-armed for explorers. Those huge Galaxy class ships could easily carry troops instead of civillians. Despite the claim that it is a Federation, Earth is the centre of all UFP, more akin to an imperial capital than a loose federation. Starfleet starship Captains regularly flout the Prime Directive, supposedly the most important legislation in the UFP and were not disciplined. Starfleet brass dominates and outnumber UFP civillian reps at most UFP meetings and gatherings that we have seen and have on several occasions attempted overt/covert putsches. Even the President of the UFP appears to regularly 'consult' Starfleet officers and we have not been shown that he ever disagrees with them. Starfleet have secret projects and sub-organizations that regularly violate UFP laws and treaties. Civillian scientists have even voiced concern that their research could be turned into WMDs. When Kirk was alleged to commit murder, he 'violated Starfleet regulations' and not the UFP's and he got off lightly. After the Praxis incident, Starfleet sent Kirk to 'escort' the Klingon Chancellor, the most offensive thing that they could have done instead of a proper civillian ambassador to (in their own words) intimidate the Klingons more. From what we have seen of the cities in the future Earth, Starfleet personnel are all-pervasive and could be seen everywhere in their uniforms. Most of the education system appears to be centred in Starfleet Academies, even for the 'civillian' fields such as the sciences. I could go on and on here but the point is that the UFP is a sham and is no better than the Klingons and the Romulans, but with good PR and spin-doctors.

(If you read all that and got hot under the collar, relax. I'm just writing this as if I am 'in-universe' and not from UFP)