Federation political parties

[Sibo191]

Has there ever been any mention of Federation political parties, I can't think of any mention of it cannon or non-cannon. Has there been any detailed mention of federation politics aside from the Zife scandal mentioned in lit?

How do you think Federation politics work, internally not in regards to foreign powers.

 

[sbk1234]

To show that it really is fantasy, I think the Federation political structure probably works pretty well.


Seriously, McCoy made the remark about the beurocratic mentality being the only constant in the universe. That probably means they have their own share of nonsense related to politics.

Also, the president, as shown in DS9 did seem fairly non-productive.

 

[Gaith]

Probably.

And I'm hoping we see a UFP Prez in XII - my first choice being Candice Bergen.

 

[T'Girl]

If not political parties, then it same thing by a different name.

Be easy to see the formation of voting blocks of member world's representatives, standing with your trading partners, worlds near the outer frontiers pushing for bigger Starfleet budgets, collections of worlds in the same regional which have historical connects preceding their entry into the Federation.

Methane breathers caucusing together.

.

 

[barnaclelapse]

To show that it really is fantasy, I think the Federation political structure probably works pretty well.


Seriously, McCoy made the remark about the beurocratic mentality being the only constant in the universe. That probably means they have their own share of nonsense related to politics.

Also, the president, as shown in DS9 did seem fairly non-productive.

Basically it doesn't matter what century it is. There's always going to be someone with the mentality of an accountant in a position of power.

 

[sbk1234]

Agreed.

 

[Rush Limborg]

My $0.02:

Recall that the USA Founding Fathers didn't want parties, and Washington strongl discouraged them. Alas, the parties formed--for the simple reason that people tend to ally around certain sides of controversies.

My guess is the UFP does have political parties--but I'd expect that, rather than having fancy names such as "Democrat" or "Republican" or "Progressive" or "Whig", they'd be somewhat more descriptive, title-wise.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

AFAIK, in Articles of the Federation (the closest exploration of Federation politics we've ever had), there are no political parties.

 

[Dancing Doctor]

AFAIK, in Articles of the Federation (the closest exploration of Federation politics we've ever had), there are no political parties.

However, in Articles of the Federation, as well as A Time to Heal and A Time for War, A Time for Peace, we do see voting blocs and political alliances, like the one that Councillors Bera chim Gleer, Kellerasana zh'Faila, and Cort Enaren were part of when they attempted to get Zife to pull Starfleet and Federation resources out of Tezwa. Or during the Federation Council scenes, when Gleer looks to his allies to back him up on issues and such.

 

[T'Girl]

^
If you think about it, there has to be something in-between each member standing alone and the entire Federation standing as one. Certainly in terms of internal politics.

If you hold that the Federation is just one big happy family, with no differences of opinion, well then they won't need any form of (internal) government at all, would they?

 

[TerraUnam]

Many countries have fancy party names like Social Democrat or Free National Movement, the English world just tends to prefer pithiness.

"Factions" are inevitable whenever you have two sides to a debate. The most obvious model is the current European Parliament, where national left and right parties group together to form grand coalitions.

It would solve the problem of what to do with new members with different cultural norms and histories. Don't wipe out their structures, just assimilate them.

See the Federation really is like the Borg.

 

[Sci]

Political parties are inevitable, and constitute a vital part of the democratic process. Democracy simply cannot function without political parties (whether or not they call themselves such, be they factions or formal party systems), because it requires alliances in order for resources to be shared amongst people who have broad political agreements in order to make those people competitive against those who hold differing opinions.

In short: Political parties are good, and the idea of a non-partisan democracy is both absurd and chilling. The only countries that don't have political parties or factions are the ones that don't allow dissent.

 

[Rush Limborg]

I agree--to a point, Sci. After all, an honest to goodness "democracy" is a simple majority rule. (Unless you're referring, again, to "liberal democracy"--or, as I would put it, to avoid confusion, "representative republic"....)

^
If you think about it, there has to be something in-between each member standing alone and the entire Federation standing as one. Certainly in terms of internal politics.

If you hold that the Federation is just one big happy family, with no differences of opinion, well then they won't need any form of (internal) government at all, would they?

Well, there you have it. As James Madison said, "If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary."

 

[Dancing Doctor]

^
If you think about it, there has to be something in-between each member standing alone and the entire Federation standing as one. Certainly in terms of internal politics.

If you hold that the Federation is just one big happy family, with no differences of opinion, well then they won't need any form of (internal) government at all, would they?

Oh, I completely agree.

I was just pointing out the examples of political factions within the Federation.

Another example that comes to mind, and it sounds stolen from Star Wars is in Losing the Peace, where the Governor of Alpha Centauri complaining about how the "core world" fleets were told to leave if Earth falls, and how that was a betrayal of the various Member States.

 

[StarryEyed]

As I recall from The Making of Star Trek or one of the other non-fictional Trek books, It was decided to deliberately avoid showing too much detail of Earth politics because they wanted to emphasize that what ever path the Human race chose, it would be different from any present thinking.

 

[Sci]

I agree--to a point, Sci. After all, an honest to goodness "democracy" is a simple majority rule.

Yes, but democracy also requires competition between competing ideas, even if one idea is in the majority and the other in the minority. If there are no competitive elections between rival factions/parties, then there is no [i[real[/i] democracy. After all, you can't determine that the majority has ruled if there's been no official vote to determine who constitutes the majority!

^
If you think about it, there has to be something in-between each member standing alone and the entire Federation standing as one. Certainly in terms of internal politics.

If you hold that the Federation is just one big happy family, with no differences of opinion, well then they won't need any form of (internal) government at all, would they?

Well, there you have it. As James Madison said, "If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary."

Madison was putting poetry above reality. There is always a need for a government, simply because there is always a need for communities to make communal decisions, which requires an official decision-making mechanism for the community -- i.e., a government. Even if the only thing the government's doing is picking up the trash, running the schools, and allocating radio frequencies for broadband Internet because everyone's behaving, there's always going to be a need for government.

 

[Arpy]

...See the Federation really is like the Borg.

No, it is not, sir.



REQUEST: Someone create an emoticon of a Dr. Crusher smiley un-assimilating the Borg smiley.

 

[T'Girl]

By what ever name (let's just use parties), in the Federation council there are most likely more than the American major two. Or France's eight or nine majors. If the one hundred and fifty (plus) member worlds have a population of approximately one trillion and there is a unmentioned lower chamber/lower house of the Federation government, then the number of political parties could boarder on the incredible.

A lower Federation house could have members numbering in the tens of thousands, for the sake of organization they would be encouraged to join into alliances.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I'm sure there is a faction lead by Vulcan. JTB implies they hold considerable influence.

 

[Sci]

By what ever name (let's just use parties), in the Federation council there are most likely more than the American major two. Or France's eight or nine majors. If the one hundred and fifty (plus) member worlds have a population of approximately one trillion and there is a unmentioned lower chamber/lower house of the Federation government, then the number of political parties could boarder on the incredible.

I sincerely doubt that the Federation has a bicameral legislature; after forty-odd years, I think we would have heard of one by now.

For whatever it's worth, the novels establish that there is only the Federation Council, comprised of a single Federation Councillor from each Federation Member State, and that the Council has no political parties. However, the Councillors often form ad hoc coalitions on an issue-by-issue basis.

I think it's exceedingly unlikely that there would be that many factions or parties within the Federation; 9 or 10 sounds like it would be the most that could reasonably support themselves on the Council. More than that, and the entire political structure of the Federation government would probably be too fragmented to function.