What political systems do the various civilzations have in the Star trek universe:
The Federation and Bajor are both democracies, with the Federation being a social democracy.
Yep, pretty much.
And for anyone who claims there's no evidence the Federation is a democracy -- Kirk explicitly calls it one in "Errand of Mercy," and the Federation President is explicitly established to be elected in "Paradise Lost."
The Cardassians are a military dictatorship.
Well.... sort-of.
The DS9 episode "Defiant" established that in the Cardassian Union, power was distributed between the Central Command (military), the Obsidian Order (secret police), and the civilian Detapa Council (civilian legislators). However, "Defiant" also established that the Detapa Council was only supposed to have power over the Central Command and Obsidian Order
in theory; in reality, it had very little power, and the Central Command and the Order had nearly complete autonomy. The Central Command seems to have controlled foreign policy, and the Obsidian Order seems to have had control of the general populace. There was supposed to be a lot of conflict between the CC and OO, with the CC generally being more powerful.
Then, of course, the Cardassian Union went through four major constitutional changes. First the Obsidian Order was all but obliterated by the Dominion in "The Die is Cast;" then the Central Command was essentially overthrown by the Cardassian dissident movement, which seized control of the Detapa Council, in "The Way of the Warrior." Then the Detapa Council was overthrown and replaced by a Dominion-backed military dictatorship controlled by Gul Dukat, but which eventually relinquished real power to the Dominion by the war's end. And then, of course,
that government was overthrown with the withdrawal of the Dominion.
In the novels, the new Cardassian government is a Federation-style democracy, led by a head of government called the Castellan.
The Borg are a warped version of a communist dictatorship.
No. Complete and utter nonsense.
The Borg neither resemble a Soviet-style dictatorship, nor Marx's Communist idea. The Borg Collective, at the end of the day, is nothing more than a mind controlling computer virus gone wild. The Borg do not operate truly collectively, because it does not allow individual drones to have individual, unique thoughts or wills that differ from those of the rest. Rather, every drone seems to be the victim of some form of mind control, and
then that mind-controlled "voice" is added to the Collective, which is either embodied or controlled by the Queen.
That does not resemble a Soviet-style dictatorship, in which a single political party controls the apparatus of the state, reserving privileges for itself and repressing political dissent through a secret police force with which the party competes for power and through party affiliates that monitor every other civic organization in society, and with the party itself full of competing factions. Nor does it resemble Marx's ideal, in which the means of production is owned communally and the state has been abolished, and everyone has maximal liberty because there is no economic inequality.
The Dominion is a theocracy and a warped version of Plato's ideal society.
Not a bad comparison. The Dominion is a bit looser than most dictatorships, though -- it's a theocracy insofar as the Vorta and Jem'Hadar are concerned, but it appears that it doesn't directly intervene in the governance of its conquered states in most circumstances, instead demanding tribute and resources but leaving most internal affairs alone -- ruling from orbit, so to speak. And of course, their tactics differed with Cardassia, which was nominally co-equal at first, but which eventually turned into a plain ol' de facto Dominion military dictatorship. So the exact nature of Dominion control seems to differ from world to world.
There are a few that aren't very clear, the Romulans are supposed to be either the Roman Republic or the Roman Empire, but that comparison falls flat because the Romans were not xenophobia and granted citizenship to conquered lands as well as recruiting soldiers from these occupied lands. The Romulans never seem to use soldiers from conquered lands. Plus its not clear who wields the real power, the Senate or the Praetor.
I think the best comparison for the Romulans might be to, say, Elizabethan-era or pre-Interregnum England. There's the Senate, which may or may not be elected. There's the Praetor, who has to be confirmed into his office by the Senate's Continuing Committee, and who is the head of government but whose power is balanced against the Senate. "The Q and the Grey" established the existence of a Romulan Empress, and the novels have run with this, establishing the existence of a Romulan monarchy that is usually a ceremonial figurehead but which sometimes competes with the Praetor and Senate for power, in the same way that the King of England would often compete with Parliament for power. The novels have also established that the Senate is controlled by the Hundred, the 100 most powerful families in the Romulan aristocracy, which get to appoint one of their own as Senator; that a great deal of power lies in the aristocracy. And, of course, the canon established that the Tal Shiar is the Romulan Star Empire's secret police/intelligence force.
The Ferengi political system is also unclear. It doesn't seem like the Negus is elected, but Ferengi Alliance seems like a society that would stress rabid individualism, so it doesn't seem like a dictatorship. If I had to guess, it seems like a chauvinistic, libertarian meritocracy, where for males achieve power and status through their merits, with females being non persons.
Well, remember, that's all changed under Grand Nagi Zek and Rom. They've established the Congress of Economic Advisers, and given women equal rights, as well as the establishment of social programs to protect the environment.
The Ferengi Commerce Authority seems to have maintained its old status as the primary regulatory body of Ferengi industry, and, in true capitalist faction, is actually a highly corrupt body prone to manipulating businesses in order to enrich itself.
The novels have established that the Congress gets to select new Grand Nagi, and that the Grand Nagus presides over its sessions. The Nagus can propose a bill, with the Congress then holding an initial vote. After the first vote, they have a bribery session, where Advisers who feel strongly about a bill can offer to bribe other Advisers to vote a certain way.
It's also amusing to note how many races pay lip service to an "empire" of some kind, and how few true empires there actually are. The Cardassians and Ferengi both referred to their respective empires in their early appearances. The names "Cardassian Union" and "Ferengi Alliance" appeared later.
With the Ferengi Alliance, that seems to have been a straight-out retcon, as the writers changed their concept of the Ferengi from imperialist baddies to capitalist parodies.
With the Cardassians, I would suggest that "Cardassian empire" is an informal term for the Cardassian Union's system of control over its vassal worlds, with the state's real name remaining "Cardassian Union." To make a comparison, the term "British Empire" was never a formal term for the British state. The British state remained the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland -- later, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland -- and its various colonies had differing levels of theoretical sovereignty and self-governance. The Dominion of Canada and Commonwealth of Australia, for instance, were, pre-Statute of Westminster 1931, not nominally sovereign states; India, by control, was nominally a sovereign state even though it was clearly under British control, and issued passports under the name "Indian Empire" (as the sitting British monarch was considered to simultaneously have inherited the title "Emperor/Empress of India" from native monarchs).
Then there's the Klingon Empire, whose emperor is only a figurehead when they bother having one at all, and the Romulan Star Empire, whose emperor has never even been mentioned onscreen.
"The Q and the Grey" established the existence of a Romulan Empress.
Also, having a formal imperial monarch does not make one's state an empire, and lacking one doesn't mean that one's state isn't an empire. Japan has a ceremonial Emperor, but it clearly isn't an empire. The Soviet Union never had a formal monarchy, but it was clearly an empire, given its conquest and control of numerous independent-on-paper-only states in the Warsaw Pact.
There is no such thing as a communist dictatorship. Communism is a society without a state or classes, where the workers own the means of production; the ultimate democracy.
Still sounds like the Borg to me. In the Communist Manifesto Marx argued that the ideal communist system would be run by the dictatorship of the proletariat--ie the workers have all the power,
False. Marx's notion was that the dictatorship of the proletariat would be a
transitional phase to true Communism, necessary, he believed, in order to ward off the efforts of the wealthy elite to try to restore their positions of power, dominance, and exploitation over the workers. The various nominally Communist states, such as the Soviet Union, typically claimed that they were still in the transitional "dictatorship of the proletariat" phase, necessarily continuing that phase because of the threat posed by foreign capitalist states.
The problem, of course, was that Marx did not acknowledge that absolute power concentrated into a small number hands, whether those hands be rich capitalists' or poor workers', will necessarily corrupt and be unwilling to relinquish. He presumed, for no particular reason, that workers would be less corruptible, less prone to authoritarianism and repression, than the wealthy.
Either way, the Borg in no way resemble Marxist Communism nor actual nominally Communist states.
But at any rate, the Borg "government" would be exactly like what Marx would want.
No, it wouldn't. The Borg Collective is in no way democratic, and engages in, in essence, mind control. It's a system of absolute control over the individual; Marx's ideal was that there wouldn't even
need to be a government, because once economic inequality was eliminated and there was no more class system, everyone would be equal and no one would try to gain power over others or violate one-another's rights.
Marx's greatest sin, in other words, is foolish utopianism, not totalitarianism.
Either way, there simply is no analogue in actual political systems for the Borg Collective. You can use the idea of the Collective to tell stories that function as analogies for issues of how to balance individual rights vs. collective obligations, but the Collective itself really has no equivalent system.
The Ferengi system is definitely not a libertarian one as theorized on the first page. Businesses appear to be heavily regulated in many respects -- the prohibition against doing business with Ferengi females; Liquidator Brunt's harassment of Quark -- and the Nagus appears to essentially have the authority to shut any Ferengi business down if he pleases.
Well, then thing about
laissez-faire capitalism is that it's like Marx's ideal of Communism: It can only ever exist on paper, not in reality. Just like any state that attempts to implement true Communism will eventually degenerate into an authoritarian dictatorship, any state that attempts to implement
laissez-faire capitalism will eventually degenerate into a system of cronyism, corruption, bribery, extreme economic inequality, high levels of poverty, and domination of the government and economy by the wealthy.
The Ferengi Alliance is not a "true" libertarian capitalist system, but that's true in the same sense that the Soviet Union was not a "true" Communist state. They may fall far short of the ideals, but, frankly, they're what any state that attempts those ideals would
actually turn into.
Politics don't apply to the Borg, remember what Q said?
Q also said his people don't reproduce. Q says a lot of things.
If the Borg themselves don't have a political system, then I'd say the Borg Queen does, particularly when she talks to our heroes (the one outside her system). She's individualistic and something of a megalomaniac, and she's in control of a devastatingly imperial power (Endgame contradicts First Contact in this sense, in that in the movie she said she didn't control the Borg, but Endgame showed her calling the shots).
Oh, I dunno. That may not be the best way to interpret her scenes in "Endgame." I mean, I argue with myself and issue commands to myself in my mind all the time. Maybe the Queen contradicting the Collective's voice was just an example of two parts of the Collective's mind arguing with itself, rather than representing an individual controlling the Collective.
