Proper Division of Legislative Federal powers between Member Race/Species, Planet-States, & the varying Population sizes of each Planet.
Everybody gets proper representation when it comes to Legislature in a Constitutional Democratic Republic.
Do political parties exist in the world of STAR TREK?
- Thread starter dswynne1
- Start date
Everybody gets proper representation when it comes to Legislature in a Constitutional Democratic Republic.
I think TNG, DS9, LD, and PIC give us enough to work with that we could figure out how UFP Presidential Elections might've gone in the Late-24th Century, if they were every four years and if the original starting point for the Federation in 2161 was based off a Coalition vote in 2160.
I'm going to go with Hawkish and Doveish parties.
2360: Dove --> The border wars with the Cardassians aside, the Federation in the years immediately before TNG seems to be very doveish and views war as product of a bygone time. That fits the mood leading into "Encounter at Farpoint".
2364: Dove --> TNG Season 1. This is the Dove Era at its peak. Picard is Hardcore Dove. More on this later.
2368: Dove --> This era begins to see its first cracks. The Borg Invasion and the Battle of Wolf 359 had happened by this point, the Romulans were back in the mix, and Starfleet got briefly dragged into the Klingon Civil War. But the cracks don't amount to enough, so Jaresh Inyo -- a pacifist -- is elected Federation President.
2372: Hawk --> Now things have completely changed. Hostilities with the Klingons again. The threat of the Dominion. Paranoia about Changeling Infiltration. The Maquis stirring things up. Several thinking the Federation's peace treaty with the Cardassians was a tactical error. And Jaresh Inyo seems ill-equipped to deal with what's going on. So he's voted out.
2376: Hawk --> The hawks take credit for ending the Dominion War and forging the Federation Alliance lead by the Federation, Klingons, and Romulans.
2380: Dove --> Distanced from the Dominion War, sentiment grows that a Federation focused more on conflicts than exploring space is not who they are. There's nostalgia for the 2360s by this point as people are worn out from everything that happened in the 2370s. This fits the mood of Lower Decks.
2384: Dove --> The cracks are showing again, but the Federation is committed to aiding the Romulans in evacuating Romulus, despite great debate and division on the subject. Picard (said I'd get back to him) is determined to help save lives. "Romulan lives." "No, lives."
2388: Hawk --> The Mars Attack happened in 2385, giving the Hawks more leverage which led to the Federation withdrawing from aiding the Romulans. This leads to Picard leaving Starfleet. Then, in 2387, Romulus is destroyed and Spock is lost along with it. This looks bad for the Doves, allowing the Hawks to retake leadership.
2392: Hawk --> PIC makes it look like more happened in the 2380s than the 2390s. We've entered a status quo period where the Hawks are in charge. Androids are banned. Holograms are limited. Romulans are kept at arms' length. People outside of Federation Space are left to fend for themselves. That's how the Fenris Rangers came into being.
2396: Hawk --> Nothing's changed from 2392 except an intensification of the issues that were already there.
2400: Dove --> The Zhat Vash's involvement with the Attack on Mars is exposed. The Android Ban is lifted. These two things lead to the Hawks, who were in power, to lose it to the Doves again. The Doves don't have a mandate, though, because they just barely won. The Romulan Free State is still an adversary. The Fenris Rangers still have to fend for themselves.
I'm going to go with Hawkish and Doveish parties.
2360: Dove --> The border wars with the Cardassians aside, the Federation in the years immediately before TNG seems to be very doveish and views war as product of a bygone time. That fits the mood leading into "Encounter at Farpoint".
2364: Dove --> TNG Season 1. This is the Dove Era at its peak. Picard is Hardcore Dove. More on this later.
2368: Dove --> This era begins to see its first cracks. The Borg Invasion and the Battle of Wolf 359 had happened by this point, the Romulans were back in the mix, and Starfleet got briefly dragged into the Klingon Civil War. But the cracks don't amount to enough, so Jaresh Inyo -- a pacifist -- is elected Federation President.
2372: Hawk --> Now things have completely changed. Hostilities with the Klingons again. The threat of the Dominion. Paranoia about Changeling Infiltration. The Maquis stirring things up. Several thinking the Federation's peace treaty with the Cardassians was a tactical error. And Jaresh Inyo seems ill-equipped to deal with what's going on. So he's voted out.
2376: Hawk --> The hawks take credit for ending the Dominion War and forging the Federation Alliance lead by the Federation, Klingons, and Romulans.
2380: Dove --> Distanced from the Dominion War, sentiment grows that a Federation focused more on conflicts than exploring space is not who they are. There's nostalgia for the 2360s by this point as people are worn out from everything that happened in the 2370s. This fits the mood of Lower Decks.
2384: Dove --> The cracks are showing again, but the Federation is committed to aiding the Romulans in evacuating Romulus, despite great debate and division on the subject. Picard (said I'd get back to him) is determined to help save lives. "Romulan lives." "No, lives."
2388: Hawk --> The Mars Attack happened in 2385, giving the Hawks more leverage which led to the Federation withdrawing from aiding the Romulans. This leads to Picard leaving Starfleet. Then, in 2387, Romulus is destroyed and Spock is lost along with it. This looks bad for the Doves, allowing the Hawks to retake leadership.
2392: Hawk --> PIC makes it look like more happened in the 2380s than the 2390s. We've entered a status quo period where the Hawks are in charge. Androids are banned. Holograms are limited. Romulans are kept at arms' length. People outside of Federation Space are left to fend for themselves. That's how the Fenris Rangers came into being.
2396: Hawk --> Nothing's changed from 2392 except an intensification of the issues that were already there.
2400: Dove --> The Zhat Vash's involvement with the Attack on Mars is exposed. The Android Ban is lifted. These two things lead to the Hawks, who were in power, to lose it to the Doves again. The Doves don't have a mandate, though, because they just barely won. The Romulan Free State is still an adversary. The Fenris Rangers still have to fend for themselves.
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@Christopher wrote quite a bit how early political factions might have worked in the beginnings of the Federation.
Da fuq? You might as well outlaw democracy, because that is the very literal text book definition of a dictatorship.
There has always been factions separated by borders of some sort. Even Star Trek shows that, despite a united Earth, other species working alongside are as varied as those who are unaligned or other. Outer space being a border or sorts.
For United Earth, one could theorize that people sided with the leadership and putting individual beliefs to a side. what reasons would make that easy to do? Some would have to be pretty big, though thanks to weather control and other technologies, what might separate some groups from others become minimized in their universe.
For United Earth, one could theorize that people sided with the leadership and putting individual beliefs to a side. what reasons would make that easy to do? Some would have to be pretty big, though thanks to weather control and other technologies, what might separate some groups from others become minimized in their universe.
How so? How is that dictatorship to expect each representative to represent their district/region/zone/etc without the backing of ANY political parties?
To have EVERY single representative opperate independently without submitting their personal voting beliefs to a larger organization?
Freedom of association. You're trying to solve the problem of laziness through legislation.
I'm trying to solve the issue of collusion, tribalization, and unfair competition.
If every single person had to compete as a individual and not a branded organization, you'd have a more fair & representative democracy. You'd force everybody to think, to really delve into each individual that they vote for.
Political parties are necessary in order to get ordinary citizens interested in politics. Most people don't have the time or patience to bother with politicians giving empty promises about lowering taxes and enacting change, which most know is just a way to make their campaign look good and none of that will be accomplished once they get in office. However, a political party can offer an ideology which a citizen can identify with and will vote for accordingly.
And besides that, in terms of government, political parties are necessary for purposes of staffing the opposition. Having the opposition be comprised of the other party that did not win the election helps create a balanced government. With no parties, who forms the opposition? With no opposition, how do you truly have a balanced government? If you're not going to have a balanced government, you essentially have a dictatorship.
Don't kid yourself, that stuff would still go on even without political parties. Better to accept the bad while working for the good then try to heavy-handedly remove the bad resulting in a situation in which the good can't thrive.
It would not solve the problem. You cannot force a person to think.
And again, you're back down to tribalization.
The opposition is everybody else that isn't your candidate.
You balance the government by having the citizenry evaluate all the candidates and allocate their voting power to the candidates of their choice in any which way they feel like.
Every citizen can split up their total voting power of 100 points per citizen into any number of integer point allocations amongst any number of candidates they feel is suitable to represent them. As long as the total "≤ 100" it will be fine.
All Candidates go in with Voting power relative % per seat equal to how much each citizen in their region allocates to them.
Every seat gets 1.0 voting power with all the representatives per seat get proportional voting power that is ≤ 1.0 based on how much voting power they were assigned by their constituents that voted for them.
Ergo Proportional Representation per seat with unlimited candidate choices, no party affliations are allowed for anybody. Every candidate is on equal footing since they can't be affliated with any political organization.
Each candidate gets to sit at the seat and represent their constituents with the voting power that they were assigned by the people they represent.
We have computers and open spreadsheets to tally up final voting results easily, transparently, for all to see.
You balance the government by voting for those who represent you as a individual citizen in the best possible way.
It's not a dictatorship because you vote for new candidates each cycle and every single election cycle (All existing incumbent candidates are REQUIRED to take 1 year time off from running for any elected government office position at any level).
Ergo you have a fresh batch of people to represent you every single election cycle. There will bo no "Incumbent Effect" where a single representative gets to sit at their seat perenially like in US politics.
This also avoids the issue of candidates wasting their final year in office campaigning since it forces them to take 1 year time off and they can't campaign during their time in office.
All Candidates would be required to campaign on their personal free time for that year or longer should they choose to run for government office again.
Yes you can, by offering no "Branded Political Organization", everybody MUST think when they vote and allocate their voting points.
Instead of turning off their brains and mindlessly dumping their votes to their beloved political party like a Sports team.
They won't think.
In the UFP, you have plenty of time to think; you're not under normal stresses like you are in the modern 21st century on Earth.
You'll have plenty of time to participate in the election process, research your candidates, make informed voting decisions on who represents you best. Which person most closely aligns with your values.
Then you vote for those candidates based on what you personally think.
I'll take your word for it.
How many hours a week do you work? If you're retired or semi-retired, how many did you work?
So imagine a UFP society where every adult doesn't have to work more than 39 hrs per week because the government heavily regulates working hours.
According to this Australian University, a healthy work limit per week is 39 hrs.
Based on this study, I would want a government imposed regulation of 39 hrs per person, per week, per job.
Obviously, in the UFP, even the base level job is more than enough to sustain yourself as a individual. You'll only need 1 job. Any excess job is up to you.
But with flexible work hours based on which job you take and how you want to spread that load across each week, you can have a pretty nice schedule based on what you think your body can take and how you want to do it.
Imagine how flexible your work life balance would be if the company is required to offer a reasonable set of "Core Hours" and any other time you chooose to work is how you want to do things based on what your personal life schedule is.
If that means front loading certain days, then so be it.
If that means splitting it up evenly, so be it.
There is 168 hrs per week in the standard 7 day week on Earth.
168 - 39 = 129 hrs left.
8 hrs of sleep a day = 56 hrs.
129 hr - 56 hrs = 73 hrs left
What will you do with all that free time.
73 hrs of free time per week.
If you can live by sleeping less than 8 hrs per day, you get more free time.
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