Politics in Star Wars are just as messed up as in the real world.

Politics in Star Wars are just as messed up as in the real world.

At least in the real world we don't have Dark Lords of the Sith using the Force to manipulate things behind the scenes.

Politics in Star Wars are just as messed up as in the real world.

At least in the real world we don't have Dark Lords of the Sith using the Force to manipulate things behind the scenes.

I don't know... Tony Blair always had a certain pre-disfigurement Palpatine air about him. He's got the slightly mocking faux-sympathy down pat, as well.

I would put Ed Milliband in that box as well...

I would put Ed Milliband in that box as well...

I see him more as a Gungan.

EDIT: Though he certainly tries to cast Force Lightning, poor guy.

I would put Ed Milliband in that box as well...

I see him more as a Gungan.

That or a Neimodian

Actually, before I drop this tangent, there's only one politician that can truly be Palpatine for any Brit, let's be honest:

Now I can just imagine Vader saying "Thatcher is not as forgiving as I am" and meaning it.

Meanwhile if we're doing MPs, I can see Louise Mensch as some slightly perky Sith apprentice, given that female Dark Side users are inevitably dangerous, foxy and slightly merciless. Give her a red lightsabre and she would not look remotely out of place standing on the bridge of a death star.

Okay, I'm done with the real world politics now. Apologies to those that aren't into the real world / British politics!

I can see Vader cowering before Thatcher like he does in the Bounty Hunter Wars Trilogy!

And I have no idea who Mensch is... im not a political student by any means! But I can see your point...

I can see Vader cowering before Thatcher like he does in the Bounty Hunter Wars Trilogy!

And I have no idea who Mensch is... im not a political student by any means! But I can see your point...

I really should see if I can mock up a photoshop of that Vader-Thatcher image. Nice idea.

Louise Mensch was a Conservative MP. Smart, driven and sharp as a whip. She also has the kind of laugh that you could imagine being the last thing you hear as you're lowered into the Carbon Freezing Facility. She's basically Vader with a sense of humour. The Left Wing hate her with the passion of a thousand suns.

But I dont quite understand how this ended up as a full on War.

Give the Jedi a whiff of Sith and they will burn the galaxy to ash in their hunt. If they don't, the Sith will burn the galaxy to ash, and the Jedi cannot allow that!

In Supply Lines Dooku clearly says "get me the Senator from the Trade Federation" and Lott Dod shows up on Toydaria to argue against the Republic not as a pro-Separatist, but that involving Toydaria in the Clone Wars would open Trade Federation ships going to and from Toydaria to Separatist attack. In Spheres of Influence, they're blockading a Republic world to try and get it to switch sides, but ostensibly it's about repayment of trade debts and the CIS publicly offers its assistance against the Trade Federation. So it seems they're putting on a face of pro-Republic, anti-Separatist sentiment, but it's a facade that most characters recognize.

According to Wookieepedia's Canon page on the Trade Federation: "A decade after the war on Naboo, the Trade Federation pledged support to the Confederacy of Independent Systems, becoming its military benefactor during the Clone Wars. Publicly, however, the Federation denied all links to the Separatist Alliance, while maintaining a seat in the Republic Senate."

Right... weird.

Thats like giving BP or Microsoft a seat at the UN, isnt it?

If BP or MS largely operated out of enormous bulk carriers in neutral waters far from any form of centralized authority and were recognized as semi-autonomous sovereign entities, yes. It's not that unusual in a sci-fi setting, particularly not one with so many, other semi-autonomous sovereign entities (like the Corporate Sector, the Hapans, and the Mandalorians). As previously mentioned, look to the Dutch East India Company (and other organizations of the sort) for historical examples of private organizations operating as de facto sovereign states.

As for Mandalore and certain other systems attempting to remain neutral: Well, Kentucky and Missouri both attempted to remain neutral in the American Civil War. And like Mandalore, they suffered the ire of both federal and rebel forces attempting to bring them into line with either the Republic or the Confederacy.

(See what I did there? Hurrhurr.)

The Trade Federation effectively bought their seat on the Senate. When hundreds of worlds depend on you to survive, they'll often be willing to cede their votes to you. Votes are useless without the necessities of life.

Apologies for real world comparisons but how else do you explain certain electoral victories?

For now assume I mean FIFA its actually less messier that way!

I would put Ed Milliband in that box as well...

His brother would make a better fit IF he set things up so they'd come and ask him personally to lead the party into the next election and then an event eliminated the heads of state of the rest of the EU focusing attention on a suitable catspaw whilst he assumes control...

Sorry just trying a better equivalent to the quote.

Seats in the Galactic Senate were assigned to sectors (which were redrawn into 1,024 regions during the Ruusan Reformations), the number of member worlds actually totaled in the hundreds of thousands, while inhabited systems (consisting of member worlds' colonies and protectorates and various corporate outposts and operations) was well into the millions.

Sectors usually contained dozens or hundreds of member worlds, but it appears that senators could come from any of the worlds within (For example, Mytaranor's senator during the blockade of Naboo was Yarua from Kashyyyk, though the sector capital is the heavily-populated human world of Randon).

I imagine this created a lot of political tension and power play between member worlds, even before the Separatist Crisis complicated loyalties of worlds between their sectors and the corporations supporting them. Can you imagine the tension between internally-sovereign systems (some with thousands of subordinate colony worlds forming entire petty star empires for all purposes), vying for power with dozens of other worlds and alien species to have a say in Galactic policies regarding trade, taxation, social rights and massive industrialization projects?

The issue of 'neutrality' that keeps coming up in the Clone Wars is regarding a world's stake in supporting the Republic or the Confederacy, to my recollection.

The confusion surrounding the Trade Federation's senate present is mainly due to the fact that they and other megacorporations were granted senate seats in the waning decades of the Republic. Thus the Neimoidians could (potentially) have senators representing both their homeworld's Quellor Sector and the TF seat as seen held by Lott Dod. The later was held as the Trade Federation continued to profess neutrality in the crisis, despite their obvious continued involvement of resources via Gunray.

A lot of the politics in Star Wars are muddled by the sheer corruption and indifference of the senate, as their attention was turned more towards internal power struggles in the centuries after the Reformation. the Sith certainly played a part in setting up the decline in the final decades but I suspect the sheer size of sectors and power put into individual senators was an inherent problem that created factors not present in the Old Republic's far larger representation structure. Unfortunately a lot of the prequel material doesn't do a good job at conveying this consistently. I'd recommend reading Darth Plaugeis for a good look into its political landscape, though it is rather dry read.

The us civil war is a good exams of how a matter of cessation can turn into a civil war.

Also a good example of people finding out what's in the bill (i.e. US Constitution) after it was passed.

Nothing political in the prequels makes any sense at all. It's a stupid, incoherent mess.

Although to be fair, that kind of was the point. The republic is so a broken and dysfunctional *********** that it was no effort at all for Palpatine to swoop in and seize power. Why did the Trade Federation have representation in the senate? Huge bribes to the right people and suddenly the Trade Federation has voting privileges. Why were they working with the separatists? because money, dear boy. Why did nobody notice and/or complain that the seniors were in the pocket of the Lobbyists? The citizenary very well may have - but who can do something about massive, long term institutional corruption when you're just Joe Average?

Nothing political in the prequels makes any sense at all. It's a stupid, incoherent mess.

Although to be fair, that kind of was the point. The republic is so a broken and dysfunctional *********** that it was no effort at all for Palpatine to swoop in and seize power.

If it was no effort, couldn't he have seized power in a way that makes sense to the audience? I mean, this is a movie, for children, no less.

Is it too much to ask for a villain whose motives are coherent? To wit...

"Oooh....THOSE plans...."