Questions About Federation Governmental Structure

[dvatreknerd314]

Hey guys, I have a few questions regarding the structure of the Federation government, mainly involving colonies and new members.

Let's say the Klingon Empire decided to join the Federation right after the Dominion War. This seems unlikely, but for the sake of argument, let's say they do anyway.

- Would the entirety of the Klingon Empire be considered one 'member' of the Federation, or as several?
- Would any colonies that belong to the Empire now be Federation colonies, with their wealth spread among all the Federation members, or would those colonies serve only Qonos and other main Klingon planets?
- If the Empire conquered a race and gained planets form said race, but destroyed said race in the process, would they still be able to keep those planets, or must they be given up before Federation admittance?
- Can individual member planets have their own colonies? If so, can these colonies petition for Federation colony status (opposed to serving only one member)?

If there's any canonical precedent to answer any of these, it'd be preferable to speculation, but I don't mind it.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

I also have a few questions regarding the relationship between a member's militia and the Federation's Starfleet

- When a planet joins the Federation, what happens to their military? Obviously, there'd be some kind of planet-based militia in place, but would said militia be of the member planet, or would it be Starfleet?
- If a planet's militia does still exist upon entering the Federation, what duties is the militia responsible for? If there is a space branch of a planet's militia, would the militia be responsible for planetary and system defense, or would Starfleet be responsible for defense?
- When Earth, Vulcan, Andor, Tellar, and Alpha Centauri formed the Federation, did Earth retain a personal militia, or did the entirety of Earth's Starfleet become the Federation's Starfleet?
- If a foreign race has a grievance with a member planet (but not necessarily the entire Federation), does the member in question get to deal with it, or does the Federation as a whole deal with it?
- If a member retains their militia, is it possible for said member to independently declare war upon or have war declared on them by a foreign power?
- Is the Federation Council population based, like the House of Representatives, or planet/colony based, similar to the Senate?
- If a battle takes place in the Federation (as it did often in the Dominion War), does the Federation get to claim the wrecks of the destroyed ships, or do the destroyed ships go to their respective owners (I would assume this last possibility would exclude the races the Federation was fighting)?

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

This is funny. I just read a Tom Clancy novel in which the Russian Federation joined NATO. Something I do not see at all in the near future.... much like the Klingons joining up with the puny humans.

An interesting question. Unfortunately I cannot give any canonical examples, so I have to stick to speculation, but the general doctrines and behavior of the Federation give some clues.

- Would the entirety of the Klingon Empire be considered one 'member' of the Federation, or as several?

The members species of the Federation are equal, not the planets they inhabit. The Klingons would be one member of the Federation.
If they join, though, this would be some sort of "friendly takeover". The Federation would saturate the Klingon body of government down to the last colony with their doctrines and officials. They want to make sure, the Klingons do their business by Federation standards.

- Would any colonies that belong to the Empire now be Federation colonies, with their wealth spread among all the Federation members, or would those colonies serve only Qonos and other main Klingon planets?.

The Klingon colonies would most likely not only serve Qonos, as this would be against the Federation ideology. The "wealth" of these colonies will be made available to all Federation entities. However: it is much more likely that these colonies receive Federation development aid. Once technology, social standards and military assets had been proliferated, the Fed Gov't would want these colonies to be able to participate economy-wise fully in the Federation and not just in a Klingon dominion.

- If the Empire conquered a race and gained planets form said race, but destroyed said race in the process, would they still be able to keep those planets, or must they be given up before Federation admittance?

So the Klingons invade 'em before they joined up?
Well, then... it depends on which race and how this affects the whole strategic situation for the Federation and Starfleet.
Good guys: Public outcry, the Klingons will have to give these planets back.
Bad guys: No one will talk about it in public and the Federation (and more so Starfleet!) will see it as a good opportunity to weaken possible enemies and their armed forces. On the other hand: Maybe the media could even model the Klingon invasion as a "just war", though Klingons being Klingons, this would require a few really good Federation spin doctors and a media blockage to cover up atrocities committed by the Klingons. After Klingon admittance, these worlds would be controlled by a Federation (including Klingon) occupation force (and over the centuries we have seen how well occupying forces are received by the occupied and by their own nation's civilians).

- Can individual member planets have their own colonies? If so, can these colonies petition for Federation colony status (opposed to serving only one member)?

I think it depends on the kind of colony. A barren rock in space, barely able to sustain itself, would be allowed to answer to the colonizing nation. If that colony had people on it of non-Klingon origin (which would then be repressed by the Klingons) the Federation would want these people to be free on their own right and maybe join up as well. They would not tolerate a member of the Federation to occupy another race's planet and opress them.
If the colony was on a barren rock in space that had been terraformed to become some sort of entity like a US state nowadays, they would probably remain under semi-Klingon jurisdiction.
Remember: The Feds are totalitarian about this. They would want to have a hand in the gov't of this state as much as they would want participation in the government of Qonos itself.

When I say totalitarion, I do not mean the Federation is a dictatorship. People have civil rights and these are protected and guaranteed. What I mean is, that the Federation is very strict about what they do. In order to maintain such a *huge* democracy certain standards have to exist everywhere in this democracy.
Roddenberry formed the Feds after pre-civil war (1922) "enlightened socialism". Much like what the leaders of the Prague Revolution of 1968 wanted.

Another thought on that matter: If the Klingons would want to sustain their domination of other worlds, they would have to maintain their own armed forces for outside protection and a centralized or decentralized police organisation (being the Klingons, the KADF probably does both).
Now there is only one armed entity in the Federation: Starfleet.
The Klingons would not be allowed to have an own force capable of threating Starfleet, as that would mean, Starfleet had to constantly keep a check on what the Klingon forces inside Federation territory are doing. However: During the war Starfleet probably grew and militarized itself heavily (less "to seek out new civilizations", more "more bang for the buck"), so it could be a welcomed reason to keep the military heads inside Starfleet happy.
Or as Kirk put it: "You cannot trust Klingons."

Looking forward on what other people have in mind on this matter.

EA

 

[dvatreknerd314]

The questions I posed were meant to be applied to any incoming race, not just the Klingon Empire. I understand that the Empire would have to go through considerable social change before even being considered for Federation entry. I used them as an example of a race that conquered other races in the past.

There is one question I want to clarify. What I assumed with the total destruction of a conquered race question was that the destruction took place in the distant past (assuming the necessary social/governmental changes to steer a power away from conquering take a long time). I assume that if, for example, a colony were completely destroyed by the Klingon Empire in the process of taking it over that, once the Empire wants to join the Federation, they would have to give up that world to the race they conquered it from, regardless of the former colony's current state of development. What I'm wanting to know is what happens to those planets if the entire race was eliminated and there is no government for those planets to go to? Do the Klingons still get to keep them, or do they have to abandon them?

 

[Majestic]

What I'm wanting to know is what happens to those planets if the entire race was eliminated and there is no government for those planets to go to? Do the Klingons still get to keep them, or do they have to abandon them?

What done is done, I'd say they'd keep them or simply absorbed into the Federation and re-colonised by Federation citizens, provided the Klingons didn't occupy them first. The Federation wouldn't just throw away a perfectly good planet for the Romulans or another faction to just claim and have a prime military build up spot on the new Federation boarder.

Anyway my opinion on the Federation is pretty low these days, you can thank Cryptic, the creators of Star Trek Online for that one.

 

[Starfox1701]

As I understand it The federation is a parliamentary based government which was intended to provide for mutual defense and promote free trade as well as support colonization and exploration. The Federation has a president which heads the executive branch, a single legislative body in the Federation council, and a judiciary branch in the galactic court. Individual planets remain sovereign entities unto themselves ruling over themselves by what ever form of government the people chose. However there is a standard of conduct that all planets are expected to maintain in order to remain within the federation. Membership within the United Federation requires that the petitioning planet meet the following criteria:

1. The planet must have discovered warp drive and be capable of FTL flight.
2. The planet must have a single unified government chosen by the people.
3. The planet must meet federation standards for a just society and respect the rights of it's citizens.
4. The planet must be willing to provided proportional funding for the Federation government.
5. The planet must be willing to disband its military or fold it into Starfleet.
6. The planet must be willing to abide by Galactic Law in all of it's extra planetary dealings.

Once a planet joins the United Federation they elect a single representative to join the Federation Council who holds the title of 'Ambassador'. Their military will normally be absorbed into Starfleet with a small portion being retained by the member world for use as a Coast Guard type force. These auxiliary forces hold jurisdiction up to 5 Lys from their world and help to supplement Starfleet patrols in customs enforcement and SAR duties as well as other police actions. Once a world joins the UFP will often subsidize improvements in the planets infrastructure including the healthcare and education systems. All colonies of a world are considered protectorates of the UFP and fall under the auspices of Starfleet's Colonial Command Division which is responsible for coordinating the transport of needed supplies and arranging and maintain patrols in those sectors. Once a Colony becomes full self sufficient in providing for itself and completely self governed the world may petition for full membership within the UFP. Obviously they would be exempted form the first membership requirement.

On the question of the Klingon Empire this would be a very complex problem. Many of the Klingon worlds are self sufficient and so would each have to petition separately. Klingon worlds with slave population would have to be at least partially returned to the indigenous inhabitants and a unified government formed from the combined population. Non self sufficient worlds would fall under SF's Colonial Command and worlds not wishing to join would remain independent. The KDF is not a tradit0ional Navy and is instead made up of separate forces loyal to each house of the Empire. Under Galactic Law such forces would need to be reduced to PDF levels and the remaining warriors retrained and absorbed into SF. Since all of this would mean the complete dissolution of the Empire it is highly unlikely that the Klingons would willingly submit to this.