Parliament

The Parliament of the Union of Allied Planets is the governing body for all known human occupied space. Originally comprised of only the "[worlds]" it has since expanded its sphere of influence to include the entire inhabited solar system.

History

After the Earth-That-Was was used up, man took to the stars to find a new home. The first worlds colonized and settled became the Core Worlds and the dominion of the Union of Allied Planets, known as the Alliance. Later in its existence, the Alliance decided to annex the border and rim worlds that had refused Alliance protection and governance, citing what it claimed was the 'greater good' of the people. Representation has been extended, for a given value of representation, to those extra worlds.

Government

The Parliament is based on Londinium, complete with ministries and other civil controls. It comprises two branches- the Marshallate and the Parliament.

The Lord High Marshal

The Lord High Marshal of the Alliance is its Head of State. His duties are largely ceremonial, but he does have some important constitutional powers. Firstly, if the Parliament is unable to form a Government, he will fulfil the duties of Chancellor, until one is chosen. This includes the selection of suitable interim ministers, and submission of policies to the Parliament. Secondly, if two candidates for Chancellor each claim to be able to muster sufficient support to pass their legislative policies, the Lord High Marshal will determine which has the first opportunity to test this ability. Finally, he can always cause a motion of 'No Confidence' in the Chancellor and his Government to be brought before the Parliament. If this vote passes, the Chancellor is obliged to resign, and a new one will attempt to form an administration. Of course, any Chancellor who has sufficient support in Parliament to effectively rule should be able to ensure a No Confidence vote fails.

The Lord High Marshal is elected by a ten yearly vote, with the electorate derived from an electoral college comprising elements from registered Tax Paying Citizens of the Alliance and the members of the Parliament. This effectively increases a trend for Core worlds to be over-represented (See below).

Parliament

The Parliament of the Alliance is a unicameral chamber, as opposed to the bicameral assemblies more familiar to Earth-that-was, although the 'House of Lords' may be viewed in some fashion, as an annex to the main Parliament. The Parliament is filled by representatives from a number of professions ('The Elect'), by Planetary Governors, and by a number of Lords, elected from amongst the membership of the House of Lords.

The Parliament then elects, from amongst its number, a leader, the 'Chancellor' (possibly with interference from the Lord High Marshal, as above), who puts together a Government, comprising a number of ministers, some of whom are known as secretaries, almost always from amongst his own supporters within the Parliament. Should this Chancellor lose sufficient support in the Parliament that he can no longer pass legislation, his administration will fall, and he will be replaced by someone who can muster a majority of the Parliament in support of their policies. The new Chancellor will then appoint a new Government.

The work of the Government is held to scrutiny by a number of Parliamentary Committees, whose membership is not open to Ministers/Secretaries, and who are tasked with the overview of Government policy, each within an area of policy (for example, the Military Parliamentary Committee, or the Security Parliamentary Committee). These, at least theoretically, provide some of the least comfortable interviews for the Ministers/Secretaries.

'The Elect'

Certain powerful professions elect from amongst their own membership a number of representatives to sit in the Parliament. The main bodies are 'The Scientific Elect', 'The Medical Elect', 'The Judicial Elect' and 'The Military Elect' (although this last are not precisely elected, since the seats are traditionally attached to certain posts, such as the Marshal of the Alliance, the Chief of Military Operations, the Chief of Naval Operations, and the Commandant of the Marines).

There are a smaller number of 'Industrial Elect', typically the non-noble chiefs of massive industries within the Core, and 'Agricultural Elect', industrialised farmers on such a scale that they could hold planets to ransom. These groups are smaller, since the majority of representation for these two professions is deemed to fall within the remit of the Lords Parliamentary. A few members of the Nobility will attempt to muscle their way into one of these seats, but these tend to be firmly resisted by non-noble members of those communities as a form of reverse snobbery, as well as being ridiculed by the Lords Parliamentary, since it implies that the holder is 'less than truly noble'. It is therefore something of a status hit, although this may be compensated by the opportunity for increased earnings that a Parliamentary seat carries.

Planetary Governors

Planetary Governors and their deputies have seats in the Parliament although it is rare for both Governor and Deputy to be in the chamber at the same time for Rim or Border worlds. The shorter travel times of the Core permit effectively double representation by those worlds, at the expense of their more distant colleagues.

On Core planets, Planetary Governors and their deputies are directly elected by the population of the planets. On Border and Rim Worlds, however, these posts are appointed by the Minister of Security, subject to confirmation by the Parliament. Consequently, there is no directly elected representation for most of the Border or Rim population.

It should be noted that the seats are for planetary governors. Moons orbiting a world which is itself inhabited do not have representation (eg, Persephone, orbiting the protostar Lux, has a Governor, but Higgins Moon, orbiting Harvest, does not). Instead they fall under the political jurisdiction of the orbited world, with the Governor usually appointing a local representative, who holds some title such as 'Magistrate'. The exception to this general rule is Shadow. Shadow still has a Planetary Governor, but effectively he controls the moons of Shadow, with his powerbase on Summerfair.

The Lords Parliamentary

The House of Lords, a meeting and debating chamber for the Nobility, has been given access to a number of seats within the Parliament. How it fills these seats is up to it. The Nobility strongly decries the suggestion that these 'Lords Parliamentary' are in any way analogous to the Professions Elect, but in many ways they are.

The main difference is in just how nasty the process of deciding who will be elected from the House of Lords to take a Parliamentary seat (usually elected for a two year term, although this is at the discretion of the House of Lords- longer terms tending to be far more difficult to arrange, as most Lords are reluctant to promote one of their fellows for longer!) These elections will often involve blackmail, bribery and other forms of persuasion, up to and including assassination.

Ministries

The terms 'Department' and 'Ministries' are holdovers from 'Earth-that-was'. Nobody is entirely sure why some are called each, and for practical terms the two words are synonymous, but the slightly differing traditions are closely guarded by the civil servants of each Ministry or Department. For similar reasons, the heads of Departments are not referred to as Ministers, but Secretaries- an abbreviation of 'The Parliaments Chief Secretary in the Department of...' Some also have grander titles.

In early 2535, the Department of Alliance Security and the Department of War were merged into a single, overarching Department of Security. This moved both Civilian and Military Security Forces under a single Department for better coordination and sharing of resources.

Departments/Ministries include...

The Department of Security
The Ministry of Commerce
The Ministry of Finance
The Ministry of Justice
The Ministry of Trade

The Balance of Power

The Lord High Marshal is a minor part in the balance of power. His influence is mostly moral, but should not be completely ignored by a wise Chancellor.

There are (currently) 208 seats in the Parliament. This means that the Chancellor needs to be reasonably sure of the support of 208/2+1= 105 seats in order to have a secure administration.

The larger 'Elects' (Judicial, Scientific, Military and Medical) provide 20 seats each.
The smaller 'Elects' (Industrial, Agricultural) provide 10 seats each.
There are 39 Planetary Governors, each with 1 deputy.
The Lords Parliamentary fill 30 seats

It can be seen therefore that no single group can provide a Chancellor with stable government, even if all Rim/Border planetary Governors need replacing at the same time (which gives the Government an effective block vote, if they can get such appointments approved by the Parliament). There is much courting of the 'Elects' and of the Lords Parliamentary. Balancing these requirements such that support is maintained is one of the main challenges of the Chancellor. Those who upset any particular group too much are unlikely to maintain a smooth administration.

The House of Lords

The House is not strictly part of the Parliament, but its machinations have a direct impact upon the Parliament, since it provides a proportion of the Members of Parliament. It also meets on Londinium, and there is often much coming and going between offices of the Government, the Parliament, and the Lords.

The "House" of Commons

This House is even less a part of the Parliament than the Lords. It isn't even really a single House. Instead it constitutes a series of Planetary Assemblies, directly elected by the Planetary Taxpayers (Yes.... if you don't pay taxes to the Alliance, you don't get to vote.) Their main duties are the 'Housekeeping' work of planetary rule, in a purely internal nature, much as a Local Council did on Earth-that-was. They can send petitions up to the Parliament, but these are not binding, although they may serve as a point of debate. Those members of the Commons who do good work (from the point of view of the Alliance) have a tendency to end up being candidates (in the Core) for elections for Planetary Governor, whilst those who are good servants to the Alliance from Rim or Border Commons provide a high proportion of those worlds Planetary Governors and Deputies.