Solar League Assembly

Personally, I would like to see a strong reform group backed by their home planets develop in the assembly that begins to put the pressure on the Solar League bureaucracy and begins to demand negotiations and cleaning up the corruption in the Fleet and whole government. I think that that would make a good series of its own.

james99 wrote:Personally, I would like to see a strong reform group backed by their home planets develop in the assembly that begins to put the pressure on the Solar League bureaucracy and begins to demand negotiations and cleaning up the corruption in the Fleet and whole government. I think that that would make a good series of its own.

That would be nice, but considering every planet has veto power, there is no way that this could ever happen short of a complete rewrighting of the SL constitution.

To have a reform movement with meaning in the SL, it would have to be a push for constitutional reform that would give the League a workable constitution. Anything else would simply be doomed to fail with the end result being more of the same.

Don

Presumably, any rewriting or reform of the League Constitution would require legislation through the League Assembly. That would mean that every member would have a veto on the process, so I'd rate the chances of it happen as about as likely as Nimitz passing on celery.

Dafmeister wrote:Presumably, any rewriting or reform of the League Constitution would require legislation through the League Assembly. That would mean that every member would have a veto on the process, so I'd rate the chances of it happen as about as likely as Nimitz passing on celery.

You could have the systems that constitute the Solar League agree to a new political agreement, and simply withdraw from the old one. Legally, I mean - I'm not going to claim that's likely to happen.

JeffEngel wrote:

Dafmeister wrote:Presumably, any rewriting or reform of the League Constitution would require legislation through the League Assembly. That would mean that every member would have a veto on the process, so I'd rate the chances of it happen as about as likely as Nimitz passing on celery.

You could have the systems that constitute the Solar League agree to a new political agreement, and simply withdraw from the old one. Legally, I mean - I'm not going to claim that's likely to happen.

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Essentially, what we have is the USA under the Art of Confederation (or the Polish-Lithuanian confederation of the 17th/18th Cen, or pre-English conquest Ireland)
Good in theory -- everyone has a voice (and veto), but as seen, unworkable in practice.
The SLN needs a good Philadelphia Constitutional Convention and ratification. Where are Jefferson, Adams and the Federalist Papers when you need them.

-- Stewart

james99 wrote:Personally, I would like to see a strong reform group backed by their home planets develop in the assembly that begins to put the pressure on the Solar League bureaucracy and begins to demand negotiations and cleaning up the corruption in the Fleet and whole government. I think that that would make a good series of its own.

There already is several reform groups within the SL, e.g.
Renaissance Association (seen in Crown of Slaves)
Anti-Slaver League (seen throughout the series)

Just the system makes them ineffective.

Hi James99,

Welcome and please enjoy your favorite CG beverage on the CG forum.

Unfortunately, as the other posters have pointed out, the system prevents anything like that from happening, one reason Beowulf quit.

The other problem is that the SL isn't going to be around long enough for another reform movement to evolve, NTM given how corrupt the current assembly is.

RFC has stated the SL won't last 5 years ago when it was still 1921 PD, some have bets it won't last beyond 1925 PD, or even 1924.

The SL is toast, while a rump may eventually form from the remnants made up mainly of the old league, it will be far smaller and hopefully far wiser.

L

james99 wrote:Personally, I would like to see a strong reform group backed by their home planets develop in the assembly that begins to put the pressure on the Solar League bureaucracy and begins to demand negotiations and cleaning up the corruption in the Fleet and whole government. I think that that would make a good series of its own.

lyonheart wrote:The other problem is that the SL isn't going to be around long enough for another reform movement to evolve, NTM given how corrupt the current assembly is.

RFC has stated the SL won't last 5 years ago when it was still 1921 PD, some have bets it won't last beyond 1925 PD, or even 1924.

The SL is toast, while a rump may eventually form from the remnants made up mainly of the old league, it will be far smaller and hopefully far wiser.

L

It'd be a steep challenge to be less wise!

There's reason to hope that existing reform movements, and the ones that will crop up fast as things keep going down the toilet, will be a part of the new governments formed.

I'm curious about what will draw systems together in a new government. OFS sectors form, administratively at least, somewhat natural groups, but that's only out beyond the SL proper itself. If there are any lower level political divisions inside the League short of individual systems, I recall no mention of them and they certainly don't seem prominent. A very old colony and her daughter colonies may form a group, but that's not going to go too far and Beowulf's example in the Assembly vote shows those bonds aren't strong either. Sheer formless homogeneity of SL space in political terms may be one of the biggest obstacles to arranging stable successor states. The Renaissance Factor may have a large advantage there just out of prior planning.

JeffEngel wrote:It'd be a steep challenge to be less wise!

There's reason to hope that existing reform movements, and the ones that will crop up fast as things keep going down the toilet, will be a part of the new governments formed.

I'm curious about what will draw systems together in a new government. OFS sectors form, administratively at least, somewhat natural groups, but that's only out beyond the SL proper itself. If there are any lower level political divisions inside the League short of individual systems, I recall no mention of them and they certainly don't seem prominent. A very old colony and her daughter colonies may form a group, but that's not going to go too far and Beowulf's example in the Assembly vote shows those bonds aren't strong either. Sheer formless homogeneity of SL space in political terms may be one of the biggest obstacles to arranging stable successor states. The Renaissance Factor may have a large advantage there just out of prior planning.

The force which coalesces new star nations would be essentially the same thing that originally formed the feudal kingdoms in Europe--protection and/or conquest. System Zed has a military force. Neighbors become fearful of pirates or aggressive neighbors or mercenaries looking to become kings. The aggressive systems try to expand militarily. Weak systems request protection under Zed. It could be a feudal arrangement, or a more modern arrangement, but it comes out the same--less powerful systems become part of the more powerful neighbor in an attempt to protect themselves, or get gobbled up by the aggressive systems.

So the nuclei of these new star nations are the military forces in the area.