Drink Deep & Descend, a Lancer Lore Series: Central Committee of Union 

It's certainly why Union is mostly handoff-ish on planets within its realm, even with the omninet.

Oh shit. It's Vex, from The Famous Lancer Memes

Sure it does. Just in Europe, if you go back a thousand years from today political alliances were largely dictated by who married who and power was concentrated in a comparatively few family lines. Go back five hundred years and national rule was still theoretically (and often practically) inherited or seized by force rather than granted through any form of election. Even once the public vote started to matter, it took until about a century ago for women to get the franchise. Plenty of other examples of real change in politics. The only aspect that seems consistent is that there will always but small, utterly sociopathic part of humanity that lusts after control of the rest of us, and the more thorough that control the better.

@@richmcgee434 new instruments, the same old melody.

@@richmcgee434 If only we could isolate the genetics that cause sociopathy and remove it from the pool.

@@wunderwerks7826 Sociopathic behavior is as much a product of experience and environment as most aspects of human personality. The idea that genetic modification could somehow erase it without the need for other changes and without deleterious side effects on the unborn children you'd be tampering with is terrifyingly short-sighted. And who's defining "sociopathy" here to decide what to modify against? Some entire cultures regard things like "resisting the authority of your elders" and "standing out from the crowd" and "demanding reproductive freedom" as sociopathic. You really want to support developing a science that can dial down those attributes as well as naked greed and lust for power over others?

they're chosen by galsim. so none?

Even if Galsim makes an error, that just sounds like a campaign hook to me. Or, for maximum fun times, have that be the dark secret of a PC. That they (say) joined MSMC because they're hiding from tie breaking a vote where no matter which way it comes down, they do not like the results. Or at least, that it would make them powerful enemies for life. So you could have this crucial vote 'tied up in committee' so to speak, because someone fled.

That kind of big change would be when a revolution has occurred, like 5 hundreds years ago when Seccomm got kicked out by Thirdcomm. The lore mentioned that Interstellar maintained a stable 35% seats, that's probably around 35% for the past 5 hundreds. Changes do not occur suddenly in Union, and if they appear to be, signs of the changes would have been made obvious long before it happened. Keep in mind that Union is a hundreds light year wide entity, and any changes would be slow and glacial, but not so slow that Cosmopolitan that can see the world about 10 times faster would be blind to it.

Cosmopolitans also get a vote. And I'd imagine the faster cycles make them resistant to forgetting what some party or the other did, at least regarding matters they find important.

I feel like sometimes people underestimate how unusual it is that Union has only been through two major revolutions over the course of the thousands of years it's existed.

@@Oops-All-Ghosts The only reason I think they've lasted so long between upheavals is the sheer size of the galaxy means that it takes awhile for movements to spread. The existence of the Omninet is just about the only thing that makes it definitively possible to call Union a single sovereign state as opposed to a confederacy of star systems.

@@Oops-All-Ghosts to be honest, I've been treating all the time scales as 'Sci-fi writers have no sense of scale' and cutting them down by one power. The Union existing for hundreds of years with only 3 bigtime shakeups in government I could potentially buy into, but thousands? Nah, that ain't human.

corpostate? more like COPROstate

the gate will come online within a decade, and the long rim will be no more. the entire silly pirate ecosystem you live ins days are numbered. you can find the number at the appropriate omninet address. unless something went weird in the dawnline shore, but what are the odds of that happening

theres five big political parties that run Union Interstellar (35%) whose general policy is "when you have fists that can shatter planets, it is best to try to rule with a light touch." they mostly run the show these days, and as ever, when a party runs the show for long enough, its original mission tends to take a backseat to maintaining their own power. the Fourth Column (~10% and moving down) whose general policy is "hey you should let the Trade Baronies/Megacorps do whatever they want," and as such think the Interstellar are socialist job-killing tyrants who also refuse to smash any planet the baronies/megacorps don't like. the New Humanity Front (~10% and moving up) whose general policy is "hey we've got fists that can shatter planets, why don't we throw fists every once in a while, looking at you, Karrakin Trade Baronies, and also planets that the megacorps don't like." Harrison Armory Dot Political Party. New Solidarity (15%), whose general policy is "if your fear of shattering planets stops you from toppling monsters, you are in league with monsters. Looking at you, Column and NHF." if you're a Union-affiliated Lancer, you probably have a job thanks to these people; armed DoJ/HR missions were very much their baby. Verdant Social (15% and dropping), whose general policy is "the Interstellar needs to be significantly less colonialist," and who have dropped in membership considerably ever since they got their mission accomplished. your average Verdant Social member either thinks the job is done, and so is drifting towards the Interstellar, or thinks the job is nowhere near done, and is drifting towards New Solidarity.

@@xalrath Excellent, thanks for the very clear explanation.

@@xalrath Wow, that's an amazing way to put it!

@@Matricule885648 not official, but my-game-canon: DoJ/HR missions are something that got passed over the strenuous objections of the Fourth Column and Verdant Social, mostly thanks to the surprise move of the NHF backing New Solidarity on it, and as such fracturing the right wing bloc's opposition to the idea. you can get the NHF to back pretty much anything that can be described as "union throwing its weight around" as long as it's not directly aimed at Harrison Armory, and even then they might accept some collateral damage as long as the Karrakin get hit harder

Amazing. I know it's a two year old comment, but thanks a lot for this breakdown, it really helped me wrap my head around those political parties ! @@xalrath

they're underdeveloped because something fairly common historically is currently happening to them: they're a special interest group that got the main thing they were looking for accomplished, but weren't able to ride that concession into a wider position of power. a decade or two ago they'd be a big nuanced political faction, but right now, the only question is whether individual members are going to say "welp, jobs done, time to go join the interstellar to maintain the now pretty much okay galactic order" or "we haven't even started on the real work yet, guess it's time to talk with NSC,"

@@xalrath That's a better summary than I could have given, but I'm essentially with you on this. The VSA is in that tough spot of needing to figure out where to go, and how they're going to get the support to go there. This is the issue with a one issue political coalition, the instant you get the job done, everyone goes their own way. The cynical part of me thinks they will play up the Aun Ascendency situation to regain support, possibly while undermining Union's efforts to respond at every turn under the table, as a sudden threat to the Union's anticolonial policies from outside is a convenient rallying cry.

I'm pretty sure NSC is the far left one.

@@11dragonkid11 I find it kinda disappointing that they only chose to represent anarchist and trots in the NSC, instead of more effective far-left options.

It's in the core rulebook!

@@11dragonkid11 Thanks!!

CentComm's design is kind of a necessary evil because of the _sheer size_ of Union. Anywhere that isn't right on a Blinkspace gate is going to take years or decades to even get information across, so the only way for those polities to have a say in government is to send a representative. The 3C Union ideal is to one day have everywhere on a Blinkgate, so that everywhere can have Core living standards and all of humanity can have the post-scarcity life that the Core enjoys. In that scenario, a much more direct democracy might be plausibe. Even for something as big, rich, and powerful as Union is, this is an _ambitious_ and very laborious dream. Union still pursues it, because there is no utopia without ambition. You could also, of course, decide that since you want a direct democracy, you can have one, and rearrange the setting furniture to suit this idea! Maybe setting up blinkspace communications is much easier than setting up blinkspace travel and the Omninet is much more widespread. This would have knock-on effects, of course, but that's the fun in being in charge of your own reality. Figuring out what changes when you do _this_ instead of _that._

you will be expelled from the party for this display of counter ideological enthusiasm once someone gets around to it

@@xalrath meh, whatever

Or don't. Whatever.

Futurama reference?

Based in fascism and decrepit feudalism.