Intergalactic Summit

How refreshing it is to hear these words said and I do hope I can cast my vote on this occasion. Let the Gallente Federation give us in the outer regions the voice we deserve.

I do not envy the untangling of placid and black rise enough to decide who can and cannot vote.

Oh, good luck though. I'm interested to see how you guys solve the Placid and Black Rise problem.

And as far as I know, the average Federal citizen or politician doesn't have access to elders, Khargai or Shamen to impart the councel and wisdom of their ancestor spirits... how can you have effective decision making without them?

I agree, Pilot Otsito; it is an insane system.

I'm in complete agreement with Mr. Thiesant. In spite of the unfortunate conditions of the territories caught up in the militia war with the State, those people are still loyal citizens of the Federation whose opinions and desires must be heard and respected the same as any other within our great nation. Here's to hoping they are given their right to speak on their own behalf at the ballot box during the upcoming elections.


Seems to have worked out pretty well so far.


That's why they keep us Intaki around.

Well, slavery seems to have worked out pretty well so far for the Empire. Doesn't exactly argue in favor it though, does it? I'm not equating the two, but something having been the norm for however long doesn't give it any merit besides staying power. I'm curious as to what the actual arguments in favor of this system of governance would be.



Well, neither of us can do much to change how or why the Federation does anything, but it's still an interesting subject to muse on. I understand the mechanics of democracy, obviously. One person, one vote, no representation without taxation or however which way it went. It's just that the flaws are so very glaring. In fact, have a ten minute conversation with any stranger you meet, and then another, then another, then another. For each one, you'll start tallying up one more reason why democracy is an utterly crazy idea.

These people are utterly incapable of making informed, intelligent decisions on matters of governance.

What's more, they haven't earned their right to have a say. They were born and somehow survived to something akin to adulthood, then they were given a say in how to run a system that spans countless billions of people on who knows how many settled planets and space stations in several dozen systems.

I wouldn't count myself capable of making a rational and informed decision on such things without some very severe education and experience within a whole plethora of fields, economics, various sciences and sociology all included.

I say again, democracy is completely and utterly nuts when you think about it and when so many people so fervently believe in it to the point of violence and so on there has to be arguments here that I'm missing.

Which is why education is considered a fundamental right for all citizens of the Federation. The ideal is an informed and educated populace that can collectively determine the best path forward for itself, collectively select the leaders it deems most suited to the job, all while retaining the spirit of individuality and freedom often lacking in other such collective endeavors.

Have we reached that ideal in full? No. Will we? Someday, maybe. But then, the same can be said of every other great empire within the cluster: the galaxy is far from unified in worship of the Amarrian God, Tibus Heth revealed some glaring faults in both Caldari society and politics, and the Minmatar... have a lot of stuff that needs working on.

Mlle. Calairis, if I may disagree for a moment. I respect the important role that lobbying plays in our system of government. I believe that the trade unions should have the right to argue their case on the national political stage, as should CreoDron or FedMart. I believe that the Environmentalists should be able to have a say, as well as the Arms Manufacturers. Both the Student Unions and the Pensioner's Alliances should be enabled to form groups capable of making the case for their best interests as part of our local, district, and Federation wide debates.

Politicians should never exist in an isolated bubble, and their voices are not the only ones that should be heard when discussing issues critical to our shared future. Every sector of our society has the right to representation, and it is the duty of lobby organisations to see that said representation is fought for and secured - with our elected leaders as the filter which finds the balance between sometimes competing interests.

It is a robust system, and to tear it down would be to shut down the voices of billions. Which is, after all, entirely contradictory to this thread's intent.

It's not as nuts as it sounds, although I know it sounds fairly nuts.

A large part of what kept Heth in power was his populist appeal to the prole sector of Caldari politics. The prole sector is an interesting political bloc, in that it tends to wield power out of proportion to the proper amount of shares it controls, due to it's ability to down tools when united and bring the State grinding to a halt.

Now, usually, keeping the prole sector unified and motivated is a nigh-impossible task. The common people tend to have very diverse interests and triggers. Most of those with votes are mostly interested in making sure that their voting stock keeps its value when they retire, so that their retirement is secure.

Heth lost control of a large chunk of that bloc when his actions devalued stock in Kaalakiota, Caldari Construction, Caldari Steel and other Corporations he was a majority stakeholder in - thereby jeopardising the retirement of his prole sector supporters.

Gallentean democracy is the idea that the impulse or uninformed opinion of the drug-swallowing individual is every bit as "right" and should have as much impact on policy as the informed, educated decisions of shamen, chiefs, and elders, arrived at via experience and evidence.

Silly nonsense, it is. Glad we've gotten past that.