How would a planetary government work?

Question

I've been reading a lot of fiction where there are different planets ruled by different people. How do you think these planetary governments would work in terms of the court system, etc?

Answer 1

Hmm. I asked a similar question few months back. A planetary Earth government is one of my Utopian Star Trek dreams :-)

My take:

1. A planetary government would be extremely difficult to govern or extremely easy, depending upon the technology, government and the mindset of citizens living in the planet.

2. For a planetary government to be possible, it would need high levels of communication, information and transportation technology.

3. More the number of people, more difficult it would be to administer the planet.

4. If most citizens were law abiding, selfless, peaceful, educated and democratic, then it would be very easy to administer a planetary govt.

5. Some may argue that even a super-powerful megalomaniac dictator could rule a planet by fear, force and brutality.

Answer 2

I think a planetary gov't would work much like the U.N. works today: grossly inefficient, highly prone to corruption and abuse of power, much micromanagement and meddling into internal affairs, and decisions chiefly made on the basis of ideologies rather than rational thought.

If history has taught us anything, it is that large, centralized governments are the wrong direction to go. They are simply too prone to tyranny, corruption and over-regulation. The best govt's are stable but malleable, with minimal ability to tax citizens or restrict their freedoms. That basically means a gov't with highly-restricted powers and a strong, loophole-free Constitution.

I too have been reading fiction like you describe, mainly the Dune books and plenty of Robert A. Heinlein. With a galactic civilization, no doubt there would be a broad variety of gov't systems and, like our current array of countries here on Earth, we could look at the different ones and see what works and what doesn't. The hard part would be actually learning the lessons and applying them to get better gov't. Govt's in general and bad govt's in particular do NOT like giving up power. The result is that over time, economic inefficiencies and restrictions on freedom slowly (or sometimes quickly) accumulate until either the gov't is overthrown by revolution, or the society implodes. The USSR is one example--communism simply isn't sustainable over time. People get tired of being poor & oppressed, and if they don't (or can't) do something about it, then their economy collapses and chaos ensues.

Answer 3

Poorly.
Remember you are reading fiction here with these utopia monarchies and governments of imaginary planets.
The reality is that it wouldn't work. If it ever came to that on this planet and I was still around? I'd run for the oldest hills on the planet. The Canadian Shield. And I wouldn't come back till the return of the Christ.
Faithfully it won't come to that for me, I would be dead or taken home before a one world government came into existence. One or the other. If I was left behind then that would be my own damn fault and I would have to suffer the consequences because I know better!

Answer 4

My opinion is that the only way a planetary government would desire to artwork properly, is that if the government and persons arrived from a distinctive and heterogeneously ruled planet, and easily re-favourite itself on a clean planet. i can not see how Earth would have a single government each time quickly (interior 5-10 generations besides), considering cultures are so powerfully fragmented. i assume you would be able to desire to argue that the technique would desire to ensue slowly, over a era of centuries, in many small steps, purely a splash of autonomy loss each and every 20-30 years or so,....yet I doubt that paradigm damaging violence would desire to be prevented indefinitely. different than in utopian fiction.

Answer 5

I think local rule would be the best way. But I think originality must come into play. A planter for criminals of like mind. A planet for artists, musicians, and painters. One for religion . One of philosophy. One of education. One for hospitals care.

Something like that would be my take. It would be cool. And there would would to be a security force and overall administrate planet for taking care of all planets on the solar system.

Answer 6

Only by dictatorial brutality. They tried it in the Soviet Union and Red China, and other places. They tried it because it was only way to try to make an idea work which most of the citizens didn't want.
I don't want Aussies and Zambizis and Saudis and Wahabiis having a vote in my government. I don't even want the Federal government to have as large a hand in the state's welfare as it does. One large central government AS IT EXISTS TODAY is not even what Hamilton wanted. He would be aghast at how far his ideas have allowed (not caused) us down the road to socialism.

Answer 7

While it would be one government, with the diversity of ideologies and of languages there would likely be different laws for the different "states" or "territories."

Answer 8

They should work the same as ours in the US. Read our Const. to find out how it works.

Answer 9

don't know - hopefully when we reach that far we will not need courts - maybe we will be smart enough to get along.