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By AARON SKETCHLEY (aaronsketch@HOTdelete_thisMAIL.com) Ver 2.0 2015.02.23
Official Setting information is in darkgreen. Extended Universe information is in steelblue.

Sourcebook: The Unified Government

Table Of Contents
  • History
  • Organization
  • Noteable Members/Historical Figures
  • The UNG of the early 2050s
  • Speculation

    • History

    Organization

    The Unified Government originated in the Unitd Nations. It is lead by a Prime Minister.

    Though the actual political economy, government organization, and other details of the Unified Government are unknown, speculation leads one to believe that the Unified Government has something akin to the galactic senate in "Star Wars". Each member Emigrant Planet has a representative (which may or may not have been elected) in a "General Assembly". 

    Speculative Organization
      
      Prime Minister (Leader of the general assembly)
            |
      Unified Government General Assembly
            |
      Unified Government Chairperson (Chair of the Unified Forces Committee)
            |
      Unified Forces Committee (the leadership body in charge of the Unified Forces)

    Even though the general assembly is supposed to have control of the Unified Forces; due to history, politics and other circumstances, it is often the opposite way around. This is one of the prime motivations that the (various) Anti Unification groups have towards their disagreement(s) with the Unified Government.

    There are varying theories regarding the relationship of the Unified Government and non-allied colonies. However, as the savior and protector of humankind, all non-allied colonies and agencies do show some manner of respect to the Unified Government, and its mandates; and the Unified Government shows the non-allied colonies and agencies a similar respect (even if it is only to respect the border and leave each other alone).

    In this way, one can consider the Unified GOvernment to have two roles: governing (even if it is only indirectly) those allied to it, and making sure that things remain congenial for colonies and agencies non-aligned with the Unified Government. Thus the Unified Government is somewhat of a cross between a modern bicameral parliamentary democracy and the real United Nations.

    Noteable Members/Historical Figures

    Prime Minister


    UN Chairperson

    The Unified Government of the early 2050's

    ?

    Speculation

    After the First Interstellar War, there was a need for a strong leadership. Strong leadership doesn't come from councils that negotiate, bicker, and drag their feet before a decision gets tabled. Therefore, lines of leadership would most likely have followed that of the military (strict chains of command, some decisions made via consensus at a "board meeting", but final decisions usually falling to one person). This would've made the Unified Government into the well-oiled machine that it needed to be to undertake the megaprojects seen after the First Interstellar War (mass cloning of humanity, (re)building of the Earth Defenses and the Unified Space Forces Fleet, and creating the Emigrant Fleets).

    However, with this type of power comes entrenchment - people in leadership rolls would not want to give them up easily. In addition, problems emerged as elections became based on cults of personality more then of capability. The basic result is that at the end of every governmental term, a partial or completely whole new batch of department/ministry heads would arrive, all of them being fairly clueless to the decisions that they have to start making from the word "go". The problem is that the "true" leadership would then fall to the non-elected department/ministry heads who would only give the elected department/ministry head the "right" information to make the "right" decision.

    How does the Anti-UN fit into all of this? They are the Anti-UN because they are protesting something about the Unified Government. Historically, what have a lot of people protested their (former) governments about? Lack of representation. Therefore, if the Unified Government is an authoritarian, pseudo-dictatorship in the guise of a "guided democracy", then we arrive at a very big motivation for the Anti-UN.

    This adds to our RPG as it creates the options of: a wicked leader pretending to be good only to further his/her personal goals (or the opposite, a good leader fighting off the wicked), surrounded by "yes-men", back stabbers toeing the line until they can strike and/or leadership officials that donft give a damn because in toeing the line they meet achieve their personal ambitions (or get the keys to fulfilling them.)

    Having an oppressive, authoritarian regime (which imprisons/executes those who are outspoken against its policies) as the leadership core of the Unified Government makes for much more interesting storytelling then an unwieldy, slow, democratic parliamentarian democracy (akin to the ruling council in Star Wars Eps I & II).

    REFERENCES
  • the Macross Compendium
  • All of the Macross releases (animated, game, book) to date.
  • The members of the MRG and MRC.

    • © Aaron Sketchley
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