Skip to main content

What political system does Star Trek's Federation operate under?


I've watched all of the Original Series and The Next Generation, and bits of Deep Space 9 and Voyager, all of the movies, but none of the more recent series, or the books. In all of the material I've seen, events tend to mostly focus on Starfleet (understandable, in that the action takes place on Starfleet ships/stations, and the main characters are Starfleet officers). I'm curious how the non-military, non-exploratory parts of the Federation government work.


Clearly, there are individual planetary governments, and some kind of federal government "on top of" that. Does each planetary government send delegates to some central governing body? Do they get population-based representation, one vote per planet, or what? Does the Federation have a "security council" like the United Nations, where some members are "more equal than others"?


What is the Federation government charged with? They're in charge of scientific exploration/defense (via Starfleet), but what else do they do?



I've read the Memory Alpha page on the Federation, and it's very vague, mostly just references to government bureaus or departments that are off-hand mentioned in one episode or another. I figured there might be sources with more detail - like the Enterprise series, which I gather has to do with the early period of the Federation, or maybe in another medium altogether.



Answer



The Starfleet Technical Manual contains a complete copy of the "Articles of Federation" that were agreed by the original members of the United Federation of Planets on Stardate 0965.


Although this book is generally considered 'non-canon', material from it has been used in several episodes of TNG, Trek films and throughout DS9 and Voyager.


As you can see, the Federation Charter is very heavily modeled on the United Nations Charter.


I'll paraphrase the main points;



Primary Articles


0) The primary purpose of the United Federation of Planets (UFP) is the mutual pursuit of peace as well as cultural, financial, humanitarian and social interaction.


0.1) The UFP will not intervene in "matters which are essentially the domestic jurisdiction of any planetary social system"



0.2) The UFP is based on the Sovereign Equality of all of its members.


1) Membership of the Federation is subject to the unanimous agreement of the Supreme Assembly.


2) The Supreme Assembly of the Federation can temporarily or permanently remove UFP membership.


3) The main bodies of the UFP are; The Supreme Assembly, The Federation Council, The Economic and Social Council, The Interplanetary Court of Justice, The Star Fleet and the Secretariat.


Supreme Assembly


1) The Supreme Council consists of all members of the UFP and is responsible for the "peaceful adjustment" of any situation involving UFP members, managing the budget of the UFP and promoting mutual cooperation between UFP members.


2) The expense of the UFP is borne by all members, as apportioned by the Supreme Assembly.


3) Each planet has one vote on the Supreme Assembly.


4) Supreme Assembly unanimity is required for decisions regarding UFP membership, suspension and expulsion as well as setting and apportioning the budget of the UFP.


5) The Supreme Assembly will vote for a 'President of the Supreme Assembly' each session



Federation Council


1) The Federation Council will consist of 11 members.


2) There are 5 permanent members of the Federation Council; Earth, The Planetary Confederation of 40 Eridani, the United Planets of 61 Cygni, The Star Empire of Epsilon Indii and the Alpha Centauri Concordium of Planets.


3) All other members of the UFP will periodically take seats on the Federation Council


4) The Federation Council is responsible for prompt action regarding interplanetary security (including the prosecution of sanctions, blockades and the severance of diplomatic relations) unless explicitly over-ridden by a unanimous vote of the Supreme Assembly.


Trusteeship Council


1) The Trusteeship Council will accept and arbitrate on petitions and disputes involving UFP members.


Star Fleet


1) "There is established an Star Fleet as an armed peace-keeping force of the UFP".


2) The Star Fleet is permanently under the control of the Federation Council.



3) The Star Fleet is to be used for scientific exploration when not being used for the purposes of maintaining interplanetary peace.


Economic + Social Council


1) The Economic council will aim to secure higher standards of living, full employment and fundamental freedoms for all UFP Citizens


2) UFP members agree to fundamentally accept the rights of all intelligent lifeforms regardless of gender, culture, language or religion.


3) UFP members should act as "good neighbours" toward non-UFP members in outlying regions.



Articles of Federation


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...