SWM wrote:Zakharra wrote:[i
No, it is not the collapse of the federal government. The Solarian League is not comparable to the federal government of the United States, or any other organization currently on Earth. 99% of all governance in the Solarian League takes place on the system level, not the League level. The League has almost no power over individual member governments. While it looks monumental, in reality it is just a loose affiliation. The Solarian League as a government actually has almost no effect on the economies of individual members. If you want to compare it to something, compare it to the collapse of a slightly stronger United Nations which has its own military but not much more power to govern its members.[/i]
No. It is the collapse of the federal government. The entire edifice is starting to totter and it's going to fall and shatter. The federal government controls the ministries, which ARE the bureaucracies, which control regulations, the SLN FF/BF, regulate the money. Interstellar commerce is under federal control, not local system control. They do the licensing. In short, the federal government controls a hell of a lot. It's not as decentralized as you say. Certainly not only 1% control. No government can maintain control with only 1%. It seems like a fairly centralized government, with power concentrated in the ministries rather than the Assembly of Delegates.
Don't foreget that Admiral Tsang was of the opinion that Federal control did supersede local control, and from what I've seen in the books, that is by no means an isolated viewpoint. It seems to be very common in fact, that the federal government does have a lot of control and ways they can control systems, through use of economic warfare, access to warp termini, subtle and not so subtle pressure brought on by the FF and BF (Case Buccaneer for example).
I believe you are grossly overestimating the power of the central League government. David has explicitly stated that the League government has very little effect on the daily activities of the populations of the member systems. General Tsang's opinion obviously was not shared by the member system which he was trying to bully, and that will be true throughout the League member systems.
Case Buccaneer was aimed at systems not in the League. And the League does not actually control any wormholes--that is held by individual systems.
I agree that the federal government doesn't have a direct effect on the day to day lives of most of the people in the systems, but they -do- control the interstellar government and interstellar commerce, the ministries do the licensing, negotiate trade agreements, make the rules and regulations and the laws governing it. So there is a lot of citizens that are directly impacted and in the long run, all of them are impacted if interstellar trade suffers. That's not an insignificant amount of control.
The books mention that there is big concern in the financial and trade ministries at the chasm that is looming because of the slowed trade. They also mention that if it goes on long enough, and it will, even they say any disruption, even if the League had taken Manticore, would have caused problems. Now that they have failed, it's inevitable that the SL's economy is going to be hurting badly. This is causing member systems economies to suffer sine they all depend upon interstellar trade to prosper. No trade, no prosperity.
Beowulf is one of the few systems at the time that believes in the SL constitution and upheld it. The system population a lot more inclined to be politically active and have trustworthy leaders. They aren't complacent, unlike many other worlds. I'm sure their political, military and economic contacts with Manticore has helped too. I think that almost every other system would have acquiesced to Admiral Tsang's demands rather than stand up to her. Remember her line; 'But the Constitution was what accepted practice made it, not some dead letter document which hadn't functioned properly on over six hundred T-years!' I don;t think that's a belief limited to just a few people.
Admiral Tsang and Beowulf clearly disagreed on what the powers of the federal government were and both sides thought they were right. This means to me that the attitude of Tsang are not isolated but are likely fairly common. Re,member in the Assembly debate, there was a lot of talk of how Beowulf had committed treason by refusing to cooperate and threatening to fire upon TF 11.6 if the SLN force used armed force to make the Beowulf/Solarian citizens* operating the Terminus controls to pass TF 11.6 through.
* one of the basis of the argument Beowulf had was that the Beowulf personnel there also Solarian citizens, not just Beowulf, but Solarian.
Case Buccaneer or a version of it could be easily turned on recalcitrant SL systems if they look to be giving the federal government trouble. Look at what they are going to try to do to Beowulf for daring to try and secede from the SL even though that is in the constitution? The League does control the licensing of the companies that run the wormholes. The Shingaine Convention is Solarian law and guarantees free access through the warp termini the League controls and the fees for using them is one of the ways the ministries get funding. Transit fees and such are also one of the revenue sources for the ministries and why the OFS was allowed to be set up the way it is. Most warp termini are outside of the legally recognized territory of the star systems (the reason why the Mandarins think they can get away with taking Beowulf. If they make it clear they are punishing the system/government, the Manties will stand by and let it happen since the wormhole isn't Beowulf property or in Beowulf territory, legally.
