TEN YEARS AFTER: NOTES ON THE MATURE ORGANIZATIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE OF THE NEW REPUBLIC

by Donn Gulek, Chief Historian, Kellmer Institute

MEMBERSHIP IN THE NEW REPUBLIC

The New Republic is a voluntary confederation organized on democratic principles under a common Charter and in accord with the ideals and purposes embodied in the Declaration of A New Republic.

Primary (voting) membership is available to any independent sovereign political entity representing one or more unified planetary populations, or to other recognized and definable territories. Membership follows an application process (during which the candidate member reviews the Charter and other governing statutes and agrees to abide by them) and an assessment process (during which the candidate member's annual Support contribution is determined).

Affiliate (nonvoting) membership is available to subordinate political units (for example, the individual members of a league of worlds) and to duly recognized representatives of sentient species not constituting a political unit.

THE SENATE

The government of the New Republic is organized around a unicameral legislative body called the Senate. Primary members are represented in the Senate by a Senator. Each Senator has a single vote, regardless of the population represented. Affiliate members are represented on Coruscant by a Legate, who may speak in general sessions of the Senate, but may not vote on official Senate business (to avoid dual representation) or serve in the Senate's various working bodies.

As a body with a large and potentially unlimited membership, the Senate-in-whole is an almost impossibly unwieldy structure for getting work done. Consequently, most of the real governance is performed by the Senate's councils, committees, and commissions. The daily business of the Senate proper is primarily speech-making and public debate.

• Councils are appointed bodies with autonomous decision-making and appropriation authority over some segment of government operations (see chart) outside the Senate proper (for example, the Defense Council, which oversees the Navy). The most populous and powerful members of the New Republic are disproportionately represented on the Senate's councils.
• Committees are elected bodies with the authority to administer various aspects of Senate operations, including the general budget. They are semi-autonomous; in the event of a unanimous committee vote, the approval of Senate-in-whole is not required (however, the Senate-in-whole may override a less-than-unanimous committee decision with a 3/5 majority).
• Commissions are voluntary bodies with an advisory capacity only. They may prepare reports on issues of concern for presentation to the President of the Senate, to the First Administrator, to First Admiral, or to the general membership; schedule and conduct hearings; and contract for independent research.

THE PRESIDENT

The President of the Senate, elected by a 3/5 majority of the Senators, is chief of state of the New Republic and commander in chief of the Fleet.

The President can be recalled by a majority vote of the Senate on presentation of a petition of no-confidence by a 3/5 majority of the Ruling Council, or by 1/4 of the primary members of the Senate. The election of a President may be blocked by the Ruling Council on a unanimous vote.

In practice, the power of the Ruling Council to void an election and initiate the recall of a sitting President means that any candidate proposed by or approved by the Ruling Council is likely to be elected by the Senate. [Note: it is in this sense that Mon Mothma "appointed" Leia as her successor.]

THE GENERAL MINISTRY

The General Ministry is the non-military bureaucracy of the New Republic. It is organized into several large permanent Ministries (Security, Commerce, Science, etc.), smaller task-oriented service Agencies (operating the machinery of navigation, communications, port operations, official records, etc.), and various semi-independent Institutes (Obroan Institute for Archaeology, Astrographic Survey Institute, etc.).

The First Administrator, appointed by the Ministry Council with the approval of the President of the Senate, heads the New Republic General Ministry. He reports to the chief of state and serves at his pleasure.

THE FLEET

The New Republic Defense Fleet (sometimes still called the Navy) is the military arm of the New Republic. It operates five full battle groups, each consisting of a hundred or more warships, transports and support vessels, and including ground troop divisions and starfighter wings. The bureaucracy includes Fleet Command, the Intelligence Section, the Technology Section, and the Quartermaster.

The Supreme Commander, appointed by the Defense Council with the approval of the President of the Senate, heads the Defense Fleet. He reports to the chief of state and serves at his pleasure.

THE COURT OF JUSTICE

The members of the Court of Justice are selected by the Senate Justice Council from a list of nominees presented by the President of the Senate. The First Justice is elected by the other members of the Court from among their number.

Nominally independent, the power of the Court of Justice is limited by its narrowly-defined jurisdiction: to review charges of violations of the Charter by members or by the other branches of the New Republic's government. The Court of Justice does not serve as the court of last appeal for ordinary civil and criminal cases; they are settled by local judicial authorities on member worlds.

A Visual Guide to New Republic Government (943x1324 - 35K GIF)

Notes on the New Republic Government Visual Guide

1. The Order of the Jedi and Jedi Academy are independent of the New Republic government, though supportive of it.
2. The Inner Council no longer has any official status, though its members are available to advise the President on an informal basis.
3. The Provisional Council has been supplanted by the Senate and its various bodies.
4. The Ruling Council consists of the chairmen of the Senate councils and the president of the Senate.
5. The Cabinet consists of the heads of the various ministries.
6. The various Senate councils have oversight and financing authority over the corresponding Ministries (e.g., the Commerce Council oversees and approves the budget of the Ministry of Commerce).
7. The President may select any member of the Ruling Council to conduct the business of the Senate in her absence from that body.
8. If the president should become incapacitated, incommunicado, or die, the chairman of the ministry council is first in line of succession (followed by defence, commerce, and justice, in that order) and becomes acting president. The Ministry Council selects an acting Chief of State from among the following: any former President; the current Minister of State; any former Minister of State.
9. The Declaration of A New Republic sets forth the principles to which the New Republic is dedicated; the Common Charter is the actual mechanism by which planets become members, and specifies both the rights and duties of members, and the various institutions of government and their powers. The Common Charter was a creation of the transitional Provisional Council.
10. Since the reorganization of the military into a single unified command, the former Minister of Defense is now called the Supreme Commander, and the posts of Minister of the Army and Minister of the Navy have been abolished.
11. When the Senate meets as a committee of the whole, it is sometimes referred to as the New Republic Assembly
12. The Katarn Commandos have been absorbed into the Special Operations division of Fleet Intelligence.

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