Political Science Notes {PS}

Introduction
The Political Science is one of the most important social sciences created by the mankind. Not only does it influence everyone's life, but also everyone may participate in it by direct or indirect actions. By joining the Imperial Directorate and by taking this course, you have decided to participate in politics with direct actions. Before starting, just remember that in your political career in the Imperial Directorate: Not everyone is interested in politic, but politic is interested by everyone.

The Basic
During the reign of the Empire, you must not have learned a lot about other kind of rules, except maybe the Republic, Old and New. However, there's a lot more kind of leadership in the galaxy. Before explaining them, let's start with the basic teachings of politics. Every kind of government falls in one of the following categories: The Left, the Centre and the Right concepts.

The Left wing is the one that gathers ideas like communism, socialism, etc. The Left wants reforms, social justice and it thinks that inequality between people can be thrown away. The Left thinks that mankind can always be improved, so it can achieve a perfect way to live with others. The Left wing is anti-capitalist and wants support from the State. It's pacifist, desire a cosmopolitan and secular society and it's against racism in any forms. Leftists like difference, so they support a cosmopolitan society. Finally, the Left wing prefers the union of workers because they're the majority of the society.

The Right wing is the one that gathers ideas like capitalism, fascism, etc. The Right respects the established order, gives priority to the hierarchic order and believes in inequality. It refuses the perfectibility of mankind, so that's why it needs laws and general surveillance. The Right wing supports capitalism and it's against too much support from the State. As it was said before, the Right wing is for a strong authority: strong police forces, strong military forces, etc. The Rightists support racism. **WARNING**: That doesn't mean that every Right party are Human (or any races) supremacists. Racism here means that it believes that someone/something else is above the majority. Example: The Empire prefers Human to anything else. Some society hates old people, females/males, etc. Rightists support a strong nationalism and faith in religion. Finally, they're supporting employers because they're the "elite" class of society.

Finally, there's the Centre wing. The Centre is not a real concept by itself: it's the middle between the Left and the Right wing. Take note that there's no true or pure Centre wing: the Centrists are either supporting a little much the Left or the Right. **WARNING**: Some people might argue that pure Centre wing exists. It's up to you to think they're right or not. The main points are Left and Right concepts. Therefore, the Centre is generally known as either Left-Centre or Right-Centre. These are obviously showing which wings the Centre government is supporting.

That's about it for the Basic chapter. The next and final chapter is Type of Government, which is about different type of governments that are present in the galaxy.

Type of Government
Anarchism: There are two types of anarchism in the galaxy: unwanted anarchism and wanted anarchism. Unwanted anarchism is quite simple to explain: it's the state of a State where there's no ruling body because the former ruling body was removed, generally by force. We all know an example of unwanted anarchism: The death of the Emperor created unwanted anarchy in the Empire. Wanted anarchy is not present in vast area in the galaxy. It's generally tested in small groups. In anarchy, there is no illegal authority. The legal authority, like parents, is voted or accepted by the society. Anarchy is total freedom of the people. Some primitive clans on primitive planets are anarchists. (In RL, some cities and villages in Spain, during the civil war, were in wanted anarchy.)

Communism: Communism is present on some isolated planets of the galaxy. In a communist planet, the society rules itself. The Government is nearly gone, along with the police and army. Communism can only be achieved by socialism first. It should be noted that in a communist planet, there is a surplus of resource, since everybody takes what they need, nothing more. (In RL, there was never a true communist country. As stupid as it seems, the Smurfs are what a true communist society would looks like.)

Socialism: A socialist planet is where the proletarians are the dictators (Proletarian Dictatorship). The revolution that put them at the head of the government was probably done by force. Although a peaceful revolution is possible, the chance that the former government accept the revolution is quite small, so that's why a violent revolution is needed. In a socialist planet, the State is strong and centralized. It has an army and police forces. The economy is nationalized and planned: the State envisages the quantity, the prices and the wages. Finally, the goal of the government is to create a collective conscience, so Communism could be achieved. (In RL, Cuba is somehow a socialist country. Some people might argue that USSR, China and other countries with similar models were/are socialists. It's up to you to judge it.)

Monarchy: There's a lot of monarchist planet on the galaxy. One of the most popular is the monarchy of Alderaan. There's also the one of Naboo, although it's an exception. In a monarchy, the powers are hereditary. The powers are concentrated in only one man ( The State, it's me – Louis XIV) or in a small group of people (then called oligarchy). Sometimes, the government is made of a special group of people: plutocracy when the power is in the hand of merchants, magocracy when the power is in the hand of magicians (Force-users), theocracy when the power is in the hand of religious people, etc.

There's different type of monarchy:
Absolute: God gives power to the monarch. (There's no more Absolute monarchy in RL, although some Arab countries are still governed by something nearly similar)
Constitutional: A Constitution gives the power to the monarch. Usually, these powers are obsolete. ( In RL, Monaco or Sweden are good examples of constitutional monarchy.)
Parliamentary: The power of the monarch is given by the parliament. (In RL, Great Britain was a parliamentary monarchy for a long time. Now, it is widely known as a Constitutional monarchy.)

Democracy: Democracy is the power to the people. In a democracy, people votes to show their opinion. There are two kinds of democracy:
Direct: The population participates actively in the democracy. Obviously, the most popular democracy of the galaxy is the Republic or the New Republic.
Indirect: People votes for representatives.
(In RL, there are no countries with direct democracy. The US is a good example of an indirect democracy.)

Dictatorship: The power in a dictatorship is in the hand of a dictator. Generally, this dictator is an individual or a group of people (generally the army). The power of a dictatorship got his basis in the army. The power was taken by force and it is maintained by force. A dictatorship is a capitalist planet, so it leaves an active private sector in the planet as long as it doesn't threaten the government. It should be noted that dictatorship often happens on a planet that doesn't have an experience with democracy. Also, it should be noted that the army is the only institution of a dictatorship. (In RL, Pakistan is a good example of a dictatorship.)

Totalitarianism: In a totalitarian country, the State got a total domination on the society. The power is in the hand of a restricted group. This group is generally the only political party permitted and no opposition is permitted. The base of the society is a unique ideology. Totalitarianism is against pluralism at all levels, nothing must interfere with the government. There are no such things as private sector: everything is political. The State is everywhere. "Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State." Mussolini. (In RL, Cuba, the USSR and Nazi Germany are good examples of totalitarian countries. Big Brother, in 1984, is also a totalitarian country.)

Conclusion
As you must be aware, there are many things missing in the course. There may be some things that you do not agree with, and that's okay. After all, political science is a science in which you must debate!
However, this was only the basic course. An advanced course will come someday. Let me finish the course with a citation of an unknown author:
"Not everyone is interested in politic, but politic is interested in everyone."