On 11 March 2018 at 12:50, Cian Witherspoon <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

When it comes to interstellar empires, we could classify them by how much they deal with planetary governments.

Distant empires don't interfere with local matters at all - sort of like the relationship between the US Congress and the town council of some place out in the middle of Wyoming. All the empire cares about is that the taxes come in and the planet doesn't rebel. The Third Imperium is a Distant empire in some interpretations.

Dear gang,

I think that the relationship between US Congress and the town council is very much tighter than the local oversight that would be present in a "distant empire" (or a confederation). 

Though the Congress might not interfere in the day-to-day running of the town council itself, the council only operates in a milieu that is very much dictated by national laws.  Any attempt by a US local government to ignore national legislation would be ... problematic.  Definitely local citizens would feel a right, and have an ability to (generally effectively) to appeal to higher levels of government to protect themselves from outright abuses by a town council.

In a "distant empire", representatives of the empire might find themselves having to operate very much either (a) hidden from the local government, or (b) dependent on local government goodwill.

I'm listening to "Revolutions" podcast by Mike Duncan at the moment.  I can't imagine how frustrating it must have been to have been a local French commissioner or Governor trying to enforce the will of metropolitan (Revolutionary) France in distant colony of Saint Domingue (now Haiti) while depending on being able to play the local power sources off against one another.  In that case "distant empire" was purely due to physical distance, as metropolitan France definitely wanted to impose its will on the colony.  (Applications to jump-limited communications in Traveller are obvious.)  In the modern US, communications with the capital are instant, and travel in person to almost anywhere in the US takes only a few hours.  The situations are radically different.

Cheers,

KB.

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