Star Trek Universe Has What Type Of Govt?

It appears that they have a one world government yet with a capitalist system. However Star Fleet seems to be separate and very militarily based and is a huge part of their political system also.

If we were to go the way of the Star Trek universe is this the type of world we should look forward too in 500 years or so?

 

It's a Federal system. Each planet is basically a state. They have their own laws but have to agree to the, what is it called, Federation Charter to be members. This means that they can't have laws which go against the laws of the Federation.

The Federation is quite socialist especially in later series when money has been abolished. Day to day needs are met through technology, such as replicators.

Star Fleet, while based on the military, and certainly acts as the military during times of war, is more of an exploration and scientific unit. Think about how exporation was done back in the day of sail. A lot of those captains were sailing around exploring and discovering things in the name of science, but their ships tended to be armed and in times of war they would fight.

Star Fleet for instance, from memory (a number of my friends are die hard bloody Trekkies) isn't allowed to have ships that are only war ships except during actual times of war. This is why their ships, even heavily armed ones, tend to have a lot of scientific equipment on them.

 

Well, the Newt would be moon commander for sure. Not sure. Multiple wives for everybody with the Mittser? Maybe just cheat on them and not worry about the Mormon thing. F'd up for sure....

 

There is no freedom in the Star Trek universe.

 

Star Trek wanted to have a basically "good" government and a happy earth where poverty and war didn't exist.

Wisely, they decided the best way to do that was to be extremely light on the political details and get on with the story having established who the good guys are.

Also the united federation of planets is more like the UN, only moreso. Individual planets would have their own governments.


It's also not so clear at all what sort of economic system they have. They don't have money, except when they do, and they have credits beyond that whatever those are.

I've thought that it might be something like the military, and your civilian "rank" determines what you can have and do, credits might be like credits at an arcade. You can use them for certain things, but not others. So you can't exactly bribe people, but a successful business would accumulate more credits, which might raise the "rank" of the owner.

Also with their technology it isn't such a drain if you have people that just want to lay around all day and play video games. Not that anyone is ever depicted that way.

 

I know there is quite an extensive library of Star Trek books so I was curious if they've gone deeper into the political system on earth than the movies or television series went.

Maybe some trekkie here knows.

 

They never go fully into the politics. Remember, each series and movie has revolved around Star Fleet characters and they tend to follow their orders, except when their orders are illegal.

The Federation has a president. How much power the president has isn't explored, but the planets in the Federation seem to exist in a politican entity where state rights (the rights of the planet) are very important, except where they are at odds with the ideals of the Federation. So a planet in the United Federation of Planets can't have the death penalty, since the death penalty is illegal under the laws of the Federation, but they're free to make and pass laws on their own planets as they basically see fit.

The UFP isn't like the UN. Different planets in the UFP aren't member states of an extragovernment organisation. The different species in the UFP are all members of the same government, as in how Texans and New Yorkers, or Queenslanders and Western Australians are all members of members of either the USA or the Commonwealth of Australia. The states within the USA or Australia can make their owns laws as long as those laws aren't in violation of either nation's constitution and laws which the constitution allows those nations federal governments to make.

 

From what I understand, the fictitious historical development that leads from the 1960s to the 23rd century, where they don't have money, is detailed in a whole bunch of novels (that I've never read) of varying quality and many of which contradict each other.

What I do know, from the source material I've read (mostly some RPG books), is that they don't have money, but they will create money on demand when dealing with external economies that do use currency. They're careful about doing this for all the obvious reasons.

Now, by they, I mean the Terran government, not the UFP. The United Federation of Planets includes a number of different civilizations and diverse economies. Some UFP planets are heavy into money, while others, like Earth, have basically developed to a point that money is literally more trouble than it's worth.

The general assumption among nerds concerned is that technology has become so abundant that every person on Earth is capable of practical independence, but personally, I have some problems with that theory. First, in the brief glimpses we get of life on Earth in the 23rd and 24th centuries, technology doesn't appear to be all that abundant. Everybody assumes that because the Enterprise has a holodeck and matter replicators that everyone on Earth must have access to these things, but I say that just because we have submarines with nuclear reactors it doesn't follow that everyone uses one to brown their toast in the family kitchen. When Sisko puts in a shift at the family restaurant, he uses a knife to peel potatoes, not some high-tech tool.

I think that the evolution from capitalism to the sort of admittedly Utopian ideal expressed in Star Trek must be at least as philosophical as it is technological. Indeed, advances in technology without a commensurate advance in culture and philosophy seems to really screw people over.

When the Vulcans made themselves known, the human mind was forced to expand in paradigm. Realizing the new stakes, it is only logical for humanity to trade information and resources as freely as possible -- which means a true free market, a post-trade economy. Nothing is traded, only given freely without expectation of compensation. When you know that the Klingons are coming, you don't hoard your ammo, you pass it out to everybody. Unless, that is, you are a complete and utter moron.

Of course, if you follow the Trek timeline, there's a lot of war and strife and misery between the 1960s, where their timeline diverges chiefly from our own, and the later centuries where things get all Utopian.

Incidentally, I'm not sure how Starfleet is funded.

 

Oh. In answer to the OP's actual question, it's basically a representative democracy, pretty close to America's. They have a president, legislature, judges, and so on. I'm not sure how representative it is, or if it's more direct, or what. But Earth is one big democracy in Trek.

As for why they have a government basically like our own, but they have a Utopia and we have ... y'know ... what we have ... I think it's the same as the technological question. It's not really about the form of government you have, or at least it's not so much about the specifics. It's at least as much cultural and philosophical as it is about establishing the perfect set of rules.

 

I've always been curious myself. As stated before it seems that there is no currency in the federation. Some planets have their own currency, some such as Earth do not. People seem to be free to do whatever they want with replicators providing all needs. It seems that people who join Starfleet do so not for monetary reasons but for other reasons much like the current military. Some people really want to explore or be a part of something, and Starfleet fills that niche. As was mentioned before Starfleet is an organization of exploration and while all ships are armed, and well armed, there are no designated warships other than in times of war. That's part of what made the Defiant so unique in Deep Space 9. The defiant was a warship; it had no family quarters, lacked scientific instruments, and was overpowered for its size.

It's hard to say exactly what the government of Star Trek is but it seems to be based around peaceful co-existence in a world where all necessities are provided and money doesn't matter. That said there is no population of people who just lay about doing nothing, which there almost certainly would be.

As for the currency thing there is one thing that seems to exist; trade. Replicators can make a lot of things but they can't make everything. Food is not as good, I doubt it can make gold pressed latinum which is apparently a major inter-species currency, and I'm sure there is a great deal more nuance with what can and cannot be done. This means original items are likely of value which allows for people to trade for other items. There is always favors and such as well. It's hard to say because the shows never really go into that. They mostly emphasis peaceful explorations that turns into violence.

 

They do mention that latinum can't be replicated which is why various races have chosen it as currency.

Plus there are "greedy" people in Star Trek. They become traders and fly around the galaxy, or as far as they can get, trading with alien races and aquiring wealth. I guess it'd be a bit hard to go on a holiday into alien space where they used latinum if you didn't have any.

 

It's a whole lot easier when you don't have to worry about need though! By eliminating need through technology you no longer have need for currency. If everyone can just pump out a sandwich, water, a house, etc, then there's not much issue. So long as enough of society decides to advance themselves and learn you can end up with a system very much like Star Trek. If they don't, well so long as you have enough people willing to keep up the replicators who cares! The only problem with either scenario is if someone decides to control the replicators, because then everyone is screwed.

 

Just have to find other things that can't be replicated, well that or sell your body. I'm sure there's a cure for space hepisifilgonoria.

 

In one episode they show the original EMH programme, after it was discontinued from use as an EMH, being used as janitors. I guess not many people would choose to do that as a job and so a hologram is perfect for it.

 

They do have to trade for some stuff, that's true ... or at least, they do trade for some stuff, whether they have to or not. It's entirely possible that they sit on untouched reserves of dilithium and then trade for the the dilithium that they actually use (which I hold to be a wise strategy).

Incidentally, I seem to recall that in the case of gold-pressed latinum, the gold is considered worthless beyond its ability to contain latinum. At least by the Ferengi.

 

That's true, and it also showed that the Federation still had it's own issues. They did not consider the EMH to be a sentient being, though the Doctor showed fairly conclusively that they were, if allowed to be atleast. I actually went through DS9 a few months back and it's pretty crazy how much relevant stuff is in that show. The fight with the Dominion against changlings really had overtones of where America is heading with terrorism well before 9/11 even occurred. It's pretty nuts.

 

Yeah, latinum is a liquid and so requires a vessel to hold it.

 

Heh I remember that too lol. I see what you're saying as well with dilithium. It seems the Federation requires outsides currencies, which is reasonable, but doesn't seem to require internal currency. Sure would be nice that's for sure. I wouldn't have to work, I could just go study robotics and start working on that for fun and hopefully in the end come up with something good that people would enjoy or find useful. Instead I've got to work and study at the same time (or go even further into student debt). Meh, with any luck I'll still end up making something that will either help us or entertain us before I die.

 

A better and nobler ambition than many I've heard of.

 

Well, they still have credits, and they still fund things, and buy things. However that exists alongside the no money bit. Which makes me thing that credits aren't quite like money, and perhaps more like credits at an arcade where you can only use them in specific ways.

On starfleet ships people are limited in various ways when it comes to access to facilities and to how much they can use the replicators. But that might just be a ship thing.

They trade for a lot of things they could replicate as well.

I figure that replicators are a bit like our rapid prototyping machines today. Yeah, they'll make that wrench, but the effective cost would be hundred of dollars.

Great things to have on starships, where budgets are on a whole different level, but expensive to use on a commercial level.

 

Or, like in the case of the United States, use the threat of government violence to make certain forms of currency illegal.

 

On the contrary, you have pretty absolute freedom. You no longer have to worry about any basic needs so you can pursue whatever field or career you want rather than having to be a wage-slave to survive.

It's what is going to happen right here on Earth once nanotech fully matures.

 

The elite will not allow that to happen.

 

They may not have a choice. Someone will develop nanotech independently and it will crash the entire economy.

 

I always thought the federation was a mirror to the UN or NATO. Yes the federation is all about peaceful exploration, but it is also a military alliance with Starfleet being its main fleet. Because like anything there are always others who do not share your opinions, such as the klingon empire and the romulan star empire who are the federations biggest threats (depending on which era for klingons).

Here is the federations only "warship".

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJZbCNexctc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJZbCNexctc[/ame]