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Star Wars: the Fascism Awakens Representation and Its Failure from the Weimar Republic to the Galactic Senate Chapman Rackaway University of West Georgia

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Star Wars: the Fascism Awakens Representation and Its Failure from the Weimar Republic to the Galactic Senate Chapman Rackaway University of West Georgia STAR WARS: THE FASCISM AWAKENS 7 Star Wars: The Fascism Awakens Representation and its Failure from the Weimar Republic to the Galactic Senate Chapman Rackaway University of West Georgia Whether in science fiction or the establishment of an earthly democracy, constitutional design matters especially in the realm of representation. Democracies, no matter how strong or fragile, can fail under the influence of a poorly constructed representation plan. Two strong examples of representational failure emerge from the post-WWI Weimar Republic and the Galactic Republic’s Senate from the Star Wars saga. Both legislatures featured a combination of overbroad representation without minimum thresholds for minor parties to be elected to the legislature and multiple non- citizen constituencies represented in the body. As a result both the Weimar Reichstag and the Galactic Senate fell prey to a power-hungry manipulating zealot who used the divisions within their legislature to accumulate power. As a result, both democracies failed and became tyrannical governments under despotic leaders who eventually would be removed but only after wars of massive casualties. Representation matters, and both the Weimer legislature and Galactic Senate show the problems in designing democratic governments to fairly represent diverse populations while simultaneously limiting the ability of fringe groups to emerge. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of representative democracies. A poor evil is for good men to do nothing.” constitutional design can even lead to tyranny. – Edmund Burke (1848) Among the flaws most potentially damaging to a republic is a faulty representational “So this is how liberty dies … with structure. Republics can actually build too thunderous applause.” - Padme Amidala (Star much representation into their structures, the Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, 2005) result of which is tyranny as a byproduct of democratic failure. Introduction In two notable instances, fascism was borne of democracy because of the failings Designing democracies is one of the most built into the representational structures of difficult processes any society may decide to each of the systems. From the post-World War undertake. The process is so fraught that I Weimar Republic of Germany and the Benjamin Franklin, after being asked what Galactic Republic of the Star Wars saga, clear kind of government he and his colleagues had examples of representational design failure created during their four months in midwifing the birth of totalitarianism. By Philadelphia as he departed Independence allowing fringe groups access to the Hall, replied “A republic … if you can keep it.” policymaking arm of a republic, both systems Keeping republics is difficult, but made much created their own doom and provided lessons more so by improper or flawed constitutional in constitutional design for fictional and real design. worlds. Flawed constitutional design can lead to any number of ills, from correctible issues of Cold Warrior: George Lucas’ Influences election maintenance to fatal flaws dooming Rackaway, C. (2020). Star Wars: The Fascism Awakens: Representation and its Failure from the Weimar Republic to the Galactic Senate. Studies in the Social Sciences, 1(1), 7-22 8 RACKAWAY Some of the parallels between Weimar an assembly in Weimar in 1919, giving the Germany and the rise of Empire in Star Wars government its common name until its failure may be tacitly by design. Star Wars’ creator, in 1933. (Eyck 1962) George Lucas, took inspiration from a panoply World War I exacted a significant toll on of sources but the most influential may have the German Empire, led with iron fist by Kaiser been his youth in the aftermath of World War Wilhelm II. Wilhelm’s desire for control and II and the height of the Cold War. Born in 1944 expansion of the Empire led to his excessive as World War II was in its late phases, Lucas reliance on military advisors for vision, but and fellow baby boom generation members those military advisors helped stretch were profoundly influenced by the geopolitics Germany’s resources too thinly between of their youth. Lucas could not have learned multiple fronts, and by 1918 Wilhelm had recent history without understanding the abdicated this throne and fled into exile, circumstances that led to the rise of NAZI leaving a nation in crisis. (Peukert 1993) power in Germany, and scholars have The vacuum of executive leadership led to suggested that the influence of that era Germany participating minimally if at all in the impacted the Star Wars universe in significant war-ended Treaty of Versailles. The treaty not ways. (Bastiansen, Klimke, and Werenskjold only ended the war but imposed two 2018) significant restrictions on the new republic While Bastiansen and colleagues focus on that would hinder its development and using Star Wars as the inspiration for public exacerbate the representational design issues policy, the inverse is also a valuable insight present in the new constitution. First, Germany into global politics. President Reagan’s was ordered to pay massive reparations which Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was would damage the post-war economy, and nicknamed Star Wars in a potent example of second the Empire was ordered to disband its life imitating art. Lucas had used other standing army. (Kaes et al. 1994) historical and current-day cues in his work, Post-WWI Germany was a chaotic place. further suggesting an analog between the Under dictatorial rule during the age of the design of the Old Republic and the real-life Kaiser, the wartime defeat Germany suffered Weimar government. For instance, others saw brought a wide variety of interests to the fore. cues from the rise of Napoleon, in the Vietnam Two primary groups, the Independent Social War, and of-the-time political leaders such as Democratic Party and the Social Democratic former U.S House Speaker Newt Gingrich in Party, emerged as arms of popular movements. Lucas’ stories from the films and canonical The old aristocracy asserted itself, with self- literature surrounding the Star Wars universe. styled regent successors to Kaiser Wilhelm, (Reagin and Liedl 2012) such as Baden’s Prince Max becoming public leaders of movements. Private niche Constitutional Design: Weimar organizations also emerged, such as the Spartacist League and Workers’ Council. The “The old and rotten, the monarchy has military, disbanded, broke into a number of collapsed. The new may live. Long live the paramilitary bands working often at cross German Republic!” Philip Scheidemann, 1918 purposes to each other. After decades of authoritarian rule, democracy opened the At the end of World War I, Germany was floodgates of interested parties into the attempting to rebuild itself as a peaceful politics of a country still struggling to find its democracy after a destructive campaign own identity. (Berman 1997) throughout Europe. The post-war constitution Building democracy from the ashes of a of the German Empire (Reich) was adopted by totalitarian empire was no easy task. Small STAR WARS: THE FASCISM AWAKENS 9 groups identified themselves as representing proportion of the legislature, was the National large swaths of the population but with little Socialist Party which sent three Bavarian popular support to justify their claims. members to the Reichstag beginning in 1924. Workers, attracted by the successes of similar (Feuchtwanger 1993) entities in Russia, expressed desire for more Executive leadership was a sensitive topic control over the conditions of their because a strong executive could have employment and reaction against the privilege balanced out a very freewheeling legislature, they saw in the minor nobles left as the last but popular pressure against Germany’s Kaiser fragments of the Kaiser’s rule. Understanding Government instead led to a split-power that the multiplicity of interests would be arrangement between the legislature and a difficult to manage and unrest could follow if Chancellor. The two branches would share certain groups were excluded from power in another similarity to American-style participation, further pressed by a desire to checks and balances, but the chancellor also show the rest of the world that Germany could had a grant of emergency powers to subvert be a peaceful and pluralistic society, the the legislature when the leader deemed it Weimar-adopted constitution created a appropriate. legislature with a bicameral system and With a disbanded military, small militias proportional representation. (Scheele 1946) were charged with keeping the peace, but the The two chambers of the Weimar size of the militias along with their legislature were loosely modeled on the inconsistency and geographic isolation led to American legislature, with a popularly elected an inability to keep the peace. Insurrections chamber (Reichstag) and second chamber regularly emerged, especially as the Republic selected by the individual states (Reichsrat). fell into economic distress at the close of the Reichsrat members were often elected officials 1920s. (Diehl 1977) or staffers in their state governments. Thus bureaucrats were regularly members of the Constitutional Design: The Galactic Reichsrat, often to the consternation of Republic members of the voting public. (Bookbinder 1996) “Mom, you said that the biggest problem in To allow for the multitude of different the universe is no one helps each other.” Anakin groups, interests, and participants that Skywalker, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Weimar Germany wished to show the rest of Menace (1999) the world cooperating peacefully in its new government, the constitution not only allowed Roughly one millennium before the onset for proportional representation, it included no of the Clone Wars, the Dark Age of the galaxy minimum threshold of votes to gain election to ended. The Sith, an ancient order of malevolent the Reichstag. The primary intent was to Force-practitioners, were defeated after the increase the granularity of representation in Hundred-Year Darkness and driven into the legislature. As functional democracies hiding, but the standing galactic government, were still quite young, no historical precedent known as the Old Republic also fell.
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