Naming an Interstellar Government

[Grendelsbayne]

I seem to remember a Sliders episode taking place on an Earth that was ruled by a state called the Human Hemispheric Alliance. I thought that was a pretty cool name.

That said, the 'United Federation of Planets' is by far my favorite name for a government. It's simple, efficient, not linked to any particular race or planet, and (perhaps most important) not burdened with any of that ridiculous 40's/50's pulp crap that we always used to hear about, things like Space Command or Star Service or anything like that.

On the other hand, the Alliance from Firefly could have been named better. 'Union of Allied Planets'? Well, DUH...it's a union, of course they're allied!

Side note: I thought it was kind of funny - and just a bit too convenient - that all five major governments in Babylon 5 just happened to have different names. Earth ALLIANCE, Minbari FEDERATION, Vorlon EMPIRE (yeah right, like there's anything about the Vorlons that even remotely qualifies as imperial), Narn REGIME, Centauri REPUBLIC (now why didn't JMS call them an Empire? They obviously were one... ) Wink wink, nudge nudge.

You could just as easily say 'of course they're united, they're a federation', though.

 

[Mysterion]

That said, the 'United Federation of Planets' is by far my favorite name for a government. It's simple, efficient, not linked to any particular race or planet, and (perhaps most important) not burdened with any of that ridiculous 40's/50's pulp crap that we always used to hear about, things like Space Command or Star Service or anything like that.

Ahrem: Star Fleet? Just sayin', pretty-much the same damned thing ain't it? Not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

[Christopher]

It's odd to compare names of military services like "Space Command or Star Service" to the name of a goverment like the UFP. A space navy is not a government, it's an organ of a government. (And while we're at it, the term "Space Command" was used in "Court Martial," and "Star Service" was used in "The Conscience of the King.")

And the name "United Federation of Planets" sounds very '50s to me. It's no doubt influenced by the United Planets from 1956's Forbidden Planet. The 1950 TV show Space Patrol also had a United Planets. (That's pretty much the obvious go-to name for an interstellar alliance in the decade following the founding of the United Nations.) Then there's the United Worlds of the Solar System from the 1954 kids' series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Call it the Interstellar Government.

 

[Shawnster]

League of Non Aligned Worlds.... How can they be a league if they are non aligned? How can they be non aligned if they are in a league?

 

[fireproof78]

I usually take reference from historical organization and base it off of the founding planets or planets, as well as any mythological

Mars Planetary Union, Interplanetary League, Allied Colonies of Earth, etc.

On the other hand, the Alliance from Firefly could have been named better. 'Union of Allied Planets'? Well, DUH...it's a union, of course they're allied!

They had about three names, actually.

Centauri REPUBLIC (now why didn't JMS call them an Empire? They obviously were one... )

Because it reflected their idealized state, not what they actually were.

 

[Christopher]

League of Non Aligned Worlds.... How can they be a league if they are non aligned? How can they be non aligned if they are in a league?

It means they're the smaller states that are not aligned with any of the major superpowers like the Earth Alliance, the Centauri, the Minbari, the Narn, or the Vorlons. The superpowers dominate the politics of the galaxy, so the smaller, independent worlds have to form some sort of bloc if they want any kind of political clout to hold their own against the superpowers. Each is a sovereign nation in itself, but when it comes to larger interstellar affairs, it's in their interest to work together.

Dark Matter had something very similar with the League of Autonomous Worlds, a loose alliance of planetary or interstellar nations that were independent of the corporations that dominated the galaxy. The Typhon Pact in the Star Trek novel continuity is similar as well.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

They had about three names, actually.

As I (rather sketchily, I admit) understood it, they were called the Anglo-Sino Alliance while still on Earth, and became the Union of Allied Planets once they spread out into space.

At least that's the way my headcanon interprets it.

 

[fireproof78]

As I (rather sketchily, I admit) understood it, they were called the Anglo-Sino Alliance while still on Earth, and became the Union of Allied Planets once they spread out into space.

At least that's the way my headcanon interprets it.

Nothing that I can pin down for certain as to their usage, but the three names are The Union of Allied Planets or Universal Alliance or Anglo-Sino Alliance. But, that quick read didn't indicate which one was the standard reference.

 

[publiusr]

The Huamn League--cause I like synth pop...

 

[Shawnster]

The role playing game Star Frontiers had the United Planetary Federation, or UPF. Yes, a blatant rip-off of the UFP.

There is also the Democratic Order of Planets, or DOOP

 

[Morpheus 02]

I seem to remember a Sliders episode taking place on an Earth that was ruled by a state called the Human Hemispheric Alliance. I thought that was a pretty cool name.

That said, the 'United Federation of Planets' is by far my favorite name for a government. It's simple, efficient, not linked to any particular race or planet, and (perhaps most important) not burdened with any of that ridiculous 40's/50's pulp crap that we always used to hear about, things like Space Command or Star Service or anything like that.

On the other hand, the Alliance from Firefly could have been named better. 'Union of Allied Planets'? Well, DUH...it's a union, of course they're allied!

Side note: I thought it was kind of funny - and just a bit too convenient - that all five major governments in Babylon 5 just happened to have different names. Earth ALLIANCE, Minbari FEDERATION, Vorlon EMPIRE (yeah right, like there's anything about the Vorlons that even remotely qualifies as imperial), Narn REGIME, Centauri REPUBLIC (now why didn't JMS call them an Empire? They obviously were one... ) Wink wink, nudge nudge.

I have always wondered that there were probably named like that on purpose...claiming to be one thing, but really another. The Vorlons and Centauri, as you mentioned,were pretty clear.

The Narn Regime - one definition of regime is authoritarian..but I thought they were striving for something better, after the Centauri rule.

Earth Alliance - I thought most of the colonies were just that...beholden to Earth...so much less an alliance (which would imply equality among the world's)

Minbari Federation - did the castes really operate in 3 completely separate groups, or more together than a Federation implies?


Oh, and getting back to the original post....what are we trying to name again?

 

[Tenacity]

How about "us." Not as twof initials but the just the short word us?

Alien: "We're being courted by several interstellar governments to become members.

Representative: "Really, why don't you join us?"

Somewhat informal, but that might be the point they're trying to make.

 

[Smoked Salmon]

League of Space Twits.

Make Space Great Again.

Yes We Can Warp.

European Space Union.

New Astral Treaty Organisation.

The Shadow Proclamation.

President Skroob's Spaceballs The Planets (TM).

 

[Big Data]

Union of Christian Scientists

 

[Big Data]

Is it hubris to name this thing in English and not Cromdoxicillian?

 

[Arpy]

The Democratic Imperial Republic of the Empire.

The People's Democratic Imperial Republic of the Empire, UnLtd.
The Galactic Alliance of Sapients (GAS)

I think Union of Sentients/Sapients makes more democratic sense, as Sentience/Sapience suggests a Borg-like mega-union.

Instead of U.S., maybe it's UniSap or UniSen/The Unison?

Also, The Union of Sentients sounds clunky to my ear. Maybe a more processional "The Galactic Union of Sentients" rolls more lyrically off the tongue? The Galactic Union, or The Union, for short. That is, if you want to keep the sentient/sapient component. But, who knows, maybe you'll find there's a place for super beings and humble ones in the Union too.

I think the Interstellar Union is profound and clean enough, without additional flare...i.e. "The Interstellar Union of the Milky Way." I can just hear it now..."Down with Andromeda," the bedtime prayer of every Milky Wayan...


Mr. Laser Beam, I thought the different political names made sense for alien species that wouldn't unite in ways we would. B5 did a better job than Trek in showing alien biological, technological, and political incompatibilities/difficulties, I think.

The Centauri maybe started out as a republic, like Rome, and were wont to change the official name/ideal.
The Narn regime perhaps started out as a provisional authority, post Centauri withdrawal, and remained stuck as regimes often do.
The Earth Alliance maybe started out as a loose alliance of apprehensive nations, wary of a New World Order.
The Vorlons maybe started out as an empire, or were called one by younger races daunted by their power and mystery, or were an empire of sorts -- waging proxy culture wars over the younger races, against the Shadows.

History is sloppy, so names are. It'd be more unusual if they all followed a Star Trek blueprint or if they were blandly The Minbari Government, The Centauri Government, the Earth Government, the Shadows Government, etc.

 

[Christopher]

Is it hubris to name this thing in English and not Cromdoxicillian?

One presumes the name is being translated for the benefit of the readers. Like, the real name of the People's Republic of China is actually Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó (中华人民共和国).

Maybe a more processional "The Galactic Union of Sentients" rolls more lyrically off the tongue?

But then it would be GUS.

Also, I'd hesitate to call anything "Galactic." The galaxy is ginormous. It has 400 billion stars in it. No single interstellar government could ever be anywhere near large enough to encompass the entire galaxy; beyond maybe a few thousand systems at most, even just a few hundred, it would become too complex to function as a single government. Poul Anderson addressed this in some of his fiction; his "Terran Empire" was too spread out to be more than a loose alliance of mostly self-governed worlds whose tribute to the central state was nominal at best, and it was effectively impossible for any single subject or official of the Empire to even know the names of every planet within it, let alone the details about their peoples. True, computers and AI could allow the management of a single polity on the scale of maybe millions of worlds, but it would be too vast for any living citizen within it to process or understand, let alone to govern.

Of course, I realize as I wrote this that I just published a story in Analog featuring a polity called the Galactic Coalition. But that's a comedy story and I didn't put a lot of thought into the nature of the organization. But it is in a universe where there's no FTL and travel across the Coalition routinely takes tens of thousands of years, so implicitly it's a very loose alliance, and it probably is managed (and populated) largely by AIs or post-"human" intelligences.

 

[E-DUB]

Galactic Union seem in vogue. A friend of mine and I came up with that one thirty years ago, even down to the concept of member planets having to pay "Union dues".

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The novel Redshirts has a good one: Universal Union, or "doub-U".