Absolutism and the Empire | The Political Theory of Star Wars
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- A line of Palpatine in Star Wars, "I am the Senate," opens up some historical parallels within the franchise, giving us an excuse to talk about the Empire and Absolutism, with comparisons to Louis XIV and Cardinal Richelieu of France
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Star Wars, History, Political Science
Tarkin launching a coup with the Death Star would have been a fun idea, ultimate technology vs ultimate dark side with rebels trying to figure out which is worse and how to ensure there is someone left afterwards
Edit: couple to coup cause autocorrect
I think it would come over to what Vader does. He seems loyal to Palpatine and despises the Death Star, but we know he's already tried to conspire against his master (through Starkiller) and he also respects Tarkin at least to an extent. In Rogue One he also seems to be in league with Tarkin in sidelining Krennic, but that may just be him trolling the person responsible for this "technological terror" and not actively trying to consolidate Tarkin's power.
The absolutism of the Empire is more akin to late czarist absolutism.
Or Stalinist USSR, Tsarist Russia wasn't competent enough.
"Although Versailles I don't think was built atop any Jedi temple ruins."
The History Channel at 11 PM: Hold my Blue Milk.
Fascinating. I always thought it was more directly analogous to Napoleon, or more likely the Romans he tried so hard to copy, given the Roman senate's system of electing dictators in times of crisis, with the risk of said dictator then acquiring and cementing more power. When Caesar did it he did so pretty much by force which is a difference, but after naming himself dictator for life and then emperor, then transitioned Rome from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire, with the moffs also perhaps being analogous to the Roman military governors that were appointed to rule over and pacify provinces in the empire.
The prevalance of the idea of divine right in medieval Europe kinda stems from Caesar too, given how he created the Imperial Cult which was the idea that he and some relatives were beings granted divine sanction to rule by the gods, and long after that, a lot of Christian monarchs in Europe had a thing for trying to ape the half-remembered glories of Rome, which also sometimes included a similar 'I'm chosen by god' thing. France was in some ways under its monarchy, but ESPECIALLY in Napoleon's 'republic' after that, trying to LARP as ancient Rome pretty hard given the consuls, imperial eagles, the "I'm an emperor but this is a republic, honest" shtick, and declaring war on almost everyone trying to forge a vast European and Mediterranean empire shenanigans.
Caesar is almost certainly a more direct inspiration, but the quote is a good jumping off point to discuss the later form of western European absolutism and the similarities (and differences) which exist there. And yes, absolutist rulers especially also made parallels with themselves and Roman Emperors- art in Versailles, for example, shows the latter Bourbon monarchs in this period dressed as Roman Emperors. But none of the situations are entirely analogous, and in some cases the similarities are more aesthetic.
@@CoreysDatapad A fair point! It's all got me thinking and reconsidering some things, so thanks for that 😊
6:50 That sounds like the inspiration for the Tarkin Doctrine.
I just have to laugh with the image
I would argue that Palpatine was more like a self made dictator akin to Stalin, Caesar and so on rather than like a traditional European monarch. While European monarchs were very powerful, as you said, they were very limited by the aristocracy, church and so on. Whereas, Palpatine's limits seemed almost self made since he chose not to engage in direct rule of the Empire and chose to allow his subordinates to do all the governing for him while he focused mainly on Sith experiments and other weird stuff, much to the chagrin of Vader,
Palpatine was more an Eastern style monarch.
ironically enough ceasar and triumvirate was necessary. stalin and others were not.
@@Kaze-i9z Napoleon was necessary as well for France to survive. Although he shouldn't have declared himself Emperor. That was a big mistake.
10:00 truly the most terrifying manifestation of dark side power: becoming France.
Really glad you're putting politics in Star Wars. Unironically exactly what Star Wars needs.
Lovely video. Keep up the great work!
Would like to see you maybe attempt a political approach on the Galactic Triumvirate or the Federation, maybe even how politically possible was the splintering of the empire after Endor into warlord holds!
The Hutts were never incorporated into the Empire in the legends lore. Is this some new Disney retcon?
It is Legends. There were significant portions of Hutt space incorporated into the Empire and put under control of Moffs. As a whole, Hutt space was also under Byluir's Trans-Nebular oversector.
@@CoreysDatapad interesting never encountered that in books and media. But a good case of de jure not de facto
@@ChaoMung-t9u There were also a couple of regions that, while not part of traditional Hutt Space, were within Hutt Space's general sphere of influence that the Empire reorganized into Imperial sectors like the Baxel sector or removed Hutt influence like in the Kastolar sector or on the planet Gyndine.
"my allegiance is to the Republic, to DEMOCRACY"
This quote turned out more useful than George Lucas could have possibly imagined..
I am Grand Admiral Thrawn, Warlord of the Empire, servant of the Emperor.
Wasn't aware that Thrawn was a Warlord as well. Good to know.
I'm going to do a bit of "Urm actually" but "absolutism" in itself wasn't something theorized by monarchs or people living at their time, but something theorized later, during the restauration, so after the french revolution. It was used in hindsight to define the way monarchs were ruling before.
The term yes, but the things the term described were the goals of the monarchs. It's a descriptive label. I touched on this with the part about transitions as well.
Nahnah Versaille ha dtoo look cool big and expanisve, but that wasn't themain function. The function was to take noble and feudal lrod and have them be here, under watch. Close to the king court. So they couldn't plot in their fiefdom.
I don't believe I claimed looking impressive was the *main* or only function of Versailles in an institutional sense, but it is the point of making it *look* as impressive as it does. These were all mutually and self-reinforcing factors. I also discussed the point of the court being there (which is not the same as all the dukes and whatever other lords live there), and the institutional importance of that centralization in the video.
A correction, the Imperial Palace was built into and expanded upon the Presidential Palace, not the Jedi Temple as symbolically Palpatine wanted his Palace to be the largest single structure on the planet, dwarfing the former Jedi Temple and Senate.
The Jedi temple joke was about canon, where the palace was built on the Jedi Temple.
🤔. . . Okay, so without using the Force, how does Sheev Palpatine compare to Kazuya Souma of _How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom_ ? They’re both absolutists in their own way, right?
I studied Louis XIV because his reign was interesting so I certainly found this comparison interesting since I love Star Wars. Thanks!
I honestly never heard that quote attributed to Loius before, but even if it is apocryphal it fits him so well. He had such a habit of saying/doing the worst thing at the worst time.
I honestly didn't expect a tie-in to history like that, but I'm all for it. I'd love to get more history from Corey.
Thanks for discussing political thought and philosophy into this Star Wars video.
I know this is a little off topic, but I don't like the new canon use of the Jedi Temple as the Imperial Palace. There's no way you can possibly argue that Palpatine could use the Jedi temple as his palace without people knowing and understanding why that's significant while also writing the Jedi out of history.
I prefer the idea we saw in Legends - for once not just because I grew up with it - in Legends Palpatine's Palace was a lot like the Death Star - a show of power and wealth that eclipsed anything that came before it. The Imperial Palace in Legends is supposed to eclipse even the largest mountains that existed on Coursacant. I remember the scene from X-wing when Kirtan Loor remarks that they couldn't land a shuttle in the tower because it was too small - but then the pilot explained it was because they were STILL so far away from the thing.
But at the same time - I guess that only works in legends. When would he have built it in the canon timeline? Fair enough.
0:45: The first translation shows why "Woolseyism" is necessary. Hence, the second translation.
If I have a say on absolutism, it's that it's better off closed, private, subtle, and abstract, like a shadow government. A weird example would be how Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's brilliant but lazy brother, is depicted in the non-Doyle tale "The Case of Death and Honey", where his passing away post-WW1 ensures the beginning of the fall of the British Empire all the way to the Cold War... because his much overlooked consultancies (like the Bruce-Partington plans, once stolen blueprints for what will essentially be the submarines of the later World Wars) and political connections MAINTAINED said empire, for he was THE EMPIRE. *Not the royal family, nor Parliament, but him, whose head HAS the British government: not the ballot and hustings nonsense, but the business of the thing, for no one else knows how the colonial Afghanistan troop movements influence even the later Troubles in Ireland.*
A Common History video? On Corey’s Star Wars Lore Channel? What is this? A crossover episode!
In all seriousness, I love this content! I hope we get heaps more of it. No one else is doing this kind of thing on TH-cam it seems.
Love, love, LOVE these kinds of videos!!
The Story of Star Wars always was tied to the real world.
Really cool historical excursion here! And the sun king comparison is so amazing because I remember making a palatine meme out of him on a worksheet in 8th class when we learned about him!!!
DER STAAT BIN ICH! ICH BIN DER SENAT! Seemed really similar to me in German even as an 8th grader.
Corey I would love to see your real world comparisons and analysis published in some form. Even if it's just a compiled set of scripts, I think there's real value in what you've done beyond just fun Star Wars videos.
God or Ruler
Ruler
Party
State
Is the general formula. I’d toss in religious leaders or groups. But there position varies.
Were the empire/republic aware of any nation states out beyond their own borders? And if so was there any type of ambassadorial exchange?
I wouldn't call them nation-states but Yeah. Hutt Space was never imperial/republican. Sort of the same thing with Mandalore and the Mandalorians who resisted imperial rule.
Several neutral independent planets appear in the Clone Wars series and there are emissaries of both the Republic and the Seperatists.
Palpatine knew about the Chiss government in the unknown regions.
Kamino before the clone wars was completely independent.
A few examples
The Hapes Consortium from Legends springs to mind. It was a fully sovereign state with a monarchy that the Empire allowed to do its own thing. Kinda like Switzerland or Sweden during WW2. There was also the Corporate Sector Authority which had a lot of autonomy, and Hutt Space
@@ChaoMung-t9uI wanna see a full breakdown on Hutts and Hutt politics. They are depicted as an organized crime gang but is there a recognized Hutt state? Are they a vassal who the Empire is allowed to enter as they please?
Loving these political science videos because I studied that in college
Star Wars CK3 mod incoming
i really enjoy these recent videos!
I know I've said it a bunch, but I really love these videos. They're a great intersection of my interests.
The implementation of power via Palpatine's legitimacy goes a long way to explaining the dysfunctional nature of the Imperial Remnants in both Cannon and Legends. Without the unifying figurehead, there is simply no legal basis for one Moff to be in charge of another, and so you get Warlords and Pretender Empires.