The Bureau of Corporate Affairs

Phobos, as a joint territory of a handful of countries back on Earth, at least nominally answers to a higher-power than the corporations which rule its streets. When Phobos was founded as a city, and not just a space station, a constitution and laws for it's continued government were established and agreed upon by the governmental powers that be. Largely, this system of government has entirely failed. The corporations puppet all but the most willful of politicians, who they instead silently kill. In this way government is kept as a useful diversion, something to direct the masses to focus on to elect change in the city, while being in actuality nothing but a plodding circle of useless bureacrats in ineffectual departments. This rule generally holds true for each part of the government, save one: The Bureau of Corporate Affairs. Written last-minute in the Constitution of Phobos in it's final meeting before ratification, the Bureau of Corporate Affairs remains the only agency in Phobos with any power over the corps. This isn't to say it's above the corps, no, but it is the nations of Earth's only chance to potentially gain a foothold in the politics of space, past just being puppets for the richest megacorp in the nation. The Bureau authorizes a number of powers to these governments, including but not limited to:

1. The ability to authorize United Nations troops to enter the city
2. The ability to levy taxes on Phobos
3. The ability to extradite criminals off of Phobos
4. The ability to end Phobos as a city altogether

Now, to date, these powers have been used very rarely (in fact, only 2 and 3 have ever been used). Don't go thinking that the Bureau is some bastion against corporate interests. Rather, it tends to act as a third party mediator between the corps, ensuring that none of them overstep their bounds enough to escalate into full war. The reason runners are so popular among the corps is due to large part because of the Bureau. Any corp knows that if it illegally angers another corp, it probably won't stand up to the combined powers of the corp that it wronged, as well as all the nations of Earth, which are hungry to seize their power back. In this way, the tentative balance on Phobos is maintained, waiting for a corp to get brave enough to decide that it would profit them to stand against not just another corp, but the entire Earth.

Type

Governmental, Department