The Concordance

The Concordance is the aging government of the Chord. Centered on the planet Concordia (not a coincidence), the interstellar government rules the Chord in the name of peace and prosperity. That is, on paper. In practice, the Concordance is a bygone relic of an age past. While some groups throughout the Chord still heed its laws, many more simply pay it lip service. Many more, however, outright defy it in open rebellion, claiming it illegitimate or claiming to be its successor. Beginning with its complete inability to deal with piracy in Transhadaria seven decades ago, the Concordance has faced crisis time and time again. And time and time again, it has failed to meaningfully handle the problem at every level. Eventually, most planets stopped paying taxes and sending representatives to Concordia. And started building fleets. Today, the Chord is wracked with ethnic violence, criminal enterprise, and rampant poverty. And the great galactic government, unwilling, unable, or unfit to wield the hammer of justice - the reason matters not - did nothing to help. Instead, it stayed home. In the greatest show of it's incompetence, the Concordance does not even control its home planet uncontested. The Sovereign Free Cities of Cascadia (or SFCC) comprise only a small mountainous region near Concordia's southern pole. And the Concordance can do nothing to stop them. Unwilling to bring war to its galaxy or its home planet, the Concordance is truly bound in peace.

Structure

Back when the Concordance actually functioned, it did so as a representative republic. It member states, over 400 at its height, would send delegates to form the legislature. The selection of these delegates was left to the member states, whose own governments varied wildly. This legislature would then elect a head of government from among itself, though their powers were mostly ceremonial. Today, with only 168 member states, roughly half from the planet Concordia itself, the Concordance rules as a bureaucratic mess. In name, it is a republic, using the same rules as at its height. The member states cover everything from similar republics, to worker co-ops, to monarchies, to even a few for-profit corporate entities. The wide ideological spectrum within the Concordance makes for factitious politics. Ruling administrations come and go, and opportunist alliances make very strange bedfellows. For the most part, very little actually gets accomplished.

Culture

The culture of the Concordia, and to lesser degrees the member states off-planet, is one of peace and order. Stability is prized above all else, despite the many ideological strains running through the 168 member states. Despite its flailing political control, the Concordance still manages to hold considerable soft power throughout the Chord. It is a cultural center and trendsetter, if not a military or political one.

Public Agenda

The Concordance sees the galaxy and sees only member states in rebellion. Officially, its agenda is to retain and regain its territory, though it does very little to actually get bring them back into the fold. A major question within the Concordance is whether or not to recognize the sovereignty of its breakaway states. That sovereignty is simply a fact - there is nothing Concordia can do to change that. Though the Concordance has friendly relations with many of the Chord's other powers, it has never admitted that they are anything more than rebels and revolutionaries. To many within, this state of affairs is ridiculous. They say Concordia should look around and accept that it is no longer the ruler of the known galaxy. Many others within still refuse to see it that way. With national pride at stake, many Concordians refuse to budge.

Assets

The Concordance retains its relevance in galactic politics through the Concordance Transit System. The CTS retains a strict level of distance from the Concordance, however. The CTS does not let itself be used for the Concordance's political agenda, but neither does the Concordance seek too. Its utility for movement of people and cargo between the stars far is indispensable. And besides. If the Concordance ever sought to use it as a weapon, say, by withholding its use? Well, that'd be a really good way to make other powers build their own transit infrastructure.