Federation Political Factions and Movements @RPGnet

[spshu]

An interesting topic that I am sure narrators might find useful.

[Star Trek, Any System] Give me Federation Political Factions and Movements

The time period would be 3/5 years post-Dominion War. The Federation is still rebuilding after the devastation of the war and the Alpha Quadrant as a whole is in a state of flux as the cosmic dust slowly settles.

What I need is various political parties/factions/movements that could arise within the Federation in such an environment. I realize we don't tend to think of the UFP in terms of politics as we only see the Federation through the eyes of it's Military officers, but the Federation is a union spanning over 150 member planets with executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. Politics is most definitively a thing.

[Chris Donovan]

Something I played around with in the game I'm working on is the idea that the "core worlds" (major homeworlds like Earth) are so severely "spooked" after the war that they use their superior political power to pull Starfleet in and basically put it on patrol in and around the major systems, leaving the "border" or "colony" worlds bereft of Starfleet protection as well as lacking supplies of non-replicatable parts and goods.

This understandably angers the outer worlds, who suffered far worse than the inner ones (Betazed notwithstanding). A movement begins to solidify around the remaining members of the Maquis and the outer worlds begin demanding a more even distribution of resources and greater political representation on the Federation council.

Caught in the middle of all this is Starfleet, forced to essentially ignore desperate colonial pleas for assistance because they have "priority missions" that frankly could probably wait. Many Starfleet captains simply aren't willing to do that, and start to get...creative.

In this environment, groups like the New Essentialist Movement (from TNG) begin to flourish, and the long-standing bonds of Federation citizenship begin to unravel.

My general philosophy about how to treat this era are summed up in two quotes from DS9 (the best of the modern Trek shows):

"It's easy to be a saint in Paradise" - Ben Sisko, "The Maquis, Part II"

and

"Let me tell you something about Hew-mons, Nephew. They're a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people... will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don't believe me? Look at those faces. Look in their eyes...." - Quark, "Siege of AR-558"

[Pericles]

I would add that after such a costly war, there would be a faction that would want to be isolationist. Perhaps not as cut off as the Romulans after the Tomed Incident, but more concerned with protecting the current Federation borders and reducing exploration. After all, it was exploring "too far" that led to the encounter with the Dominion in the first place. In such a setting, the exploratory wing of Starfleet would get cut to the bone, whereas listening outposts, border patrols, and combat oriented ships would get the primary funding to better protect the "home" turf.

[Chris Donovan]

There was a proposal for an animated series along those lines Pericles called "The Final Frontier". It fell victim to the Great Trek Purge but you can read some of the scripts that were proposed. The pilot in particular is a very strong piece of writing. I would have liked to have seen at least a the pilot.

http://zeroroom.squarespace.com/ (what material that does exist for the series)

[Pericles]

Very interesting stuff, never knew about any of this.