Solomani Confederation

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Solomani Confederation: In 871, the government of the Solomani Autonomous Region reorganized itself as the Solomani Confederation in an attempt to strengthen its claims to the heritage of the old Terran Confederation. Although tantamount to a declaration of independence, the reorganization was officially ignored by the government of the Imperium until the increasingly belligerent and extremist policies of the Solomani caused many border worlds under Solomani rule to petition the Imperium for redress.

The branches of the Solomani Confederation's government took the names of the government of the Terran Confederation, but the present institutions have little resemblance to those of the past. The chief governing body of the Solomani Confederation is the Secretariat. The Secretariat is presided over by the Secretary General, who is elected from its membership. The Secretary General is the chief administrative officer of the Solomani government, and while the office holds great power, it is fully accountable to the Secretariat.

Representatives to the Secretariat are appointed by the governments of the individual districts. The number of representatives each district may appoint is determined according to that district's contribution to the Solomani economy.

A district typically consists of a single world, but low population worlds or depressed areas are combined into multiworld districts. In the case of a district such as this, an election is held to determine the representative from that district. These, however, are not elections in the normal sense; the governments vote, rather than the populace. Each government of such a district is allocated votes (again, according to its economic importance), which are used to elect a representative for that district.

All government officeholders and officials must be members of the official party, the Solomani Movement. Although once waning in power and influence, the party is gaining in popularity as a result of successful Solomani incursions on the Imperium's rimward border. Still, the real power in the Confederation is held by the government and its factions.

Because of the greater degree of local autonomy that exists in the Solomani Confederation, interworld factionalism exists to a much greater degree than had been allowed in the Imperium. Coalitions of worlds exist outside the normal government channels which sometimes equal them in importance within a given region.

For example, the Near Bootes cluster, in the Capella subsector, dominates large portions of the adjacent subsectors both economically and politically. Bootean mercantile interests have traditionally favored peaceful trade with the Imperium, and their influence has been held to be largely responsible for many peace negotiations between the Imperium and the Solomani Confederation.

Another example of this factionalism is the ongoing trade war (in Solomani Rim/Kukulcan) between Kukulcan and the coalition of Thetis and Laputa. The war has been causing severe damage to the economy of Kukulcan, but the Thetis-Laputa coalition has thus far been able to muster enough power to prevent effective intervention by the Confederation government. -ld IE