League Solarienne

The Ligue solarienne is a fictitious stellar nation of the Honorverse of David Weber.

Overall picture

The League is an enormous super power and politically neutral which includes/understands the oldest worlds colonized by humanity. It is also and by far most powerful and more influencing of the star-nations in the known galaxy. Officially, a total of 1.784 worlds are members of the League solarienne, is added hundreds of " to it; protectorats" league.

It is estimated that a total of two thirds of the human population lives on the worlds controlled by the League; the exact total population is not known and it known as only anybody is forever seriously considered to lead a census or says knowledge the number of inhabitants. The oldest systems - " Ligue" old woman; - have a recorded population of three billions inhabitants (a number considered as an undervaluation) - while the population of the external worlds and artificial habitats is regarded as much more still. There are no star-nation or alliance which can be measured with the League in terms of military or economic power. Almost all the principal media of human space, such as Reuters, the International Plain Faxes and others, are based on worlds of the League.

The worlds of the League solarienne can be grouped in two categories:

the interior systems, which include/understand the Ground and the oldest worlds of colonization of humanity. Those are known as a " old woman ligue" , and are the most advanced worlds and most developed in human space. Their economic richness makes the exchange of it be able of the League.

external, known systems under the name of the " systems of the coque" ; more recently, less stable and developed that the " old woman ligue" , with a more precarious economy and a smaller population. These systems are often managed by the specialized institutions of the League which exert an enormous influence.

In addition to these worlds, the League also has the influence on poor hundreds of worlds close to its borders (the Margins), and the civils servant of League tend to regard these worlds as a back-yard of the League.

The League solarienne has to some extent a mentality of " destiny manifeste" , which wants that each world should be included in the League, and that the foreign worlds should see the advantages of adhesion to the League and to voluntarily join it. Some went until employing average extremes to make sure that these worlds join the League, by using measurements like the faked referendums and plebiscites, stimulating the violence which can be used like reasons of intervention, and imposing the commercial predominance of the League on these worlds.

Beowulf, the human colony oldest, is a proéminant member of the League and an important business partner of the stellar Royaume of Manticore.

A popular nickname for an individual of the League solarienne is Solly ( Sollies in the plural).

Government and policy

The Ground (known in all the Honorverse as a " old woman terre" or " Terra") is used as capital of the League; however, the League is rather slightly dependant, and all the planets have distinct governments. This comes owing to the fact that the majority of the original signatories of the League were worlds with a history independent of several centuries, and were little laid out to subject itself to a new centralized authority.
There are references to a President of Ligue, which is probably the senior officer of the League, although the capacity and the influence of this station must probably be limited.

The body décisionnaire of the League is the Executive council, where each world of the League is represented. Being added to the fact that it there a big number of worlds members, each world has a right to veto on the proposed measures, which forces the League to rather seek compromises among interests of competition than to risk a veto. The Council has the capacity to expel a world of the League - a capacity which was set up like threatens against of the vetoes - in the case of the planets misusing of violence.

Below the Executive council and few centralized agencies of the League, the worlds member are completely free to be organized as they want it, and their governments have a considerable degree of autonomy compared to the central power. In spite of this nominal autonomy, the external sectors of the League benefit less absence from the League, because they are more in contact with the bureaucratic agencies and the security forces of the League.

The slackened nature of the League solarienne, coupled to its extreme confidence in its military and economic superiority on the whole of the remainder of the galaxy joined together, prevented the development of a politics foreign and military effective, the League does not feel threatened by anybody. Competition between the commercial policy and interests also conspires to make any policy logical impossible. In fact, the only official principle of the League in foreign politics is the application, without concession, of the edict of Éridani which prohibits the blind bombardment of a world inhabited under penalty of the loss of sovereignty and which was specifically written in the constitution of the League to ensure its effective application.

An important defect of the League is the lack of government or civil control on the bureaucracy, specifically that which deals with the nations not making party of the League. The bureaucratic agencies most important, such as the Security Office at the borders and the Gendarmerie solarienne, are known to lead their own policy of absorption of the worlds underdeveloped of the Margins of space solarien and of conservation of the influence of the League on the territories borders.

Budget of the League solarienne

In spite of the enormous (incalculable) richness of the League, the government of the League usually functions on rather weak tax incomes. Proportionally, the majority of the governments member of the League, so poor are they, have revenues from taxes much more important than the central government. It is, mainly, intentional. When the League was organized, its founding members had been independent worlds and stellar systems for more than thousand years. They did not have any intention to give up their sovereignty with the profit of a central government, particularly one which - by the nature of the things - is of a slow operation only in reason of the slowness of the communications. Consequently, they chose a very decentralized Fédéralisme and, by taking as reinforcements the constitution of the the United States, deliberately included as much compartmentation than possible in the system to prevent the central government of gradually (and naturally) evolving to something of more powerful than they did not wish. Consequently, the funding sources of the government of the League are specifically limited by the constitution of the League… and the direct imposition on citizens of the League is expressly prohibited. The central government is financed by a series of rights of imports, custom charges, direct evaluations for the naval expenditure, etc, more of the additional voluntary contributions. This means that, so in absolute the quantity of money cash crossing the trunks of the League is extraordinary, it very weak is really compared with the many things which the government must pay.
This problem became much more pronounced during the 200-300 last years previous the novels whereas the bureaucracy of the Solarienne League became increasingly large. In a direction, the bureaucrats test furtively, but deliberately, to circumvent the Constitution by prolonging the sectors gradually - physics and governmental - which is controlled by the Payment of the League rather than by the Legislation of the League. This growth continued, a part increasingly more significant federal budget was absorbed by the bureaucracy at the expense of another more traditional bodies of the government… like the navy.

Soldier

The Marine of the League solarienne is the greatest naval force in the Honorverse, being four times more important than the popular Marine of Harbor at the top of its power. The average ships (armoured cruisers, heavy and light cruisers and destroyers) are usually men-of-war of the very last thing, because they are necessary to maintain the order in the vast space of the League; reciprocally, the vessels of the wall less advanced (almost obsolete) are compared with the designs of Manticore and Harbor, since the League does not see the need for following the naval powers " moyennes". The Fusiliers solariens act as a fast force of intervention of the League, maintaining the order in all the League, in.liaison.with the Navy.

Beside the regular soldiers of the League, the worlds member also have their own defensive, known military forces under the name of Flottes of Defense. These forces are responsible for immediate defense their systems mother, acting with or without the protection of the Marine of the League solarienne.

Other agencies, such as the Gendarmerie solarienne and the Security Office at the borders, have their own troops to maintain the order and to promote the interests of the League (and its companies) at the borders.

History of the League solarienne

The League solarienne is founded in 925 P.D. by the whole of planets then colonized. The Earth is only one of the members.

Future developments

To the last novels of the Honorverse, little is known or mentioned about the League, share has the mentions with its power and its size.

Recently, more and more of its structure and its company became known, and one is brought to think that the League is increasingly unstable, that the bureaucracy becomes increasingly independent of the central authority and that certain members of the League feel the domination of the League (and of its bureaucracy).

One also says that it Malayan and dissatisfaction with regard to the government develops among the whole of the inhabitants of the older worlds, such as the Ground. Many predicts that the League will dissolve or fall into a civil war for which certain star-nations and governors of Solarien sector prepare secretly.

Mesa is an independent nation, entirely surrounded by the League solarienne, and of which the large companies, rich person and completely immoral, exert an unhealthy degree of influence on the policy solarienne.

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