Ares Confederation

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"Libertas Ad Astra!" - Slogan of the Ares Confederation

"Libertas Ad Astra, Freedom to the Stars. Many people say that Humanity already is free, after all we can vote, hold property, voice our opinions.

Maybe the tyranny of the state is broken, although this can be argued, sure.

But every employer is your king, every landlord your feudal liege. Humanity is still in shackles, called "portfolio", "assets", "dividends". As long profit is a God, and mega corporations his churches, Humanity cannot be free.

As long all that matters is the bottom line, Humanity shall be enslaved.

Freedom to the stars. It's not an epitaph of something finished - it's a battle cry of something that only has begun to be."

-Excerpt of the Ascension Speech of Rudolf Guillame, first Prime Minister of the Third Ares Confederation.

While the corporate culture and capitalism still dominates the human sphere, especially in the core worlds and corporate sectors, the specter of the Internationale and other predecessors still haunt the Periphery of human colonized space - which the Ares Confederation is the biggest united polity of.

While they do not boast the sheer amounts of worlds, nor the necessary heavy industry and expertise to field the large navies of the Commonwealth, they make up for it for their expertise in infrastructural and geoengineering expertise, dating back to the original Exiles who have fled Mars after their crushing defeat of a Proletarian Uprising within Sol itself.

The Ares Confederation is situated in the Coreward Periphery itself, hiding in the background radiation of the galactic core and slowly spreading through the stars by an eclectic mixture of brewing unrest in corporate-ruled habitats, humanitarian aid to struggling colonies and sometimes underhanded methods to ultimately achieve their goal of returning to Mars and push the whole of Humanity to more socialist ideals.

History

[WIP]

Government

The Ares Confederation is, true to its name, a largely decentralized state. Member Worlds have to recognize the Ares Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, which enforces a market socialist model of production, extensive human rights (especially due process), ensures military supremacy of the confederal government as well relinquishing diplomatic and fiscal duties to the overarching state. Beyond that, the members are allowed to organize themselves however they wish, usually after some syndicalist or democratic model, with the Confederation recognizing the right of autonomy and self-determination wherever it does not infringe on the basic, fundamental rights of the Aresian citizen. While some pay only lip service to such, many members, however temporary, try to uphold the ideals set in the Declaration and Constitution.

Legislative

The legislative of the Ares Confederation consists of two houses, the Colonial Commune Council and the Liberty Assembly. The Liberty Assembly numbers 1370 senators, which gain their mandate in a "nation"wide election, in which all colonies, habitats and other permanent housings of citizens are assigned to one of the 470 voting districts. Each citizen has two votes, one for a direct candidate and one for a party. With this, 470 senators are assigned a spot in the Liberty Assembly. The direct mandate does not require membership in a party. The remaining 900 seats are assigned to the party based upon their percentage of votes they got. In order to avoid a hanging parliament, parties need to acquire at least 5% of the popular vote to be assigned seats in the Liberty Assembly.

The Colonial Commune Council is, however, appointed by the local governments of the colonies within the Confederation. Every colony sends one to three, based on population, delegates to the Council. The Council has no term periods, the appointment is formally void when a new government on the Colony takes power and thus a Delegate may stay infinitely as long his party stays in power at his local colony. The Liberty Assembly is the main parliament of the Ares Confederation and are those who vote for a Prime Minister and his cabinet. Furthermore, they create, edit and vote federal jurisprudence and laws, which are then legitimized by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is not allowed to veto a law initiative, unless he deems it unconstitutional. This decision can be vetoed by the Assembly. In this case, the law is judged by the Greater Forum.

The Colonial Commune Council has only a representative function for the individual colonies. In case a law does not affect a colony or is outside their competences (like the military or accession of a new member), they can declare their dissatisfaction about the decision, which serves only a ceremonial role. However, they have a veto in case the decision affects the colony - such as when a law increases the administrative burden of a member, increases federal taxes or tries to infringe on the right of self-determination of the member colonies. If a simple majority vote passes the law in such a case, it is approved. Otherwise it must be revised by the Assembly or jossed completely.

Executive

The Prime Minister is both highest executive and head of state, representing the Confederation as a whole, a proverbial link between the individual members. The Prime Minister is voted by the confidence of the Liberty Assembly every four years, consistent with their own voting cycle. There exists no formal term limit for the Prime Minister.

The Cabinet itself is appointed by the Prime Minister who holds the last say in who gets appointed. In reality, however, it is determined by their party, as well as any eventual junior partner in a coalition.

Prime Minister and Cabinet handle the limited executive powers within the Ares Confederation, represent the State as a whole and act as one of the constitutional guardians in case Legislation can be unconstitutional. In turn any attempt to consolidate power or overreach of the Executive is kept in check by the Legislative who can demand a vote of confidence at any time - if they have a replacement candidate for the Prime Minister.

Judiciary

The Greater Forum is the highest juristic instance within the Ares Confederation and contains sixteen members - eight professional judges and eight randomly chosen citizens of "good and moral character". The professional judges are appointed by majority vote of the Liberty Assembly and serve for life, unless they retire or fail a vote of confidence.

The citizens are chosen at random and serve for four years if they accept the burden and granted a pension according to their previous income.

The Greater Forum can be formally petitioned by every single person within the Confederation, citizen, Freeperson or foreigner, as long their case ran through any court beforehand. However, they only act upon cases that they might deem unconstitutional.

Citizen and Freeperson Dynamic

Every single person within the Ares Confederation is considered a "Freeperson", enjoying full legal rights as written in the Ares Confederation. They also are allowed to participate in their own, local politics within the member states they might currently be resident in. However, they do not enjoy a political say within the Confederaiton - as in they cannot hold office or vote on the federal level. Citizens are those who are allowed to do so. This privilege can be achieved by either working for three years as registered labourer or serving three years in any military branch of the Confederation, allowing them to act on the political, federal level. Many people within the Ares Confederation strive to become a citizen, even if it's not required - it's a matter of honour.

Defense

The Ares Confederation prides itself of its zealous and ever vigilant soldiers, protecting and expanding the confederate holdings against the Corporate Overlords at the fringe at all costs. Made up of highly disciplined volunteers of all symphatetic sapients, all military branches of the military are highly meritocratic and proud of being a protector of their people.

United Fleet Host

The backbone of the military of the Ares Confederation is the United Fleet Host, with the seperate brances of the Space Fleet and Deep Space Marineers, handling space to space combat, logistics and space to ground invasions. Many of the officers and crewmen of the United Fleet Host are former local rebels, who taken up the torch for liberty across the stars, manning older and mothballed vessels and everything the Confederation managed to ramshackle build themselves by recovered blueprints. While their vessels may be antiquated by modern standards, crew and military tactics benefits from a large pool of experience - After all, many retired military personnel seen their opportunity to live up their glory days for a good cause. Thus, tactics employed by the United Fleet Host are highly unpredictable, rapid in response and capable of exploiting the most of their ships. Still, the fact of struggling firepower and outdated vessels is an issue. Rumour has it that the United Federation supports the Engineering Corps of the Confederation to overhaul, update and build up a proper, modern Space Fleet. The Modus Operandi of the UFH is as followed : Isolate, Exterminate and Regroup. Through precise strikes at the enemy, critical targets of the adversary fleet are isolated and seperated and destroyed. After this, the task group retreats and regroups for repairs and resupply.

Free Host of the Confederation

Colloquially called the "Cossack Fleet", the FHC is an irregular fleet comprised of adventurers, mercenaries, former pirates, privateers and volunteers, open for anyone who is willing to fight for the Confederation. Wild and free, their only directives is to not hurt civilian and neutral targets- Thus, they wildly strike against any enemy of the Ares Confederation, maurading, kidnapping and raiding enemy convoys, installations and patrols. Made up from anything that can fly and carry a gun big enough to hurt another ship, it is difficult to clearly define the main role of the Free Host, but they specialize in harassing the enemy, as auxiliary escort and vanguard for the UFH. Many a ship has its own traditions and rules on board, which are respected by the Military Command of the Ares Confederation. While the UFH is highly disclipined and coordinated, the individual captains of the Free Host are not required to cooperate, many of them preferring their own thing and getting rich on loot, only abiding the orders of the Prime Minister.

Many a Cossack Officer retires after getting enough share of plunder to the colonies of the Ares Confederation, enjoying the prestige they earnt and the status of citizen. Curiously enough, many aliens prefer to gain citizenship through the Cossack Fleet.

The Firebrands

Saboteurs, demagogues and assassins... All of this and more is a Firebrand, a member of the Military Intelligence of the Ares Confederation. This branch-encompassing service chooses the best and brightest of their respective fields and trains them to do one thing : Bring revolution. Operating in small cells from one to five people, Firebrands infiltrate with minimal equipment enemy habitats and planets and begin to build up local resistance, liberating military equipment, scandalize and alienate local population, solely for the goal to create an uprising within the colony or installation. For this, they mostly have free reign, although their actions are strongly scrutinized during regular briefings and debriefings to avoid terrorism and too ruthless tactics, as this reflect badly upon the Confederation if Firebrand involvement is found out. After they stage an open coup against local magistrates, Firebrands prodive tactical and strategic support and try to make the new uprising assimilate into the Ares Confederation proper.