Interstellar Republic

"This victory belongs to each of us... every man, woman, and child. Every civilization, on every world. Now, as we take our first steps toward restoring what we lost, we must remember what it took to win. This wasn't a victory by a single fleet, a single army, or even a single species. If this war has taught us anything, it is that we are at our strongest when we work together. And if we can put down our grievances long enough to stop something as powerful as the Reapers, imagine what we can achieve now that they are defeated. It will take time, but we can rebuild everything that was destroyed. Our homes, our worlds, our fleets and defenses. All of this - and more. Together, we can build a future greater than any one of us could imagine. A future paid for by the sacrifices of those who fought and died alongside us. A future that many will never see. And while we still have many challenges ahead of us... We can face them together. And we will honor those who died to give us that future."

- Fleet Admiral Steven Hackett

The Interstellar Republic, commonly referred to as simply the Republic, is a democratic government incorporating most of the Mliky Way galaxy that rose to power in the aftermath of the Reaper invasion, absorbing the political and military leadership of the former Citadel Council.

Like its predecessor, the Interstellar Republic followed the principles thousands of generations before—it is founded on the interest of compromise and cooperation and has no official power over the independent governments of other species. But unlike the old Citadel Council, the Republic's leadership consisted of one individual rather than an executive committee, all of whom were held via democratic elections. It also sought to hastily prevent a repeat of galactic history; and instead focused on strengthening the forces of local planetary governments and reconstruction efforts to worlds ravaged by the conflict during its early stages.

With the sudden emergence of the Yahg Empire, it led to the beginning of the Cold War—one in which both sides stood on the brink of yet another intergalactic war. Approximately two months later, all-out war broke out between the two factions that led to the Yahg Empire's invasion of Republic space, conquering planet after planet before laying siege to the Citadel which resulted in the near decimation of the Republic's leadership before being pushed back. In the wake of the First Minister Linariley T’eavius's death during the battle, in accordance to the line of succession Republic Defense Minister John Shepard succeeded T'eavius and led the Republic to victory over the Yahg Empire, reclaiming territories and forcing the yahg to surrender. The resulting Yahg Demilitarization and Confinement stipulated the disarmament and dissolution of the defunct-Yahg Empire. Emerging from yet another galactic-wide war, the Republic turned its attention inwards to lead reconstruction efforts and elected Shepard to a first full-term as First Minister.

Origins
For over fifty thousand years, Citadel space had been governed by a supranational union called the Citadel Council. With the Citadel space station serving as its capital, the Council was comprised of representatives from each member species. While associate members were granted an embassy, the Citadel was ultimately ruled by official members such as the asari, turians and salarians, who were selected by delegates of their respective homeworlds. With the assistance of their elite military operatives, the Spectres, the Council enjoyed a thousand years of peace.

However, things changed during the Battle of the Citadel in 2183—the first major conflict since the Krogan Rebellions and the Relay 314 Incident—when the first known Reaper encountered by modern Citadel races called Sovereign attacked and decimated the Citadel Fleet. Although the human Systems Alliance forces led by Admiral Hackett and the first human Spectre Commander John Shepard suffered heavy casualties to save their lives, Councilors Tevos, Valern and Sparatus rescinded their pledge to honor the Alliance's sacrifices and convinced themselves and the galaxy at-large that Sovereign was merely a geth construct, painting rogue Spectre agent Saren Arterius as the mastermind behind the battle instead. Only the Citadel's first human Councilor David Anderson disagreed and was sidelined by the Council's political process which frustrated the former soldier. They had since then refused to help Shepard after his return from the dead and effectively wasting all the time Shepard bought them to prepare for the Reaper's invasion. Though the Council does agree to re-instate Shepard's Spectre status in exchange for him to keep a low-profile in the Terminus Systems, it was clear that their motive behind this is to rid themselves of him, who they now viewed as a "troublemaker" and "deranged madman", having completely forgotten Shepard's efforts to save their lives not two years earlier. As time went on, the Council became increasingly insular and selfish as they continued to ignore the Reapers' existence even after Paul Grayson's attack on the Grissom Academy as evidence of their involvement even as alien and disturbing as Grayson's mutations were, an organization like Cerberus could be just as capable of producing such technology. The fact that Grayson was once a member of Cerberus was further proof to the Council that only Cerberus was involved.

Things finally came to a head when the Reapers invaded in 2186, catching the rest of the galaxy by surprise. Now forced to publicly acknowledge the ancient sentient machine race's existence, the Citadel races struggled to put up a defensive against such formidable adversaries. For almost one year, the galaxy fell into chaos. The Reapers made quick progress, conquering huge portions of the galaxy in their trek towards purging the galaxy of all advanced civilization. To complicate matters, the Council races were more concerned with protecting their own borders rather than coming to the assistance of others, forcing the re-instated Commander Shepard to help deal with their own problems in order to gain their support. In addition, Cerberus fractured the order of battle in an attempt to seize control of the Reapers to advance their pro-human agenda. Despite a series of setbacks and a staggering increase in military and civilian casualties, the Citadel Allied Forces managed to construct a massive superweapon dubbed "Project Crucible" powerful enough to defeat the Reapers and launched the decisive battle to retake Earth. By the battle's end, the Reapers were destroyed and the mass relays severely damaged. Rendezvousing to a predesignated area, the remaining allied fleets won a pyrrhic victory and begun preparations for reconstruction.

Milky Way unrest
Despite their success during the Second Battle for Earth, the devastation inflicted during the war remained at high levels and it wasn't until socioeconomic shortages in basic necessities such as various types of dextro- and levo-amino based food, personal hygiene products and medicine in addition to decreased living standards rose at an alarming rate. As a result of the shortages, military personnel and civilian refugees were often forced to wait in lines for hours or settle without having certain products; some cases reported a steady increase in civil unrest over the lack of available products or housing.

Public demonstrations began on December 27, with some protesters expressing their anger at the inaction of the Council. Security forces were deployed in response to the protests, but violent clashes between local militia forces and demonstrators erupted when an incident resulted in the 34 deaths and 496 injured.

A new government
Owing to the fact that the galaxy is at its best when united, representatives of the Citadel Council and protest leaders met face-to-face for the first time. After a series of strenuous negotiations, both parties agreed to effectively reorganize the Council into a fledgling new government known as the Interstellar Republic with the official Citadel-Guevara Accord issued by twelve of the most important members from each side, setting forth goals, values and ideals of the new government.

The first main goal of the Interstellar Republic was to move the Citadel, which still remained in Earth's orbit, back to the Widow system. This move was seen as a symbolic gesture rather than strategic purposes. Since the now-defunct Citadel Council held the seat of galactic power on the Citadel, its return to the Widow system would legitimize the authority of the Republic in the eyes of the asari, turians, salarians, humans, elcor, volus and others. Until the move could be made, the Interstellar Republic volunteers prioritized reconstruction efforts and repairing the mass relays while senior officials worked on a new series of principles, laws as well as drafting the official constitution.

Government and politics
The Interstellar Republic is a federal parliamentary republic and representative democracy―in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law―established by the Citadel-Guevara Accord, which serves as the government's supreme legal document and is regulated by a system of checks and balances. It properly defined the roles between the government and its member states.

The Republic is composed of three branches of government: the legislative, executive and judiciary.

Membership
Membership followed an application process (during which the candidate member reviewed the Citadel-Guevara Accord and other governing statutes and agreed to abide by them) and an assessment process (during which the candidate member's annual support contribution was determined).

Independent governments of other species applying to join the Interstellar Republic must meet the required conditions of Amendment XLIX, Section 12, Clause 3 of the Articles of Membership; while those wishing to leave are required to invoke Amendment LXXII, Section 45, Clause 29 of the Articles of Withdrawal.

Members

 * Asari Republics
 * Turian Hierarchy
 * Salarian Union
 * Systems Alliance
 * Courts of Dekuuna
 * Illuminated Primacy
 * Vol Protectorate
 * Quarian Conclave
 * Raloi Congregation
 * Wrex's Krogan Empire
 * Batarian Remnant

Legislative branch
The Galactic Senate is the central legislative body of the Interstellar Republic consisting of hundreds of senators who represented the many planets of the galaxy. Its primary duties relates to considering proposed bills and resolutions, approve or reject federal nominations, provides advice and consent on interstellar treaties, and serves as the high court for impeachment trials. Legislation is usually vetted first in committee, often more than one. If a bill is approved by all required committees, it is sent to the floor of the Senate for a full vote by all senators present. If the bill is approved, it goes to the First Minister for signature or veto.

Executive branch
The Interstellar Republic is headed by the First Minister, who was democratically-elected by an absolute majority of votes by its citizenry. In addition to being in charge of the executive branch as the head of state and head of government, the First Minister can veto legislation passed by the Senate (subject to override), appoint members of their Cabinet who administer and enforce laws and policies and act as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces―although that title is sometimes used to refer to the highest-ranking member of the military.

Candidates who are elected to the office can legally serve only two consecutive four-year terms and is prohibited from seeking a third term due to term limits.

Judicial branch
The Supreme Court is the highest court of law in the Interstellar Republic while the Tribunals and Court of Appeals are considered the lower and middle courts respectively and is composed of the judicial branch of the Republic's government. They are headquartered on the Citadel.

The assigned responsibilities of judges and magistrates (each addressed as "Your Honor") is to interpret the law and determine constitutional legality. Decisions of the lower courts may be appealed to the higher, but only the Supreme Court in some cases has the official power to prevent laws passed by the legislative branch, court decisions or acts of the executive branch if the law violates the Citadel-Guevara Accord.

The Supreme Court consists of nine judges, the Court of Appeals has five and the Tribunals have three, all of whom are appointed by the First Minister and may choose to remain on the bench until they die or resign. When that happens, the First Minister must nominate someone new to fill the vacancy.

Military
The Republic Defense Force is the integrated military arm of the Interstellar Republic. At its peak, it operated more than thirty-eight full fleets, each consisting of highly-advanced dreadnoughts, carriers, cruisers, frigates and support vessels, divided into battle groups and task forces, in addition to ground troop divisions and starfighters and interceptors.

Navy
The fleets are known collectively as the Republic Defense Fleet (RDF), although many referred to the RDF as the Republic Navy.

Army
Ground-based forces are referred to as the Republic Special Operations Force (RSOF).

Intelligence
Spies employed by Republic Intelligence often conducting secret covert missions beyond the reach of Republic-controlled space, such as espionage and intelligence-gathering.

Spectres
Spectres ("Special Tactics and Reconnaissance") are a group of elite agents chosen by various species that once served the now-defunct Citadel Council and are tasked to uphold galactic stability at any cost. Spectres frequently operate individually and they are free to do whatever they want to accomplish their missions and are not held accountable to any laws. Although they do answer to the First Minister, they usually turn a blind eye to the actions they take.

Citadel Security Services
Citadel Security Services, or C-Sec, is a volunteer police service which handles law enforcement on the Citadel, answerable to the Minister of Justice. The C-Sec is headed by an Executor, who often liaises between C-Sec and the First Minister.
 * Enforcement: Uniformed officers who patrol the Citadel, dispense discipline for minor infractions, resolve disputes, and respond to emergencies.
 * Investigation: Detectives who gather evidence, solve crimes, and bring their perpetrators to justice.
 * Customs: Officers who screen the passengers and cargo that pass through the Citadel's ports, confiscate contraband, and arrest smugglers.
 * Network: Technicians who deal with "cybercrimes", such as identity theft, copyright theft, hacking, viral attacks, and illegal AI. This divisions is also called the C-Sec's E-Crimes division.
 * Special Response: Officers who deal with hostage situations, bombs, and heavily armed criminals. In the event the Citadel is attacked, they are the front line of interior defense, armed with military-grade weaponry.
 * Patrol: The ships crewed by the Patrol division serve "coast guard" functions, such as search and rescue, piracy suppression, and interdiction of illegally transported materials. They are not used to defend the Citadel from naval attack; that task is left to the Republic Defense Fleet.

Military Police
The Republic Military Police Force, colloquially as MPFs, is the law enforcement agency of the Interstellar Republic's military that handles investigations concerning military personnel within the Republic Defense Force and ensured they acted within the laws established by the Citadel-Guevara Accord. This often puts them at odds with Citadel Security Services, especially since the MPFs tended to override C-Sec if military personnel were ever accused of committing a crime. While most MPFs are generally not frontline solders, their duties may bring them near the battlefield.

Economy
The Interstellar Republic had a galactic-wide economy based on shipping lanes and retained the use of the credit as a standard galactic currency. The economy practically stood on the brink of collapse following the Reaper invasion. So immediately after the war, the Republic began massive reconstruction efforts throughout the galaxy. While the its economy was based on free trade, regulation and promoting prosperity, the Republic did not allow the free trade of most forms of illegal drugs and spice. The prohibition on illegal and dangerous forms of drug annoyed crime lords who made a living out of trafficking illicit material.

Society and culture
As the successor to the Citadel Council, the Interstellar Republic saw itself as the ultimate authority in Citadel space and a democracy where free exchange of ideas and opinions were actively encouraged and protected, but like the Council, the Interstellar Republic had a very diverse culture.

In contrast to the Council, the countless sapient races who did not obtain a Council seat previously were all equally represented in Interstellar Republic government institutions like the Galactic Senate. Government debates on proposals and policies were broadcast on Extranet to promote transparency and accountability.

Astrography
After the Reaper invasion, the Interstellar Republic occupied vast swaths of territory in the known galaxy stretching from the Outer and Inner Citadel-controlled space and throughout Alliance space as well as the Attican Traverse, with some worlds bordering close to the lawless Terminus Systems. While twice the size of the Citadel Council, its egalitarian practices left many neighboring star systems on friendly or neutral terms with the new government.

Novels

 * Mass Effect: A Hero's Legacy (First appearance)
 * Mass Effect: Horizons