The Rim Coalition

The Government of the Rim is officially a loose confederation of sovereign planets bound together by treaty for mutual protection against the sathar. Every planet elects representatives to the Board of the Rim Coalition (referred to as The Board) based on population density. Worlds with heavy populations elect three representatives, while worlds with moderate populations elect two and worlds with light populations elect one. All told there are now thirteen worlds electing 28 representatives.

In addition, the home world of each race of the Rim races; ifshni, humma, and osakar, appoint an Adjudicator to represent their respective race. The role of the Adjudicators, in practice, is to review and rule on matters passed by the Board that may intrude on the sovereignty of member worlds. In practice the Adjudicators are a supreme court. The appointed Adjudicators give the racial home worlds inordinate influence in the Coalition government. They also decide which representatives sit on the military and on political commitees of the Board.

The military committee of the Board of the Rim Coalition is the civilian control, overseeing the Flight, the military arm of the Coalition. This committee meets much more frequently then the political committee. It has established command and control structures that provide the Flight with a unified command during time of war.

Due to clauses in the foundational treaty (the Osaka Accords) of the Rim Coalition, all of the races in the Rim have aggressively developed new real estate through exploration and terra-forming. <!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <![endif]-->. Each colonized planet that is at light population levels and above generates new seats on the Board. Currently the humma home system has eight representatives on the board and both the ifshni and osakar have six each. This grab for political influence has pushed the Rim races to develop new planets regardless of the cost and is the reason that the Rim contains systems with some of the densest inhabited real estate  in the known space.

While the de jure government of the Rim is the Board, the de facto power behind it, in many ways is the Capellan Free Merchants (CFM). The CFM has been, without a doubt, the driving force in the Rim economically, politically and militarily for decades before the organization of the Rim Coalition and is likely to continue to be so for a long time to come. Its most significant achievement in defense of the Rim was the standardization of parts and equipment among its member planets and their militaries.

Racial Agendas within the Rim Government

The humma desire to dominate the Rim by planet ownership and the ifshnit are seeking to dominate by business interests which leads the two to occasionally clash. Caught between them is the osakar. However, they are politically astute enough to manipulate the other races for the greater good. The osakar have little interest in humma expansion or ifshni profits. Their goal is to keep the humma in check and the ifshnits from monopolizing. Here then are the three parties of the coalition and their motives. The ifshni are fiscal conservatives, the humma are aggressive exploiters and the osakar are the peace makers.

The osakar wanted a constitution, while the humma see other forms of government not their own as ineffective or weak and the ifshnit preferred contracts for everything.  In the end they got a representative government, settled with treaties and contracts from the humma and ifshnit. The Rim Coalition works today probably out of fear of the sathar more than for any other reason though the osakar are proving themselves to be the most astute diplomats in known space.