Governance of the United Colonies

Division of Powers

  Each member world of the Unified Colonies of Humankind maintains their own local government, economy, and military. The UCH itself as an organization has interstellar authority, but limited ability to enact that authority on any planet. The UCH may maintain a Spacy (a fleet of spaceships) but may not have a standing army (a legion of soldiers and equipment for the express purpose of land warfare).   The UCH acts as the sole point of contact with the Intercessors, as well as the primary point of contact for alien civlizations. The UCH maintains sole ownership of all Smartfold equipment assigned to human use, and is responsible for their safe keeping. The UCH may loan use of smartfold equipment to national or private users with a condition agreement.  

Structure of Representation

  There exist three tiers of council:   The Congress of Captains is a voting body where a quorum of any 50 non-military ship captains can convene at the current site of the UCH Forum and declare themselves the Congress of Captains. The Congress of Captains has very little actual power: they are able to submit proposals to the Congress of Worlds for consideration, and a 65% majority vote of the Congress of Captains counts as a single vote in the Congress of Worlds.   The Congress of Habitats is a standing legislative body with representatives from all recognized human space stations with a population of more than 100. Each Habitat may decide for themselves how their representative is chosen. Like the Congress of Captains, The Congress of Habitats is able to submit proposals to the Congress of Worlds for consideration, and a 65% majority vote of the Congress of Habitats counts as a single vote in the Congress of Worlds.   The Congress of Worlds is the highest level decisionmaking body. Each inhabited planet recognized by the Congress of Worlds is granted at least one representative, with a second representative granted based on certain conditions such as population size or progress of terraforming. Two additional representatives stand in for the Congress of Captains and the Congress of Habitats, though it is not uncommon for one or both of these representatives to be forced to abstain due to an inability to reach an internal majority. Finally, one special representative serves as the voice of the UCH government itself, chosen from within the internal governmental structure and speaking for both the organization and the UCH Spacy.    

UCH Spacy

  The UCH maintains a space navy, better known as a Spacy, to protect UCH interests and enforce UCH law. The colonies maintain their own independant Spacys, but the UCH controls the flow of new Smartfold computers which allows them to limit the amount of colonial warships that have FTL capability. Meanwhile, the UCH Spacy has widespread smartfold capability allowing it to move freely.   In order to reduce colony world controls and minitgate conflicts of interest in the event of an internal war, the UCH Spacy ships are staffed almost exclusively by recruits from the various space stations in human space.