The Free Confederation of Allied Worlds, commonly called "the Allied Worlds," or "the alliance," is an interstellar federal republic active in the Twelve Worlds' connected space. It has a President, who is a primarily ceremonial head of state with reserve powers, and a Prime Minister who heads the government and is normally the head of the controlling party or coalition in the Interplanetary Assembly, a unicameral parliament. The ability of this parliament to pass legislation directly affecting planetary affairs is severely limited by the Constitution, but it has considerable power to regulate trade, set standards for safety and commerce, and levy taxes to pay for infrastructure and defence.
Representatives to the Assembly are selected partly by their planetary or regional governments and partly by direct popular election. Many planets choose to select all their representatives by direct elections, others use indirect elections or other means to fill their "uncommitted" seats.
The Alliance requires member states to:
- forbid cruel punishments (including executions), genocide, hereditary slavery, and torture
- to respect diplomatic customs
- to govern transparently by the rule of law
- to refrain from hindering commerce between other members
- to provide certain rights and services to travellers from other member states
- to protect the wormhole system and contribute to common security needs
- to submit to the jurisdiction of Interplanetary Courts in order to enforce the other requirements and to mediate inter-state disputes.
- to absolutely refrain from waging war on other member states
- to pay taxes as determined by the Interplanetary Assembly
Apart from the degree of democracy implicit in the requirement to have some Interplanetary Assembly members selected by popular vote, there is technically no requirement that a member state be a democracy. Nonetheless, most are some form of democracy or republic. Indeed, some observers have noted that the obligations imposed by the Alliance are not too different from those imposed by the Empire, which also tended to leave its worlds to manage their own affairs in any reasonably consistent way as long as taxes were paid and the rights of travellers were respected. This has been taken either as an indictment of the Alliance, that it ought to take a more active role in promoting sentient rights and equality, or as a sign of its potential for long-lasting stability if wisely managed.
States are allowed to leave the alliance. This has occasionally happened, with them usually returning after a change in government. In the case of multistate planets without a planetary supranational union, it is possible for only one state to leave (or join) the Alliance, which has also sometimes happened. The economic benefits of interstellar trade have tended to favor Allied states, but the situations are often complex.
Leaders
The non-partisan president is Dr. M. Abdulrahman al-Mirriki of Thane, an elder statesman of his homeworld. The incumbent prime minister is Julia Dotcom-Ng of the Insular Union of Heidelberg, head of the Social Market Party, part of the ruling Open Coalition. The leader of the opposing coalition in the Assembly is Threads, Great-lord of Southcap, of the Susan Empire.