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The Federation: Difference between revisions
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* The Earth Federation in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]''
** The Earth Sphere Unified Nation in ''[[Gundam Wing]]''. Not to be confused with the [[The Empire|United Earth Sphere Alliance]].
*** None of the Federations in [[Gundam]] are particularly benevolent. In the original timeline, the Universal Century, the Federation does not allow citizens in space colonies to vote or have any say in politics, leading to many, many resistance groups forming.
*** ... and do not forget they have [[Zeta Gundam|the Titans]], either. A corrupt branch that gassed a whole colony because of peaceful demonstrations against the Earth Federation.
**** Uh, actually, the 30 Bunch demonstrations ended up turning into mass riots as they went on, and the Titans were only deployed ''after'' the regular EFSF failed to pacify the colony. Not that the Titans were "right" in gassing the colony of course.
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**** On the other hand, it's replacement, the Earth Sphere Unified Nation is one of, if not the most benevolent and peaceful example(s) in the whole Gundam franchise.
*** Also, Earth Sphere Federation from ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' is just as corrupt as it can be, abusing its political power against whoever opposes its reign - and do not forget its right-hand men, the A-LAWS, either.
**** However, after the A-Laws fall, the Federation becomes ''much'' more benevolent. Due to [[Complete Monster|Ribbons]] [[Big Bad|Allmark]], he turned the Federation into a dictatorship to accelerate the growth of human [[Super Soldier|Innovators]], and had a stranglehold on everything politically. By the time of the movie, the Federation is pretty much near [[Star Trek]]'s level of benevolence.
** The Federation from ''[[Gundam AGE]]'' follows the Gundam pattern of not being especially benevolent to anyone who opposes them. {{spoiler|Also, its decision to cover up a failed Mars colonization attempt rather than rescue the colonists is the reason the war is going on at all}}.
* The United Nations in ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'', or United Earth Government in the American adaptation ''Robotech''.
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* The Union in ''[[Soukou no Strain]]'', pitted against the evil rebel Deague.
* In ''[[Code Geass]]'', the [[The Empire|Holy Empire of Britannia]], was opposed by two other superpowers, the Chinese Federation and the Euro Universe, the latter was later smacked silly, and only Britain (surprise), Germany and the Norse islands as well as the Congo and Ukraine remained free. And to add salt to wounds, no named characters exist from the EU. They only served to be [[Throwaway Country|a throw away country]].
* The Free Planets Alliance from ''[[Legend of Galactic Heroes]]'' is an example of a Federation treated realistically: Its democratic ideals doesn't protect it from tyranny any more than the autocratic ideals of [[The Empire|the Galactic Empire]] condemns it to tyranny.
* Played with in [[Axis Powers Hetalia]]. The first episode of the anime shows a "world meeting" that is an obvious parody of the UN. Considering that the entire episode had the characters arguing and doing nothing, it's more of a subversion.
** Except that "arguing and doing nothing" describes the current state of UN spot-on.
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== Literature ==
* [[E. E. "Doc" Smith]]'s ''[[Lensman]]'' books basically invented this trope for SF, in the form of Civilization.
* The People's Republic of Haven in ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' is a very nasty and brutal deconstruction of this trope. Haven starts out as a simple Republic that is referred to as an 'Interstellar Athens' and lived in a perpetual golden age. Then the Havenite government decided to [[Strawman Political|jack up the welfare programs]], which in turn [[Anvilicious|causes the economy to collapse]]. Instead of cutting the welfare programs, the Republic instead decides to turn conquistador, [[Planet Looters|conquering and looting]] other planets to put money in their treasury. Fast forward a hundred or so years later, Haven rules a vast interstellar empire of over two hundred star systems, and its citizens are divided into the second-class "dolists" ruled by the first-class "legislaturalist" hereditary political families. Then, a revolution kicks off, trying to fix the system. Unfortunately the revolution is [[Days of Future Past|modeled after the French Revolution]] complete with a leader ''[[Steven Ulysses Perhero|named Rob S. Pierre]]''. Saying that it didn't end well would be a kind of an understatement.
** Of course, now that {{spoiler|the Havenite version of the Thermidorian Reaction has occurred (Theisman and Pritchard)}}, and with {{spoiler|1=their version of Napoleon removed ahead of schedule ([[Fan Nickname|Citizen Admiral Clusterbomb]], AKA Esther McQueen)}}, things seem to be {{spoiler|on track for the restored Republic of Haven}}. Aside from {{spoiler|the whole resumption of war with [[The Kingdom|Manticore]]}}, of course.
** And now with the War with the Solarian League, we seem to be heading for a retelling of a combination of the Crimean War (Britain & France allied against the collosus of Russia) and the American Civil War.
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** A fairly accurate example of an ''actual'' Federation, too. While they have a strong Star Fleet which combines [[Space Navy]] and [[Space Police]] functions, they seem to let member worlds largely manage their own affairs and avoid military opposition to secession.
*** The military opposition to secession is strongly there if there's a treaty involved. The Maquis were formed by Federation colonists in the DMZ, many of whom had their planets change hands as part of a peace treaty. One group of Indians, who explicitly don't want to be in the Federation, have their planet given away and were in the process of being removed from the Federation in one episode.
*** Military intervention was immediately cancelled, however, when said group renounced their Federation citizenship, and agreed to live peacefully alongside Cardassian colonists. It didn't end well in the [[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|sequel series]].
* The Earth Alliance and Interstellar Alliance in ''[[Babylon 5]]''.
** Though the Earth Alliance devolves into a [[A Nazi by Any Other Name|SpaceNazi]] [[The Empire|Empire]] under President Clark, complete with the Martian-independence subtrope.
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* In the original version of ''[[Battlestar Galactica Classic]]'', the Twelve Colonies had been united for thousands of yahrens, and the ongoing war with the Cylons had lasted for 1000 years or so when Baltar's betrayal and the naivete of the ruling council led to their defeat. The original federal union of the 12 worlds was governed by a Quorum of the Twelve, and apparently each member of that council represented a tribe, rather than a world, it just so happened that each tribe had its own world. It would probably be easier to maintain the independent nature of the members of a federation if each one had its own separate world.
* A Federation of sorts forms in ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' comprised of the various societies the Atlantis expedition had visited in their travels. They immediately turn on Atlantis, blaming them (rightfully so to a degree) for the galaxy's current problems. The comparison to ''Star Trek's'' Federation is naturally brought up, to which Rodney dismissively replies that the Federation had ''ships''.
*** One must point out however that most of the problems that the Atlantis expedition where blamed for where caused by the Ancients, not them. Sheppeard went so far as to point this fact out, further stating that he and his team where just trying to clean up the mess that the Ancients blatantly refuse to take responsibility for. The judge does in fact agree with him. But quickly points out that the new Federation has no power over the Ancients, so Sheppeard and his team will have to take the fall.
** Considering there's no alternative to using ships for interplanetary in ''Star Trek'', the Federation needed ships. The [[Portal Network|stargate system]] makes traveling to other planets as easy as stepping through a vertical pool of "water".
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== Tabletop Games ==
* The Tau Empire of ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'', might be a bit of a subversion; they're the only ones who know the definition of the word diplomacy, allow their allies to keep their military forces (so long as they don't revolt; the military'll be partially disarmed so it'll ''have'' to rely on the Tau military, should it come to that), treat the inhabitants of their conquered territories rather nicely (if they ''remain'' subsumed into the Empire and swear to uphold the Greater Good - the main Tau belief system). However, they have the most firmly centralized government of all the 40k factions, divided into a caste system that's mind-controlled by the highest class -- Ethereals.
** Furthermore, practically half of their allies serve as separate military branches for the Tau Empire. Being ''terrible'' in hand-to-hand combat, the Tau employ the avian [[Cannibal Clan|Kroot]] as melee combatants, while the nomadic and spacefaring Nicassar provide ships to scout, fight and explore for the Tau, the insectoid Vespid excel in fighting the Space Marines and the the Gue'vesa (human turncoats) reinforce the western half of the Tau Empire, providing information about Imperial military doctrines and the locations of important planets or structures to the Tau commanders. Additionally, the dwarven Demiurg, reputed as miners and traders, are noted for being economic comrades to the Tau, the mammalian Tarellians have "dog soldiers", and nobody knows anything about the Galgs. If nothing else, the Tau are [[The Republic]] of 40k, with some shades of a federation.
** The Imperium itself fits the trope in a lot of ways; individual worlds are largely allowed to run themselves so long as they pay a tithe of warm bodies for the Imperial Guard, food for the myriad Hive Worlds, and psykers for the Inquisition's Black Ships.
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*** It is not clear whether the Vilani or the Terrans are most to be blamed for the ISW's and a mild tweaking could give the Terrans more palatable justification if it suits the GM. The first Terran expansion was in trade, settling uninhabited colonies, and contact with Vilani dissidents even in canon and conquest came later when the Terrans found [[Humans Are Warriors|how tough they were]]. But in any case the Terran Confederation is clearly [[The Federation]] rather then [[The Empire]] despite it's aggressive foreign policy.
* The Federated Commonwealth in ''[[BattleTech]]''. Meanwhile, the Free Worlds League, while not fitting the "good guys" vibe of the trope, is more of an ''actual'' federation, with many nigh-independent worlds and regions, and the loosest central government of the major powers.
** The original Star League also counts; the major members were all left to their own affairs while still being subordinate to the Terran Hegemony. It was more like [[The Empire]] to the Periphery though.
* The New Earth Government in ''[[Cthulhu Tech]]'' (formed from the New United Nations during an [[Human Alien|"alien"]] genocide) might qualify, for all that it's a [[Police State]] in a [[Cosmic Horror Story|Lovecraftian universe]] which operates a borderline [[Nineteen Eighty-Four|Ministry Of Love]] to prevent [[Eldritch Abomination|EldritchAbominations]] from [[Mind Rape|controlling you]] in an attempt to destroy/convert/use as breeding fodder/transform humanity. The Cthulhutech world is not a happy place.
* The Seven Kingdoms in ''[[Talislanta]]'' fit this trope perfectly, the moreso in that each of the seven is populated by a (very!) different race. Not all aliens have to be from outer space.
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** This is because [[Word of God|Chris Avellone]] has been actively trying to make the NCR seem like crap as he feels they have done away with the post-apocalyptic feel of the series. [[Straw Man Has a Point|He's right, of course.]] The NCR is pretty much like modern day America and the post-scavenger world is off to the east and north. He even went so far as to add a nuke the NCR option in Lonesome Road and has said on his twitter account that if another Fallout comes to him, he's nuking the NCR for a clean slate in the region.[http://twitter.com/#!/ChrisAvellone/status/117371054938263552\]
* The Terran factions in ''[[Starcraft]]'' usually fit this to one degree or another, although in ''[[Starcraft]]'' it is a [[Confederation]], which is not nearly so well-intentioned. This is even worse of a misuse then the term 'Federation' tends to be, as a confederation is supposed to have even looser central government, one that wouldn't have the authority to try to retain a region that wanted to leave.
** Later succeeded by the Terran Dominion, which to all intents in purposes is effectively an autocracy and much more overt in both name and intentions.
* The UCN (United Colonial Nations) in the Killzone series essentially act as the United Nations. It presides over all the Earth-held colonies in space with Earth itself as its capital.
** Also, the ISA (Interplanetary Strategic Alliance), the main protagonists of Killzone, act as the UCN's "NATO" forces. Every UCN colony is allowed to have its own ISA military to defend itself in times of war, but they are all under (indirect) control of the UCN.
* Parodied in ''[[Star Control]] II'', where the player character is asked to name the new good-guy faction. One of the options is the United Federation of Worlds. Another is "[[The Empire]] of [Your Name]".
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* The Galaxy Federation in ''Xenosaga''.
* The Global Defense Initiative (GDI) in the chronologically later ''[[Command and Conquer]]'' games. At the beginning of the series, GDI was simply a multinational military force under the command of the United Nations, but as the timeline progressed the individual countries began to disappear until the UN/GDI was the only political/military force left, making it a sort of traditional-style Federation.
** Also the United States in the ''Generals'' series.
* The Federation in ''[[Frontier]]'', ''Frontier: Elite'' and ''Frontier: First Encounters''. Only marginally nicer than The Empire, but still a straightforward example of the trope.
* Although mentioned as early as [[Older Than They Think|the first game's]] [[All There in the Manual|manual]], ''[[Metroid]]'''s Galactic Federation rarely got more than a passing mention until ''Fusion''. In ''Prime 3'', it's presented as a fairly typical good-guy federation.
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* The Terran Confederation from the ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]]'' series.
** ''Wing Commander IV'' also introduces the Union of Border Worlds, which is much more of a Confederation mixed with [[The Alliance]].
* The Lycian League in ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Sword of Seals'' and its prequel, ''Blazing Sword'', are a group of small territories, each ruled by a marquess. In ''Sword of Seals'', they fight [[The Empire]], but in ''Blazing Sword'' they mostly squabble amongst themselves. Some endings of ''Sword of Seals'' have the main character unifying the territories into a single kingdom.
* The Peacekeeping Forces faction in ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]''.
* The Citadel Council in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' sits somewhere between The Federation and [[The Alliance]]. The council is acting mostly like the United Nations Security Council, consisting of the Asari Republic, the Turian Hierarchy, the Salarian Union, and the human Systems Alliance, while the other races have observer status. While each member "country" governs itself, there are common policies regarding international trade, arms treaties, and fundamental legal rights of individuals. Citadel Space appears to cover about 60 to 80 percent of the galaxy with independent colonies being clustered in the Terminus Systems.
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* The United Earth Federation (UEF) in ''[[Supreme Commander]]'' is a subversion: despite the name, it's [[The Empire]] and a military dictatorship to boot. The Cybran Nation is a better example as a loosely unified band of culturally different "nodes" that share technology and allegiance to Doctor Brackman, the father of the Cybrans, and generally only act in unison when presented with an external threat (such as the UEF above, or the [[Church Militant]] Aeon).
* ''[[The Precursors]]'' has the Democratic Union, one of the possible factions the player can work for. It's a very gray organization, which is actively colonizing a planet during the events of the game and fighting the alien natives. (However, the government of said natives isn't made of saints either, and there are groups of natives willing to work with the Democratic Union against them)
* The United Federation in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'', an human federation styled after the United States, with a president and all. Its armed forces is named G.U.N. and it primary mission is to fight back the Eggman Empire and other enemies to the federation, such as [[Eldritch Abomination|Chaos]] and the [[Alien Invaders|Black Arms]]. Once in conflict with Team Sonic, they're now (mostly) allies to the main characters. The United Federation also appears in the Archie Comic version, now as an ally to the Republic of Acorn and an active player in the Second Robotnik War. They were also the ones who nuked Eggman Empire's former capital city the Old Robotropolis.
* The nation of Malorigan in ''[[Eien no Aselia]]'' seems to fill this role. They actually seem to be at least as decent as Rakios, but due to events going on end up your enemy anyway.
* By ''[[Sword of the Stars]] II: Lords of Winter'' the Morrigi are officially head of a federation comprising the other races. While players could incorporate the other races in the first game into their empires through research, the sequel will build on this with NPC FTL-incapable races to assimilate peacefully.
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* The United Nations of Sol in ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'', as a semi-villainous version; it's heavily [[Obstructive_Bureaucrat|bureaucratic]], its military and intelligence are agressive and got hidden factions occasionally framing and/or shooting each other, and {{spoiler|some of these has an extremely dodgy longevity project going on in secret, with beta-testing on unaware humans behind plausible deniability; knowledge of this project outside those cleared for it is ruthlessly suppressed.}} They also aren't shy of running black ops, up to mass destruction, whenever someone have something they want, as long as they expect to get away with cover up.
** There's also the League of Galactics - League of Nations [[In Space]]. Only mentioned in passing at one point, it is described as having "about as much effect on key galactic events as central Asian rainfall has on the mean high tide in the Gulf of Mexico. Brandishing [[Strongly Worded Letter|a reprimand from the League of Galactics is only marginally worse than threatening to cut off one's access to the Ron Popeil Shopping Channel]]."
* The Nemesite Empire in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' appears to be like this--highly flawed, but still generally pretty decent. Although a monarchy, it is stated to have a parliament of representatives from its subject worlds. Princess Voltuptua seems to try harder than most of the royal family to do right by her subjects.
* In ''[[Galactic Maximum]]'', [http://maximumcomic.com/?strip_id=6 the federation is all alien, until the human colonists manage to contact it.]
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* ''[[Open Blue]]'' has the Axifloan Coalition, a ''very'' shaky confederation whose members were hated enemies no more than 170 years before the present time, stopping only because they realized fighting was stupid. Interestingly enough, its most powerful member states include two rival [[The Empire|empires]], a [[Vestigial Empire]], and a small but ''extremely'' powerful [[The Kingdom|City-State]]. As of v5, three of these states have declared war on one another and seceded from the Coalition, leaving it a shell of its former self.
* Two of the more powerful slider factions in ''[http://sosshinsei.proboards.com/index.cgi Suzumiya Haruhi no Yaku-Asobi]'' are the Crossway and Odinean Federations. The former is closer to [[The Republic]] (reformed from [[The Empire]]), however.
* The Galactic Republic in ''[[The Gungan Council]]'', natch, until it was ripped apart by the Imperial Remnant and deteriorated into the Rebellion, leaving the Galactic Empire to take its place.
* A good number of them had propped up after [[World War III]] in ''[[1983: Doomsday]],'' among the more notable and relatively benevolent ones being the ANZ Commonwealth, Alpine Confederation and Nordic Union.
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* The Earth Kingdom, a vast confederate monarchy in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' that opposes the dictatorship of the Fire Nation.
** By the time of ''[[The Legend of Korra]]'', Aang and Zuko founded the United Republic.
* The Homeworlds from ''[[Exo Squad]]''.
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* Constitutionally, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is this. However, because the institutions inherited from [[The Raj|colonial days]] haven't had any fundamental changes in terms of relations between the provinces and the central government, it still behaves more or less like [[The Empire]], just with Islamabad (or when the military there is in charge, Rawalpindi) replacing London.
* The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Officially united by their shared Communist ideology, unofficially unified because the Soviets conquered them.
** Except they did not. The creation of the Soviet Union in December 1922 was an extremely complex process that would be best characterized as a [[Gambit Pileup]]: even if most of the shards of the former [[Tsarist Russia|Russian Empire]] had Bolshevik, or at least Socialist governments at the time, they all had their own interests and goals, and even in the Russia proper Stalin, Trotsky, Lenin and Bukharin all had conflicting ideas about what to do next. Everyone was scheming against everyone, but military power played a surprisingly small role in that. In the end it was [[Magnificent Bastard|Stalin]] [[The Chessmaster|outmaneuvering all his opponents again]], and ''convincing'' everyone that it's best (or least bad) for them to join.
* The ''Federal'' Republic of Germany consists out of [[The Sixteen Lands of Deutschland|sixteen states]]. ([[West Germany|Eleven older ones]]<ref>Or just ten, the status of (West) [[Berlin]] was a bit complicated.</ref> + [[East Germany|five new ones]] [[The Great Politics Mess-Up|since 1990]]). This is partly because in its history, [[All the Little Germanies|Germany has consisted out of many de-facto independent states for a long time]], and partly in order to avoid too much centralism like during those [[Nazi Germany|certain dreadful twelve years]].
** During the 19th century, the German Federation and North German Federation both existed after the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire but before the total unification of Germany.
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[[Category:Politics Tropes]]
[[Category:The Federation]]
[[Category:Fictional Culture and Nation Tropes]]
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