Dan suggests that the New Republic's repeated failures reflect writers creating crises for the plot without working through the scale of a galactic government. Concentrating bureaucratic power in a few antagonists can make the nominally democratic institutions irrelevant. Dragon replies that many failures concern small pirate groups or threats to only five or six systems, so they cannot all be explained by a need for galaxy-wide villains. Worlds ask for protection and still receive no effective help. Dragon also cites a failed coup leader's later election as chief of state despite repeated disgrace, as an example of failed political accountability. Dragon partly accepts the criticism of the writing while maintaining that the resulting stories expose weaknesses in the fictional institution itself.
Notable Point · 1:51:28-1:56:08
Does the New Republic fail because of its institutions or its stories?
Dan and Dragon disagree over how far narrative demands explain a fictional government's failures, especially when the threats are small and local.