Governor

Confederacy Colonial Governor

   "Governor" is the title given to the person 'in charge' of a Confederacy world or Colony.  Contrast this with the wholly Human and unofficial (according to the Confederacy) military position of "System Governor" or "System Commander" (see below).
   There are various ways in which a candidate may be proposed or selected.  It doesn't take effect until the collected Confederacy AIs in that system approve the selection, at which time the selection becomes binding.  It is often seen as an arbitrary decision, but the AIs will enforce the Governor's rule until the incumbent 'retires' or dies.

Discussion

   The following is from an author's email list post by Zen Master; this is not necessarily canon but was not objected to at the time (2/17/2013):

   Every planet (or equivalent) with sufficient _civilian_ population is granted independent membership in the Confederacy. The Confederacy wants to have one entity that they can go to, if they need to deal with us. They call that entity the "Planetary Governor", and if there is only one such populated world in the system, he's the System Governor as well. They don't care how we choose the poor schmuck, that's our problem. For military outposts, the CO serves as the governor as needed. As the civilian population grows, that hat gets too big to wear and he has to choose. The CO can give up the military side and be Governor (with no direct authority over the military any more), or he can keep his command and appoint a Governor. Once the AIs have accepted said appointee as civil Governor, the military CO has NO AUTHORITY OVER THAT GUY ANY MORE, even if the appointee was a raw recruit when appointed. Lots of room for stories there. 

   It is clear that having a Governor is important to the Confederacy; at least two story-lines (dealing with the colonies at Demeter and Ishtar) have had a Governor imposed by the AIs when the humans failed to select one in a timely fashion. 

   A couple of stories have pointed out that the Confederacy is a good deal more stable than the average human, and they have NO METHOD OF RECALLING A GOVERNOR. The seat is for life, unless voluntarily abdicated. Although, the AIs are getting better at dealing with us humans. If the guv'ner is a wacko, they may start accepting that the LT Governor's plans make more sense. Us humans know how to get someone to abdicate, if we know that the AIs will support us. 

Addendum by Akarge

   On the other hand, two separate colonies, P'yong and Reck, have had their misbehaving Governors deposed, apparently by outside forces. No details have emerged as to how the AIs felt about this or dealt with it. 

Authority

   (It is 'canon' that a colonial governor 'has too much power'.  In my stories, I have my central character, a "System Governor", repeatedly claim that the AIs have to be insane to trust a human with that much power.  In 6/21 there was a discussion on the email list about whether a Governor could take a particular action, and if the wiki should be updated to say so.  My reply was that it would be far simpler to list the actions that a Governor could NOT take.  So, in the spirit of that list of things William Whitefeather was not allowed to do, here is my list of things a Governor is not allowed to do -ZM 7/1/21):

• Raise the dead.
• Make idiots act smart.
• Stop the 14-year-olds from making like rabbits.
• Bring peace to the universe.
• Give direct orders to a military unit.  (He has to go through his staff)

System Governor or System Commander

   Any system with only one settlement has a simple chain of command.  The Governor makes decisions (frequently with the assistance of some sort of council), tells his assistants, and they pass the new orders or policy on to those who must implement it.  Any system with more than one political entity, however, will have an independent Governor for each colony/planet/whatever.  In normal times, any disagreements can be worked out to everyone's satisfaction.
   In wartime, however, military action must often be quickly taken with full cooperation across multiple political entities.  There is no time for multiple committees to examine the issue from all sides.  Since the "Old Confederacy" has no experience with this, the Humans have adopted their own solution: A military-only "System Governor" who, on the one hand, has no authority over any civil personnel or assets.  On the other hand, he has _full_ authority over all system _military_ assets:

•    Planet 'A' recruits, arms, and trains an army of 20,000 Concubines to defend the planet.  That's a planetary asset and it belongs to the planet's Governor.  They are also not going to be allowed to leave that planet, no matter how dire the need is for defenders on another installation somewhere else in the system.
•    Planet 'B' in the same system instead decides to have those 20,000 Concubines build a shipyard, then use it to build ships, crewing each one as it finished.  Those ships are system defense assets, and they will belong to the System Governor.  Unfortunately, each ship must have a Sponsor for a Captain as well as all weapon-firing stations.

(Someday this will be a navigation template.  It will provide a bar across the bottom of each article with useful navigation links.  Until then, this is just a placeholder to get rid of all the red "broken link" indicators. -ZM User (talk) 10:00, 3 May 2024 (PDT))