The government of the People's Republic of Terra is just as much an amalgamation as its social structure.
With the benefit of hindsight, the architects of the world government set out to build a perfect system. At that specific goal, they failed. However, the system they arrived at is certainly a unique one.
In theory, the Terran government is a direct democracy—every citizen is entitled to a vote on every issue brought forth. In practice, with the span of the Republic, that is not feasible to maintain. What emerged after Second Contact was something else.
Political theorists refer to this new system as tiered democracy, structured thusly:
Local → Regional → Planetary → Sector → Republic
Unlike previous democracies that employed a tiered system of authority, this one sets filters at every level similar to the old Electoral College system employed by the former United States.
Citizens do have a vote on every issue. In local issues, those votes are directly tied to the outcome. For votes affecting any other tier, those votes are reduced down to a simple majority result and an independently appointed figure known as the Voice then casts that majority vote at the next tier up.
At the local level, every citizen casts their vote. Those votes are tallied and the local Voice takes that majority result to the regional tally. The votes of all local Voices in a region are tallied and that majority vote is passed to the regional Voice, who casts that vote at the planetary tally.
At this point, the system diverges. For many votes, the planetary tally is communicated to the four Zhizheng Guan of each planet, who are entrusted to clearly represent the will of their planetary populace.
For other votes, such as the vote for a new Premiere, the result of the planetary tally is passed to a planetary Voice who casts that vote at the Sector level. The result in each of the five Sectors determines the Republic-wide result—a simple majority of three Sectors is all that is required.
At the Republic level, there are four branches of government: Executive, Assembly, Judicial, and Military.
A proper review of history led to the military being given a seat at the highest level table under the assumption that if they are allowed a hand on the wheel, they are less likely to try to seize all power directly.
The Executive branch is the strongest of all four branches. It is formed of the Premiere and the five Magistrates.
Like a Zhizheng Guan, the title of Premiere is an elected one. Unlike the Zhizheng Guan, it is designed to be a lifetime appointment—however, the lifetime in question is very clearly laid out: a Premiere may rule for no more than 35 years, at which point, in a religiously inspired ceremony, the sitting Premiere is executed by the incoming Premiere, who first ritually lays all the crimes of the Republic on the head of its former leader.
Many sitting Premieres deliberately plan to have the transfer of power occur on a planet other than Earth so that they may then be given the honor of being flown back to the Mother World in the First Fleet.
The Executive branch controls the entire governmental bureaucracy, from investigative departments to the tax bureau to the regulatory bodies. They are, in many ways, the embodiment of the Republic, as every penny passes through their hands and every major decision either originated from them or winds up on their desks.
The Assembly is less of a legislative body than it is a cross between a country club and a religious ceremony. It is made up of four Zhizheng Guan (Consuls) from each planet in the Republic.
The position of Zhizheng Guan is, nominally, an elected one, but once someone is elected to the position, they are not required to open their seat up for election unless they choose to do so. This has largely shifted the position to a lifetime appointment on most planets. A few insist on their Zhizheng Guan standing for election every other year, but those are rare cases.
The Assembly meets on Earth in Renlei Heping for three years at a pace, then rotates through the other four sector seats for the fourth and fifth years before returning to Earth to restart the cycle.
The goal of the Assembly is nominally the passage of laws and ordinances to better govern the Republic and meet the needs of its citizens. In reality, the Assembly is presented with a slate of laws in need of review and a slate of new laws to debate and approve. This slate comes from the Premiere's advisory council—the five individuals who hold exclusive, hereditary, non-purchasable Noble titles and are appointed as the Sector Magistrates.
Should there fail to be an heir to one of these titles, or should the heir not pass the approval of the other Magistrates and the Premiere, the title and position are stripped from the family and granted to another. Thus far, there have been 12 families to hold a Magistrate title.
The Judicial branch oversees all courts in the Republic. This isn't as many as you might think.
After due consideration, the decision was made to appoint local and regional law enforcement as mediators instead of having local-level courts. Citizens may appeal any mediated decision to a Regional court, but mediations are rarely overturned.
Each Region has three courts, every Planet has three Planetary courts, each Sector has one Sector court, and the Republic itself maintains a single court for any case not resolved at a lower level. Sector and Republic Court cases are rare to the point of spectacle.
The military branch oversees both the Army and the Navy: procurement, budget, enrollment, and deployment of all Republic forces.
Republic High Command is made up of:
(See Terran Military for complete details.)
Republic space is divided into five sectors, each named for its capital or founding world. Sector Magistrates are effectively autonomous within their sectors, as there are no sector, planetary, regional, or local assemblies.
Each Magistrate appoints a Governor to each planet within their sector. Those governors in turn appoint regional Speakers whose role is to listen to the concerns of their constituents and bring those concerns to the governors. Local levels of government may elect either a mayor or a council.
The seat of Republic power and home to the most populous worlds in human space.
One of the first two interstellar colonies, positioned nearly 20,000 light years from Sol. Borders Freelance space and maintains three fleets at all times due to its proximity to the Confederacy.
The other of the first two interstellar colonies, also positioned to serve as a hub for further expansion.
The only sector to have never changed Magistrate families since its founding.