United Federation of Planets

Created by Captain James McGowan on Sun Dec 11th, 2022 @ 8:45pm

The UFP was founded in 2161 in the aftermath of the Earth-Romulan War. It was designed to be an interstellar defense and free-trade zone. Each member world retains all sovereignty over internal affairs outside of those things mentioned in Article IV of the Federation Charter.
President


The current President is from Earth, Thaddeus Johnson, a Virginian by birth, and the first Terran president in 18 years.

Federation Charter

Article I

The legislative authority of the United Federation of Planets shall be vested in the Federation Council, which shall be formed of a Chamber of Delegates and a Chamber of Member Worlds.
The Chamber of Delegates shall serve two years for no more than six terms, freely chosen in secret ballots by their respective member worlds, in proportion to their populations; each member shall have at least one delegate, with an additional delegate per billion population of a member world. The Chamber of Member Worlds shall consist of two senators from each member world to represent the governments thereof.
The language of operation shall be termed 'Federation Standard' and shall be the legal language of governance; however, all documents created shall be made available in all member world languages as requested, provided without cost to the member worlds.

Article II

The executive authority of the Federation shall be vested in a President, chosen by the member worlds for a single six-year term, and shall not be reeligible.
The presidency shall not be held more than twice consecutively by the same member world.
The President shall have a cabinet drawn from at least five member worlds to advise on matters under his direction and to run the various departments authorized by the Federation Council.

Article IV

Federation members maintain their own currencies, provided they are based on and backed by gold, silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium, and/or copper. Experience has shown that fiat currencies lead to corruption and economic impoverishment and exploitation of the populations of planets. When exchanging between planets, they may use a crypto-credit or physical Federation Credits, a polymer rectangle tied in to the monetary system with micro circuitry to verify authenticity.
Federation members may not form their own confederations, or genetically modify their own people.
Federation members may not practice slavery; involuntary servitude may be permitted only after judgment in a legal trial according to the traditions of the planet, and other members may extradite their citizens home provided that justice is served for any crime committed.
Federation members may not impose taxes or duties on articles of trade from other members, but may forbid items harmful to their species or ecosystems
Federation members shall have the right to maintain their own armed forces, but the Federation may assume control in the event of a declared war to such extent as necessary for prosecuting the war, without being detrimental to the security of the member world.

To respect the traditions of member worlds, they shall punish crimes committed on their planets as appropriate to the crime, provided that capital punishment for non-citizens for any crime other than treason, genocide, or murder is expressly forbidden.

Economy

The Federation economy is free-market and what would be called capitalist, but not the disparaging sense of 'capitalist' where businesses exploit workers, deny raises, cut corners, give themselves raises instead of their employees, and collude with government to keep out competition and implement political policies of one or another political party. Money exists, backed by gold, silver, copper, palladium, platinum, and rhodium. Physical Federation Credits are polymer rectangles, similar to Canadian dollars as of 2022, but with microcircuitry tying it to specific metallic backing. Starfleet members are paid in credits, which are translatable into a specific amount of precious metals, which are then translatable into local planetary currencies. Each credit has a cryptographic blockchain security built-in to prevent counterfeiting.