Jay replied to me:
Answering that is about as easy as describing the archetypal
human-dominated Imperium. But it is fun
to try ...
* The writeup in Space mentions that most Pachekki are rather dull
and follow their smarter leaders
without any fuss. That could cause expectations among the Pachekki
leadership (and political
theorists) that the same applies on the interstellar scale. Colony
worlds are expected to follow
the directions of the homeworlds, dumber species (read: less
advanced at the time of contact) are
expected to follow the directions of the Pachekki. If they refuse
to do so, the Pachekki will
feel that this is a betrayal of the natural order. They react with
anger and violence.
Hmmm, okay, so Instead of an Imperium there might be an exceptionally
large zone of council control. A Pachekkie Council-ate (Consulate?)
Calling it an Imperium is fine. The Romans didn't abolish the senate
after their republican period,
and few Imperators had absolute control.
So the Pachekki expect the junior partners to send smart people to the
big Senate/Councl to help run things.
"To help run things" sounds like real influence. It could be that they
expect their junior partners
to be more junior than partner, with the understanding that the senior
partner (i.e. the Pachekki
homeworld) knows what is best for everybody.
Worlds that don't run according to the pachekki pattern will be view
with some confusion and distaste
That happens even on Earth. How much easier will it be if true aliens
are involved?
But, the big Pachekki council must control or else violence and chaos
will result. So the Pachekki will detail small groups of smarties and
their minions to trouble areas to make sure that chaos and disorder do
not break out.
Of course the others will see that as Pachekki tyranny. "One man, one
vote" is not in their midset.
* That could cause them to hold the homeworld responsible for the
actions of outlying colonies. If
Earth claims that it cannot be held responsible for the actions of
human worlds elsewhere, that
will be seen as a blatant lie. The actions of smart individuals may
be another thing entirely.
Other species will be puzzled to figure out where individual
responsibility turns into group
responsibility, and try to push the limits with small special ops
teams.
Or, they'll endless search for alien "Smarties" to try and either
convert them or prevent them from challenging Pachekki control.
Given a few smart people among the dumb herd, their view of history
could be shaped by
conspiracy theories. That's stretching the description in Space, but it
might be that
smart Pachekki spend lots of time looking for conspiracies which might
not exit.
* Pachekki rely on leadership groups rather than individuals to
buffer their mood swings, so they
will have a Senate rather than an Emperor. They will have a hard
time dealing with societies
where an individual claims to hold (or just represent) sovereignty
and to speak for a world.
Only groups can make binding agreements on behalf of their world,
individuals are discounted.
So individuals who do not play ball and bring disorder and chaos with
them are just stomped out of hand - groups are courted or threatened
to make sure they don't upset the larger apple-cart
On the other hand, there could be a tendency to discount/excuse the acts
of individuals because
they might have been in their impulsive phase. Only the actions of
groups indicate a new policy
which can be encouraged or opposed.
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