Galactic Empire (Post–Galactic Civil War)

The Imperial Remnant, officially the Galactic Empire, was a that became the official successor state to the  of   in the aftermath of the. After the death of the Emperor at the the  signed the  with the, formally ending the war and confining the new Imperial state to boundaries within the  and the. While the new state formally continued to uphold the values of the and remained authoritarian, it denounced Emperor Palpatine's abuses of power and mass genocide, instead promoting a less totalitarian version of the New Order ideology. Among its key policies was the abandonment of and the creation of the "Victory Without War" initiative.

Shortly after the Galactic Concordance signing the issue of a successor for Emperor Palpatine was resolved. A distant great-niece of Palpatine named Ederlathh Pallopides, an eleven-year old child at the time, was proclaimed the new ceremonial Empress in 5 ABY. The revised Imperial Charter greatly limited the monarch's powers while the Imperial Senate served as the primary decision-making body. It was led by the head of government, the elected President of the Imperial Senate. In the years that followed the former Empire established peaceful relations with the Republic and the rest of.

Government
"The Empire, led by a hereditary monarch, is bad government. The Republic, having an inefficient elected democracy, is badly governed. Which system is in the right?"

- Republic Senator

Unlike Palpatine's absolutist and fascist Galactic Empire, the Imperial Remnant was a constitutional monarchy that was nominally led by the Empress as a symbolic head of state and commander-in-chief of the Imperial Armed Forces, while the true power rested in the elected Imperial Senate, which in turn elected a President of the Senate to serve as the head of government. The former Imperial Charter, the Empire's constitution, was revised heavily after the Galactic Concordance by Imperial bureaucrats and New Republic advisors. The new document aimed to create a system of checks and balances, leaving the Empress the nominal leader but essentially powerless, while the Imperial Senate became the legislature with its President having the most power, with a cabinet appointed by the President existing as the executive and the newly reformed Imperial Supreme Court becoming an independent judiciary.

The Imperial Senate convened on, which was also the seat of the Empress. Although a more democratic system was in place, the Empire still had political and cultural traditions of centralization, so often the Imperial Senate members deferred to the President on all matters, who in practice became an increasing powerful figure. Meanwhile the monarch continued to be subject to near-worship by masses of the Imperial citizenry and, as the formal head of state, all Imperial subjects took an oath of loyalty to their Empress.

Military
"Although the Empire has officially been demilitarized its armed forces are still very capable, perhaps even more so than the New Republic's. The Imperials have been finding all sorts of ways to get around the provisions of the Concordance."

- report, c. 10 ABY

The majority of the points of the Galactic Concordance were related to the powerful Imperial Armed Forces. Prohibited from recruiting or fielding s, closing all, and being forced to pay reparations to the New Republic, the postwar Empire's military was demobilized and greatly diminished after the Galactic Civil War. The Imperial Senate further voted to lower military spending to pay the reparations to the Republic without impoverishing the Empire's people and to promote the Victory Without War initiative. Nonetheless the Empire would never fully abandon its militaristic tradition, with the role of the defunct being filled by the 's  and the  still maintaining the second-largest naval fleet in the galaxy after the. The Empire still found ways to get around provisions of the Concordance.

Economy
While some of the regulations of Palpatine's Empire had been lifted, the Imperial Remnant maintained a largely centralized, planned economy that was regarded as. Free market competition and trade was allowed while many of the vital industries deemed to be of crucial importance to the state were nationalized by the Imperial government. Trade continued with the rest of the galaxy, while the Empire becoming a major exporter of weaponry to various smaller governments and other organizations, using loopholes in the Galactic Concordance to justify it.

Behind the scenes
The author had a number of inspirations for this article from both the new canon and the older Legends material, referencing them throughout. Those included the of the former Expanded Universe, the articles on  and her plan to form a constitutional monarchy in the Empire, and the still largely obscure and undeveloped. The main real world inspiration for it was postwar West Germany and the modern Federal Republic of Germany, in contrast to their militaristic past.