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On Fri, 5/20/16, Richard Aiken <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: Incredibly efficient! was Re: [TML] L-Hyd not necessary for jumping & misc....
 To: "tml" <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
 Date: Friday, May 20, 2016, 6:19 PM

 On Fri, May 20, 2016 at
 7:35 PM, Bruce  Johnson <xxxxxx@pharmacy.arizona.edu>
 wrote:
 The
 Imperium is ruled by him or her through his/her sworn
 vassals, since it is a feudal empire.
 My favorite history professor at
 college referred to feudalism as "a system of
 government which worked so well that it worked itself out of
 a job."
 By which
 he meant that feudalism came into being as a response to a
 general state of lawlessness. Here and there, a particular
 local strongman convinced other local strong men to support
 him in the event of attack, in return for his support of
 them, should they be attacked. The webs of association thus
 engendered tended to expand over time, as other strong men
 recognized the benefits of the system. Once enough strong
 men had joined a particular web, the most effective strong
 families of strong men rose to the status of kings . . . and
 feudalism segued into monarchy.
 In the case of the 3I, my bet is
 that jump lag has artificially prolonged the reign of
 feudalism, preventing the rise of the Emperor to the status
 of a true monarch. For me, while the Moot may *officially*
 have no power, as representatives (through the carrying of
 proxy votes) of the Emperor's major vassals, they hold
 important unofficial power over his decisions. If a
 significant fraction of Moot members deem a particular
 course to be ill-advised, the Emperor would be well disposed
 to listen (all other things being equal). As the military
 maxim goes, "Never give an order which you know will
 not be obeyed."  

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And then there's all those thousands of charters granted to member worlds.
On a lot of those worlds, according to GovType, the local assigned Imperial Nobility may not have much authority outside the extrality zone/s.
I believe there'd be a strong sentiment on any chartered world for a 'Rule of Law' interpretation of the 'Emperor's Will'. That 'Law' being, of course, the Imperial Charter for that world. How did Retinae, in the S'Marches, leave the 3I? Did the local imp nobility willingly go along with that?
I wouldn't be surprised if it's not uncommon for a Charter to specify that the Imperial Noble/s for the new member-state be composed of natives of that planet/system. Folks that, once again, according to GovType, could easily have been subject to the local 'Rule of Law". And the local gov would probably want it to remain that way. At least outside the extrality zone. And then where do the subsector/sector govs come in? They have the power to pass laws & enact taxes. There has to be a legal code of some sort. The ImpNobles may be theoretically above all that by right of 'Rule of Man' but so is just about anyone who chooses to arm himself & start "acting like he *owned* the place".
I believe a sort of 'tipping point' was reached when the archdukes started becoming primarily honorary , which I see as beginning to happen after Arbellatra ended the 'Civil War' period. By 1100 they had not much more real power than a Sector Duke. No wonder then, when Strephon 'turned back the clock', chaos ensued in relatively short order. He unwittingly set up a situation similar to that which existed before the 1stFW.

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