Such a system could greatly improve economic efficiency, spur competition, and promote technological innovation. The Galactic Republic's 25,000 years of prosperity had been built upon this kind of political system, and it had indeed produced tremendous results.
The explosion of innovation brought by the free market had allowed the Galactic Republic's technology and culture to flourish in every direction. Different species had also shone with their own distinctive brilliance in their respective fields. The Galactic Republic's golden age had indeed arisen from this.
But limited government and a democratic parliamentary system had also plunged the Galactic Republic into endless internal strife. Or rather, if the Jedi Order had not largely helped the Galactic Republic government carry out some of its administrative and law-enforcement functions, the collapse of the Galactic Republic's political system might not even have waited for Palpatine to make his move.
The most serious consequence was that such policies had given rise to a great many immensely powerful Mega-Trusts within the Galactic Republic, causing the economy to develop rapidly in a distorted form. Then, on the foundation of those Mega-Trusts, an aristocratic class of powerful Core Worlds families had emerged.
Yet the Galactic Republic's former prosperity and freedom had made the poor, backward planets and species of the Mid Rim and Outer Rim yearn for it with extreme intensity. They attributed the exploitation they suffered to a lack of "freedom," believing that it had been caused by those Mega-corporations acting independently beyond the Galactic Republic's authority. As long as the Galactic Republic's former policies could continue, they believed, everything would be all right.
Looking once more at liberal thought, it was not difficult to see that the "freedom" these liberals hoped for had always existed only in an idealized realm. Even with the Jedi Order correcting its course,