History Main / AliensNeverInventedDemocracy

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' didn't tend to flesh out the workings of alien cultures until ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. Some of the major ones:
** The human-led Federation is the only democratic power in the Galaxy, the others are:
** The Klingon Empire: A feudal oligarchy with the heads of the noble houses conforming the High Council and choosing a Chancellor. They use to have fully empowered Emperors who were successors of Kahless ([[CrystalDragonJesus their culture's Jesus]]) but the figure was abandoned some 200 years before the first series starts. A clone of Kahless was later named Emperor but with only decorative and religious functions.

** The Tzekethi Coalition: Its leader is named the Autarch, you make the math.
** The Dominion: Officially a Theocracy with the Founders (who are considered gods by their subjects) at the top, in reality an Ethnocracy with a species ruling collectively over the others in its Empire.
** The Borg Collective: It's an absolute monarchy or a classless collective society depending on how you see it. The Borg Queen rules over billions of mindless collectivized drones.
** The Ferengi Alliance: A Monarchy lead by the Grand Negus as the figurehead, all the rest of the administration is basically {{Corporatocracy}}.

* [[TheReptilians The Race]] in Creator/HarryTurtledove's ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'' had no concept of democracy until they attacked the Earth and met humans. The name for the system in their language is "snout-counting".
** Interestingly enough, The Race ''does'' have a procedure for removing someone from a position of power that's remarkably similar to an impeachment vote; one of them lampshades its resemblance to the "snout-counting" that they hold in contempt.

** Niblonians are the parody of the OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness

-->-- '''[[Literature/{{Worldwar}} Worldwar: In the Balance]]'''

* ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'': It seems like most, if not all, of the civilizations outside of Earth are still making use of the feudal system and are ruled by monarchies, due to needing to justify the {{Princess Protagonist}}s.

* ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'': It seems like most, if not all, of the civilizations outside of earth are still making use of the feudal system and are ruled by monarchies. Probably because EverythingIsBetterWithPrincesses.

Sometimes this is done because the writer wants to make the aliens truly alien in culture, thus having weird, even sometimes incomprehensible, political systems is a way. However, if the aliens' government system is just another non-democratic human system like absolute monarchy or dictatorship, then this is not the reason. In some works it could be a way to present humanity's [[GoodRepublicEvilEmpire nice democratic system vs the aliens' evil Empire]], which is very common when TheFederation faces TheEmpire. (This is especially common in works made during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar for [[ScaryDogmaticAliens obvious reasons]].) Sometimes is just a matter of PlanetOfHats: some writers just can't think that a ProudWarriorRace can be democratic (despite the fact that we have many examples in our own world) because, well [[ArmiesAreEvil warriors are not democrats]], also in scenarios of AlienInvasion, having the invaders enjoying a democracy would feel kind of contradictory (despite, again, many examples in our history where democratic republics held vast, cruel empires and subjugated other peoples without considering this a contradiction). And since EverythingIsBetterWithPrincesses, a space princess is probably going to need a monarchy to hail from.

** As Space Nazis, the Daleks are certainly not democratic. The Daleks are ruled either by a Supreme Dalek or by their creator Davros, depending on how favorable they're feeling towards Davros on any given week. He's been the cause of at least one civil war over whether they should obey him or not, but even at his lowest popularity dips, they can never quite bring themselves to kill him or let him die.

* In ''Creator/RobertAHeinlein's '' ''Literature/GloryRoad'' Earth is an isolated backward planet. An interstellar anthropologist specializing in the place hear's that the hero, Oscar, is from the U.S. and asks him if their 'noble experiment' is still going on. Oscar, thinking he means Prohibition, says it's been abandoned. The anthropologist says it was a silly idea anyway, and asks about their form of government now. Do they have a king? He meant democracy.

** Played with by the Kig-Yar (aka Jackals and Skirmishers); they may not have much in the way of former democracy, but that's because they don't really have any form of effective central government beyond what outsiders try to impose on them, and their internal affairs are basically determined by matriarchal mob rule.
** Possible averted by the Lekgolo (the worms that make up Hunter colonies, among other gestalts), who are implied to have a relatively egalitarian social structure.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect'':

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/president_kang.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E1TreehouseOfHorrorVII As soon as Kang was elected President of the United States, he made some changes.]]]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]

----

** The Cardassian Union is a military dictatorship with a merely symbolic civil government. It has similarities with both Fascist and Soviet regimes. [[spoiler:In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E01E02TheWayOfTheWarrior The Way of the Warrior]]", a popular uprising overthrows the military government and restores power to the Detapa Council. Later the Dominion invades Cardassia and overthrows this government to install Gul Dukat as their puppet dictator.]]

** Bajor is technically a Republic with free elections to choose the First Minister once they got rid of the Cardassian occupation, yet its religious leader the Kai (equivalent to a Pope or Dalai Lama) has excessive amounts of power and at some point one of their Kais actually held both offices.

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E1TreehouseOfHorrorVII Treehouse of Horror VII]] segment, "Citizen Kang", alies kidnap Homer and ask him to TakeMeToYourLeader. Homer hesitates, because they are about to have an election between President UsefulNotes/BillClinton and Senator Bob Dole, so Homer doesn't know what to tell them. The aliens Kang and Kodos are apparently familiar with the concept of an election, having monitored human activity for years, but when they kidnap Clinton and Dole and impersonate them, their campaign styles make it clear that they have no direct experience with elections. Once Kang is elected, he enslaves the human population and converts the United States into a dictatorial monarchy.

!Examples

* In ''Anime/TenchiMuyo,'' Jurai is a feudal monarchy similar to old Japan.

[[folder:Comics]]

*** In Pre-Crisis days, Krypton was run by the "Science Council" and described as a "technocracy." In practice, this seemed to be a sort of parliament where the representatives were picked for their ''scientific'' accomplishments. The odd implication that scientific prowess alone would be the best qualification for a good politician probably [[FridgeLogic wouldn't fly]] outside of the [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age,]] but it was established in the Fifties and the [[UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]] kept it until the [[Comicbook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths Crisis]] due to the GrandfatherClause.

* In the ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' series most of the Barsoomian races are ruled by monarchs, save for the tribal Green Martians. John Carter of course marries the princess of the Red Martian city of Helium.
* Creator/HGWells story ''Literature/TheFirstMenInTheMoon'' has a civilization ''inside'' the moon, ruled by the Grand Lunar, who holds that office by virtue of having the biggest brain. It is noted in-universe that Lunars conduct eugenics to produce Lunars specific to a societal purpose.
* The atevi of Creator/CJCherryh's ''Literature/{{Foreigner}}'' series cannot conceive of any other form of governance than monarchy.

* [[TheReptilians The Race]] in Creator/HarryTurtledove's ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'' had no concept of democracy until they attacked the Earth and met humans. The name for the system in their language is "snout-counting".
* The Jan in ''Literature/AlienInASmallTown'' have a HiveCasteSystem and are ruled by their small number of breeding females, the Matriarchs. We're told that some of their colonies do have elected legislatures in addition to the Matriarchs, but that it's not common.
* The Takisians in ''Literature/WildCards'' practice [[DeadlyDecadentCourt especially skullduggerous]] medieval feudalism, with the noble families being selectively bred for superior psychic ability, scientific acumen, and physical beauty. Dr. Tachyon still doesn't get democracy after living among us for decades, not entirely seeing why elections are preferable to assassinations.

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]

* In ''Series/{{Farscape}}'':

* ''Series/DoctorWho:''
** The Time Lords, bless their double hearts, actually ''were'' a democracy, though the elections usually didn't amount to much because the Lord President's hand-picked successor almost always won. Then during the Time War, Rassilon got revived to lead them, and things went downhill.
** As Space!Nazis, the Daleks are certainly not democratic. The Daleks are ruled either by a Supreme Dalek or by their creator Davros, depending on how favorable they're feeling towards Davros on any given week. He's been the cause of at least one civil war over whether they should obey him or not, but even at his lowest popularity dips, they can never quite bring themselves to kill him or let him die.
** The Ice Warriors appear to have monarchs and nobility.
** The Sontarans have no civilian population. The entire race is an army.

[[folder:VideoGames]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

Sometimes this is done because the writer wants to make the aliens truly alien in culture, thus having weird, even sometimes incomprehensible, political systems is a way. However, if the aliens' government system is just another non-democratic human system like absolute monarchy or dictatorship, then this is not the reason. In some works it could be a way to present humanity's [[GoodRepublicEvilEmpire nice democratic system vs the aliens' evil Empire]], which is very common when TheFederation faces TheEmpire. Sometimes is just a matter of PlanetOfHats: some writers just can't think that a ProudWarriorRace can be democratic (despite the fact that we have many examples in our own world) because, well [[ArmiesAreEvil warriors are not democrats]], also in scenarios of AlienInvasion, having the invaders enjoying a democracy would feel kind of contradictory (despite, again, many examples in our history where democratic republics held vast, cruel empires and subjugated other peoples without considering this a contradiction). And since EverythingIsBetterWithPrincesses, a space princess is probably going to need a monarchy to hail from.

** [[{{Mordor}} Apokolips]] is an absolute totalitarian dictatorship under Darkside.

*** An episode of ''Series/DeepSpaceNine'' references they ''did'', briefly, practice democracy after a coup ousted the current emperor. It didn't last long, and Klinon history refers to it as "the Dark Time." Make of that what you will.

* Among the standard races of ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'' 2 only humans have democratic government. All other races are ruled by dictators, by feudal lords or have [[HiveMind hive mind]].

** The Kree government is described as "Military-technocratic dictatorship" in the Marvel wiki, and is usually ruled by the Supreme Intelligence, a HiveMind composed of [[BrainUploading brain uploaded]] dead Kree, usually represented by an image of a hideous blobby green face; whether this blobby mass actually ''is'' made of a bunch of disembodied brains varies DependingOnTheWriter. The Intelligence is one of the most brilliant minds in the Marvel Universe and pulls [[XanatosGambit Xanatos Gambits]] constantly, but it is hellishly ruthless in its dealings with its own people and will pull genocidal acts of violence against them if it perceives some [[BlueAndOrangeMorality long-term]] or [[EvilutionaryBiologist eugenic benefit]] from doing so.

** The Kree government is described as "Military-technocratic dictatorship" in the Marvel wiki, and is usually ruled by the Supreme Intelligence, a HiveMind composed of [[BrainUploading brain uploaded]] dead Kree, usually represented by an image of a hideous blobby green face; whether this blobby mass actually ''is'' made of a bunch of disembodied brains varies DependingOnTheWriter. The Intelligence is one of the most brilliant minds in the Marvel Universe and pulls [[XanatosGambit Xanatos Gambits]] constantly, but it is hellishly ruthless in its dealings with its own people and will pull genocidal acts of violence against them if it perceives some long-term eugenic benefit from doing so.

** The Kree government is described as "Military-technocratic dictatorship" in the Marvel wiki.

* The Gamilons in ''[[Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato Star Blazers]]'' are unabashedly fascist, led by Leader Desslok (In German, "[[ThoseWackyNazis fuhrer]]" literally means "leader.")

* And Kirk certainly encountered plenty of planets-of-the-week ruled by computers, often masquerading as gods.