History Main / UngovernableGalaxy

** The [[{{Precursors}} Forerunners]] notably did not have this problem. While they did fight multiple civil wars over their history, by the time the Flood destroyed them, their Ecumene still dominated the galaxy as a single political body, stable at three million worlds.

* In ''FanFic/{{Fractured}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]'']] [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover crossover]] and its sequel ''Fanfic/{{Origins}}'', the galaxy surrounding Pandora fits this trope, being that the "government" is a sham and the strongest actors are [[NGOSuperpower corporations]]. Downplayed with the Trans-Galactic Republic, though it may be a bureaucratic nightmare, it still functions as a legitimate-if-incompetent state unlike the Economic Development Group.

* ''Literature/BannerOfTheStars'': this is one of the reasons the Abh Empire has a largely "hands-off" policy towards governing the planets under their dominion. They figure it's impossible to truly unite thousands of disparate worlds under one culture, so landworlders can govern themselves and do what they wish with the planetary surface, while the Abh themselves control interstellar space (the Abh's name for themselves is "Kin of the Stars"... they consider the void of space to be their homeland, not any planet). This is mentioned to be in contrast to the Four Nations' Alliance, the members of which are trying to homogenize their respective cultures across the worlds each controls, and it isn't really working.

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* ''Series/BabylonFive'' examples:
** the Centauri Republic once controlled more than half of local space, but after the PyrrhicVictory in the Centauri-Orieni War they started hemorrhaging worlds, [[VestigialEmpire and now are reduced to twelve systems]], with many worlds of their former empire being now half of the [[TheAlliance League of Non-Aligned Worlds]] or belonging to the Narn Regime (itself former Centauri subjects);
** the League of Non-Aligned Worlds is in theory a strict alliance bent on becoming TheFederation. In actual practice, however, they are only unified by the common threat of the Centauri (even if they are ultimately overwhelmed by them. Turns out that as they shrunk, the Centauri advanced their technology enough that they can fight the whole League and win) and common commercial bonds with Earth Alliance;
** the Earth Alliance is apparently unified, but the ExpandedUniverse makes clear that there still are independent nations ''on Earth itself'' (the Vatican for the same reasons they are still independent from Italy, and Israel with their own colony world and the Republic of Korea because they never joined the Alliance for their own reasons), even if they strongly feel Alliance pressure (Israel's independence is mostly nominal), and as Earth Alliance expanded in space two different sets of separatists slipped out and formed their own states, the Sh'lassen Triumvirate (two worlds, they join Earth Alliance during the series when the government starts losing a civil war and calls Earth for help, with joining the Alliance as condition) and the Free Human Union (three worlds, still independent).

Comes up when a GalacticSuperpower fails to govern.

-->-- ''Film/ThePhantomMenace''

* ''Literature/RemembranceOfEarthsPast'': The Dark Forest doesn’t just mean every alien species is at war with every other alien species, it also means [[spoiler:every spacefaring species will likely be at war with itself too. This is first demonstrated when the handful of surviving ships from the destruction of humanity’s space fleet end up fighting each other for fuel and supplies, and again later when the alien species that destroys the solar system is shown to be fighting a civil war between its homeworld and a colony world]].

* The Anglo-Sino Alliance in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' either can't or won't do much more than collect taxes and suppress dissent in the poorer and less populated planets on the outer edges of its territory in the star cluster where the series takes place. Various wealthy industrialists and landowners are effectively a law unto themselves, and attacks by homicidally-insane cannibal Reavers are hushed up and officially denied. [[spoiler: Though the last one is justified by the fact the Alliance ''created'' the Reavers with a botched GovernmentDrugEnforcement trial, and is going to enormous lengths to keep this fact on the down-low.]]

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* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'': Even at its peak, the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Earth Federation]] is barely able to keep things under control within the Earth Sphere. Zeon remnants are able to flee into deep space aboard the mobile fortress Axis (in addition to remnants hiding out on Earth itself), several dissident groups are spread out amongst the colonies, repeated wars weaken both its military and its ability to govern... by the time of [[Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam Victory]], the Federation's power is so non-existent that the war with the Zanscare Empire is fought by the ragtag League Militaire. Note that in these series, humanity is still confined to the Solar System.

* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'': Even at its peak, the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Earth Federation]] is barely able to keep things under control within the Earth Sphere. Zeon remnants are able to flee into deep space aboard the mobile fortress Axis (in addition to remnants hiding out on Earth itself), several dissident groups are spread out amongst the colonies, repeated wars weaken both its military and its ability to govern... by the time of [[Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam Victory]], the Federation's power is so non-existent that the war with the Zanscare Empire is fought by the ragtag League Militaire.

** The [[{{Precursors}} Forerunners]] notably did not have this problem. While they did see periods of internal strife, by the time the Flood destroyed them, their Ecumene was stable at three million worlds and only didn't expand further due to diminishing returns.

*** The Romulan Star Empire lost its home systems to a supernova and its government collapsed. At the same time, the destruction of Mars and its shipyards, severely crippled the Federation and Starfleet. The new Romulan government lost control of many of its systems to anarchy and the Federation is too week politically and militarily to step in and take advantage of the situation. Many of the systems of the old Romulan Neutral Zone are lawless and run by warlords and crime syndicates.

** One of the few things known about the ancient Necrontyr empire, which dominated the galaxy millions of years ago, was that it was engaged in an enormous hairball of a civil war as its various dynasties fought for independence from the Silent King and each other. They only reunited after the Silent King pulled a GenghisGambit against their contemporaries the Old Ones, then fell apart again when they failed to beat the Old Ones, then reunited again after they became the Necrons (thanks to the Silent King having them all slaved to his will via his command protocols), then fell right back apart after the Silent King destroyed his command protocols and exiled himself out of the galaxy.

* The [=DoOon=] empire in Creator/PiersAnthony's ''Literature/{{Mode}}'' series is either an aversion or a [[DownplayedTrope downplaying]]. It appears to have very good policies in terms of BreadAndCircuses, and of course the elite does even better in terms of living a comfortable and stable lifestyle. It helps to have bioengineered servants who are [[HappinessInSlavery extremely content to serve the ruling class]]. But they're far from perfect: in particular, they harvested a sentient species of snail for several years simply because they didn't know they were sentient. The Emperor put a stop to this once he found out, but this is exactly the kind of problem that is going to come up in any galactic-scale empire.

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* A game mechanic in ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'', empires have a limit to the number of "Core Systems" they can directly govern (usually 5), to have more without taking severe penalties to resource production they need to assign excess systems to semi-autonomous "sectors", which are somewhat prone to forming secessionist factions. When the sector limit is reached an empire may need to create almost completely autonomous vassals which are even more prone to rebellion.

* In the ''{{Literature/Foundation}}'' series, it is stated that Trantor's[[note]]a CityPlanet at the center of the galaxy[[/note]] entire population was dedicated to bureaucracy, and that it collapsed due to the impossibility of efficient governing. Seldon's Plan is intended to create a Second Empire, but it's stated that, in addition to being psionically governed, it will be more of TheFederation. There are also a couple of alternatives offered, although the option of an actual Empire tends to be viewed rather skeptically.

* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}''
** Even at its peak, the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Earth Federation]] is barely able to keep things under control within the Earth Sphere. Zeon remnants are able to flee into deep space aboard the mobile fortress Axis (in addition to remnants hiding out on Earth itself), several dissident groups are spread out amongst the colonies, repeated wars weaken both its military and its ability to govern... by the time of [[Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam Victory]], the Federation's power is so non-existent that the war with the Zanscare Empire is fought by the ragtag League Militaire.

** In the Imperium of Man, individual planets are normally self-governing, with taxes and men for Imperial regiments being gathered by an administration stiff and bureaucratic, operating on its own and not controlled from the top. Whether your planet is a democracy or a neo-feudal dictatorship, the Imperium doesn't really give a toss as to how you run your planet as long as you pay the tithes the bureaucracy sets, hand over the pyskers when the Black Ships come by every few decades, and ensure the Imperial Cult is followed (and even the smarter Ecclesiarchs realize the Creed is going to be slightly different from one planet to another and tolerate this, the more common ones declare everyone else heretics).

** Even at its peak, the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Earth Federation]] is barely able to keep things under control within the Earth Sphere. Zeon remnants are able to flee into deep space aboard the mobile fortress Axis (in addition to remnants hiding out on Earth itself), several dissident groups are spread out amongst the colonies, repeated wars weaken both its military and its ability to govern... by the time of [[Anime/MobileSuitVGundam V Gundam]] the Federation's power is so non-existent that the war with the Zanscare Empire is fought by the ragtag League Militaire.

* In ''Literature/HouseOfSuns'', no society has persisted for more than a few hundred thousand years courtesy of there being no FasterThanLightTravel or SubspaceAnsible technology; empires have formed then slowly started to unravel and break apart from internal or external pressures and [[EternalRecurrence have done so for the past six million years]]. Hell, it’s stated that going interstellar actually ''shortens'' the lifespan of a civilization. The only constant in the galaxy are the Lines such as Gentian Line: one thousand clones of a woman that lived in the 31st century at the start of humanity's interstellar colonization who live exclusively aboard spaceships that jet around at near-lightspeed, and so due to TimeDilation pass millions of years despite experiencing only thousands.

* In ''Literature/HouseOfSuns'', no interstellar society has persisted for more than a few hundred thousand years courtesy of there being no FasterThanLightTravel or SubspaceAnsible technology; empires have formed then slowly started to unravel and break apart from internal or external pressures and [[EternalRecurrence have done so for the past six million years]]. Hell, it’s stated that going interstellar actually ''shortens'' the lifespan of a civilization. The only constant in the galaxy are the Lines such as Gentian Line: one thousand clones of a woman that lived in the 31st century at the start of humanity's interstellar colonization who live exclusively aboard spaceships that jet around at near-lightspeed, and so due to TimeDilation pass millions of years despite experiencing only thousands.

* In ''Literature/HouseOfSuns'', no interstellar society has persisted for more than a few hundred thousand years courtesy of there being no FasterThanLightTravel or SubspaceAnsible technology; empires have formed then slowly started to unravel and break apart from internal pressure and [[EternalRecurrence have done so for the past six million years]]. The only constant in the galaxy are the Lines such as Gentian Line: one thousand clones of a woman that lived in the 31st century at the start of humanity's interstellar colonization via SleeperStarship, who gather every 250,000 years.