History Main / PlanetaryNation

* Most planets on ''Franchise/StarTrek'' are examples of this trope. When a planet isn't united, the Federation basically considers it to be in a state of civil war. Earth throughout most of its history was presumably in civil war, and (except for some arguable periods of peace) continued to be at least until around 2150 AD ([[MoralDissonance almost nine decades after first contact with the Vulcans ironically enough]]) when the last holdout finally joined [[OneWorldOrder United Earth]]. Some Federation planets (such as Vulcan) have had Planetary Nations virtually into antiquity.

* This is nearly always true in the ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse''. One of the few exceptions is the planet Adumar in ''[[ComicBook/XWingSeries X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar]]'', which contains several competing alliances of nation-states. The New Republic and Empire start out negotiating with the most powerful one without fully understanding this, leading to problems. Another occurs in a young adult novel with Obi-Wan Kenobi as a Padawan, when he goes on a mission to a planet in the midst of centuries-old civil war. They can't even agree on the planet's ''name'', with the Melida and Daan factions both naming it after themselves, so the Republic calls it Melida/Daan.

* Most of the nations, planets and Space Stations in the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' are this. The few exceptions are the Cetagandan Empire and Barrayaran Empires, which are nations made up of ''multiple'' planets, and Earth, which is still split up into a gillion countries like today.

This is an OmnipresentTrope in Science Fiction where inhabited planets not named Earth are shown to have only one government. The reasons range from someone succeeding in [[TakeOverTheWorld taking over the world]] to being a mere PlanetOfHats to the fact that [[SkeletonGovernment politics limited to one world]] are [[LawOfConservationOfDetail unimportant to stories with interplanetary settings]], or because SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale and think that [[{{Planetville}} the planet would be akin to a town or city]] instead of a large sphere that can hold hundreds of countries and billions of cities and towns.

This is an OmnipresentTrope in Science Fiction where inhabited planets not named Earth are shown to have only one government. The reasons range from someone succeeding in [[TakeOverTheWorld taking over the world]] to being a mere PlanetOfHats to the fact that [[SkeletonGovernment politics limited to one world]] [[LawOfConservationOfDetail are unimportant to stories with interplanetary settings]], or because SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale and think that [[{{Planetville}} the planet would be akin to a town or city]] instead of a large sphere that can hold hundreds of countries and billions of cities and towns.

* Usually the case for human inhabited planets in ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40K''. The Imperium is so large that any given planet is usually ruled by a single governor (how he's chosen varies from planet to planet). They're usually given full control of their planet and left alone, as long as they pay their tithes and don't show signs of sedition (and they don't call for help, although that's usually less effective at getting someone's attention). However, in many cases this is just to make the paperwork easier; there are several planets where the "governor" is whichever ruler or tribal warlord was winning the day Imperial officials last visited.

* Usually the case for human inhabited planets in ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40K''. The Imperium is so large that any given planet is usually ruled by a single governor (how he's chosen varies from planet to planet). They're usually given full control of their planet and left alone, as long as they pay their tithes and don't show signs of sedition (and they don't call for help, although that's usually less effective at getting someone's attention).

* This is nearly always true in the ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse''. One of the few exceptions is the planet Adumar in ''[[ComicBook/XWingSeries X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar]]'', which contains several competing alliances of nation-states. The New Republic and Empire start out negotiating with the most powerful one without fully understanding this, leading to problems.

* Most Planets on ''Franchise/StarTrek'' are examples of this trope. When a planet isn't united, the Federation basically considers it to be in a state of civil war. Earth throughout most of its history was presumably in civil war, and (except for some arguable periods of peace) continued to be at least until around 2150 AD ([[MoralDissonance almost nine decades after first contact with the Vulcans ironically enough]]) when the last holdout finally joined [[OneWorldOrder United Earth]]. Some Federation planets (such as Vulcan) have had Planetary Nations virtually into antiquity.

** One episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' had an aversion. The planet was ruled by two separate governments, the Kes(not to be confused with the character on Voyager) and the Prytt, who were engaged in a cold war with each other. The Kes were applying for Federation membership and Picard lampshaded this trope when he mentioned planets that join the Federation are usually unified. It's never said whether or not the Kes would be admitted but it's implied they won't be (though the implication is that the main issue is the Kes ''attitude'' towards the Prytt more than the technical fact of there being two planetary governments).

If ''Earth'' is this, see OneWorldOrder.

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* Averted with ''ComicStrip/FlashGordon''. Ming may be Emperor of Mongo but there are a lot of Kingdoms round the planet.
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* Averted in ''Film/{{Predators}}'' (and by extension, the rest of the series) when it's revealed the Predators have different tribes who have been at war with one another. We see at least two.

* Completely averted in the soft sci-fi book ''Through Space To The Planets'' as it is shown that the planet has at least three separate governments in three different places.
* Averted in the ''Literature/ChanurNovels'' by Creator/CJCherryh. The hani homeworld is noted to have multiple countries and languages.

* Pretty much every planet in ''Series/DoctorWho''.

** However averted in the first story set on another planet. Before the events of the story, Skaro was a world of two nations, the Thals and the Dals, who nearly wiped each other out in an atomic war. Averted another 3 stories later with "The Keys to Marinus", where there are various areas of the planet.

* After the transition to the much more decentralized New United Nations in the ''Anime/{{Macross}}''-verse, former colony worlds such as Eden, Ragna and Winderemere now play this trope straight.

!Examples

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* Averted with ComicBook/FlashGordon. Ming may be Emperor of Mongo but there are a lot of Kingdoms round the planet.

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Often this trope is justified by the fact that deep space travel and colonization on a large scale requires more resources than any one country has, even superpowers with budgets in the trillions like the USA; for such a thing to work, it would require the resources of the whole planet as well as a level of coordinated organization that may very well be only possible under the aegis of a OneWorldOrder. Also, interstellar colonies settled by a single nation could be expected to have a singular world government for some time after colonization.

* Most Planets on ''Franchise/StarTrek'' are examples of this trope.
** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E21PatternsOfForce Patterns of Force]]" a Federation sceintist decides to unite the planet he's observing under one government - unfortunately, he decides that Nazism is the best way to unite the planet.

Often this trope is justified by the fact that deep space travel requires more resources than any one country has -- for such a thing to work, it would require the resources of the whole planet -- and by the fact that interstellar colonies would form a government of their own some time after colonization, due to the inherent limitations on the speed of interstellar travel and communications imposed by the laws of physics.

Ah Earth. Full of many Nations, Territories, Countries and Governments. And yet when Alien homeworlds are visited. We only get to see one government.

Often this trope is justified by the fact that deep space travel requires more resources than any one country has. For such a thing to work would require the resources of the whole planet. And by the fact that interstellar colonies would form a government of their own some time after colonization.

If ''Earth'' is this. see OneWorldOrder.

* While single planetary governments are the norm in ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'', {{balkaniz|eMe}}ation is common enough that the Third Imperium has [[FictionalGenevaConventions rules for intraplanetary warfare]].

* Pretty much every planet in ''Series/DoctorWho''. Galiffrey being a prominent example. Its only shown form of government if a counsel that [[DoctorWhoS23E1TheMysteriousPlanet tried to get the Doctor on trial]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E17E18TheEndOfTime much later try to destroy the entire universe]].
** However averted in the first story set on another planet. Before the events of the story Skaro was a world of two nations, the Thals and the Dals, who nearly wiped each other out in an atomic war. Averted another 3 stories later with "The Keys to Marinus", where there are various areas of the planet.

** One episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' had an aversion. The planet was ruled by two separate governments, the Kes(not to be confused with the character on Voyager) and the Prytt, who were engaged in a cold war with each other. The Kes were applying for Federation membership and Picard lampshaded this trope when he mentioned planets that join the Federation are usually unified. It's never said whether or not the Kes would be admitted but it's implied they won't be.

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