->'''Padme:''' I can't believe there is still slavery in the galaxy. The Republic's anti-slavery laws—\\
'''Shmi:''' The Republic doesn't exist out here. We must survive on our own.
-->-- ''Franchise/StarWars: Episode I -- Film/ThePhantomMenace''


The larger a government gets, the more bureaucracy it accretes, the easier for things to slip between the cracks, the harder for things to get done.

And that's on Earth. Imagine a galaxy full of inhabited planets, with billions of people on each one, and [[MulticulturalAlienPlanet probably not]] a PlanetOfHats. Even an FTL drive and [[SubspaceAnsible form of communication]] would not decrease the disadvantages of scale. Without the communication, difficulties would be increased -- massively so if only STL travel is possible.

Worse yet, mix in aliens with their BlueAndOrangeMorality -- but it would be impossible even with a wholly human galaxy, or a substantial portion of it, or even a solar system well filled up with inhabitable locations.

Comes up when a GalacticSuperpower fails to govern, leading to it devolving into a FailedState.

This may lead to AnAesop about {{Pride}} and how man's reach exceeds his grasp in trying to control such a massive space. Often the cause of VestigialEmpire...'''[[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!]]''' This is at least partly built into the assumptions behind the StandardSciFiHistory.
----
!!Examples
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''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 a single solar system.
* The Pan-Galactic Peace Alliance from ''Anime/TransformersVictory'' is a seemingly successful attempt to avert this. Formed in order to better defend against the Decepticons, the Galactic Defense Force led by Star Saber help ensure that there's peace on ''most'' worlds. However, the anime shows that there are ferocious battles fought in Sector 2 of the Alliance's space, where God Ginrai's Autobots and Overlord's Decepticons [[GreatOffscreenWar engage in battle throughout the series]], but overall most worlds and locations (like Iron Town from the first episode) seem like pretty nice places to live barring the occasional Decepticon attack.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/AlbedoErmaFelnaEDF'': The first extrasolar colony seceded 22 years after its founding. The Confederation of Planets wasn't even founded until the first war with the Independent Lapine Republic (two systems that attempted imperialism), and in the period between wars a number of Rim systems broke away from the [=ConFed=], and even more during the second war.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In ''Fanfic/FracturedSovereignGFC'', 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.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' mentions offhand that despite the Anglo-Sino Alliance having jurisdiction over the entire star system in which the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' franchise takes place, they don't have the manpower to provide effective security everywhere. On a lot of the more sparsely populated planets and moons they contract out to private companies.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Even in a galaxy apparently controlled by superpowers such as the Galactic Republic and Galactic Empire, the Galaxy still proves to be quite ungovernable. Even before Palpatine carried out his master plan, the Republic was crumbling due to corruption, and no one would bat an eye when Naboo was being held hostage by the Trade Federation. The Republic also seems to be unable to establish any sort of government in the Outer Rim, where slavery still exists!
** Support for the Separatist Movement partially came out of many opinions on the Republic's lack of effectiveness.
** In Episode [=IV=], it's mentioned that after the Senate has been dissolved "regional governors" will have direct control, implying that the Galactic Empire is an empire in the actual sense (semi-autonomous client states ruled by a "metropole", a mother city) rather than a vast, micro-managed bureaucracy. Even then, they hope to use "the fear of this battle station" to keep the local systems in line.
** Even with the Empire's military might, they were still unable to stamp out the seemingly thousands of crime syndicates that flourished in the galaxy; some space was even ruled by crime lords! And let's not forget how the Empire was unable to exterminate the Rebels or crack down on Rebel Sympathizers. After all, it is very difficult to track down offenders in the vast void of space.
** ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' takes this even further. In Legends, every major government that tries to get established after the fall of the Empire is short-lived. Every government formed in the post-Imperial era falls due to anarchy, rogue Imperial warlords, extra-galactic religious fanatics, new Sith lords, and civil wars which nearly turn the Star Wars galaxy into a ''Warhammer 40,000''-ish CrapsackWorld.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature ]]
* In Creator/MikhailAkhmanov and Christopher Nicholas Gilmore's novel ''Literature/CaptainFrenchOrTheQuestForParadise'', the same trope applies but with AbsentAliens and lack CasualInterstellarTravel. Over 20,000 years of space exploration, humanity has colonized thousands of worlds, but the lack of FTL travel means that only several hundred ships regularly travel between them. The only way to travel between stars is to use a near-light STL drive that instantaneously accelerates to relativistic speeds, meaning the journey takes only a second to the traveler but can take decades or even centuries for the rest of the universe. Under these conditions, and with no SubspaceAnsible to facilitate communication between worlds, each world is on its own. The authors explain that no interstellar government is possible, as a rebellion on one world could not be put down by a SpaceNavy because it would take years for the ships to arrive. Even sending signals across interstellar space is a costly venture without any benefit. The only real means of spreading news between worlds is via the space traders.
* The Overlords in ''Literature/ChildhoodsEnd'' give this as the rationale for keep humans confined to the solar system (and even then, largely confined to Earth). [[spoiler:Of course, since the human race is going to be [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence joining The Overmind]] in a generation anyway, the idea of humanity expanding outwards into the cosmos is moot to them]].
* In ''Literature/ADeepnessInTheSky'', there is no FasterThanLightTravel or FTL communication, so solar systems are effectively isolated. Coupled with the extreme cost and next to zero returns from constructing the RamScoop interstellar spacecraft, there are only two interstellar societies - the largely fragmented Qeng Ho traders, and the Emergents (who have only been around for a short time). Most societies break down after a few hundred years from stagnation courtesy of the [[EnforcedTechnologyLevels physics of the inner Milky Way preventing high-tech equipment]] like nanotechnology, faster than light travel or true artificial intelligence from working - all of which make interstellar empires possible in ''Literature/AFireUponTheDeep'' which is set near intergalactic space, where the laws of physics are more forgiving.
* In ''Literature/{{Voidskipper}}'' even with less than a tenth of the galaxy actually settled, people's tendency to politic keeps them from unifying on any scale larger than a few star systems. Even an actual hive mind has a major problem with schisming.
* In the ''Literature/FoundationSeries'', 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. In the greater context of the setting, and even within Foundation if one pays attention to the dating, it is strongly downplayed: one of the major factors that brought down the Galactic Empire was lack of efficient governing... but the Galactic Empire lasted for thousands of years as a genuine, functional Galactic Empire (Year 1 of the Galactic Era was the coronation of the first Galactic Emperor, and ''Foundation'' starts in the 13th millennium of the Galactic Era) before that, and that's not counting the period where the Trantorian Empire had taken control of much of the Galaxy and was obviously heading towards, slowly, taking control of the rest.
* In the ''Literature/HammersSlammers'' universe Earth's first wave colonies broke away from their home countries quickly. And most of ''their'' colonies in the second and third waves seceded as well. There are some multi-planet governments like the Terran World Government and Marvellan Confederacy, but the majority of polities encompass a single planet or region of a planet. The result is an environment where mercenaries rarely go unemployed for long.
* In Creator/AndreyLivadny's ''Literature/TheHistoryOfTheGalaxy'' books, the [[TheFederation Confederacy of Suns]] is created in the aftermath of the [[TheWarOfEarthlyAggression First Galactic War]] to provide mutual defense and trade of the victorious [[LaResistance Free Colonies]]. From the beginning, the set-up is not equal, as the five Core worlds have more power than the worlds making up the far larger Periphery. While the Confederacy lasts for a surprisingly long time, after about 1000 years, the internal strife and the desire for self-control of many worlds (not to mention corruption) results in the break-up of the Confederacy. Only a crippling attack by a previously-unknown alien race decades later bands the now-separate worlds together, re-forming the Confederacy on new terms (i.e. equality for all worlds, including a few alien ones). A later novel has the Confederacy military brass and the high-level politicians (including alien representatives) discuss the impossibility of the StandardSciFiFleet to adequately patrol and protect the 200+ worlds in the Confederacy. Either they build 10 times more ships (an economic and logistical nightmare), or they adopt a radically new defense doctrine. Naturally, they go for the latter, relegating the standard fleet to the Core worlds, while designing a new type of hyper-capable modular fighter/bomber, capable of being refitted within an hour for a given task. The new fighters are to be based on new types of [[TheBattlestar fighter-carrying cruisers]] that patrol the Periphery as well as static outposts. WordOfGod is that there were over 7000 colony ships sent out from Earth during the 50-year period following the discovery of [[SubspaceOrHyperspace hypersphere]]. Only a tiny fraction of them have been discovered. Granted, a good number of them may not even have found a habitable world to settle, but it's likely that many [[LostColony Lost Colonies]] are still out there, waiting to be discovered.
* In Creator/DouglasAdams's ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy,'' the galaxy is supposedly a single state, but government control is minimal at best and the civil service is corrupt and ineffective. The Vogons, the principal bureaucrats in this universe, think nothing of blowing up populated planets to make way for bypasses that may never actually be built. The President's main job is to distract the population from the real rulers, who, it turns out, all take their advice from a man in a shack on an isolated planet.
* In Creator/HarryTurtledove's ''[[Literature/{{Worldwar}} Homeward Bound]]'', after humans prove that [[spoiler:FTLTravel is possible]], Fleetlord Atvar suggests to the 37th Emperor Risson (Emperor Risson XXXVII using the human naming system) that colonization of hundreds of worlds is necessary in order to keep the Empire from being vulnerable to humans. Since the Empire now consists of 3.5 worlds (Home, Rabotev 2, Halless 1, and half of Earth), Mutually Assured Destruction is a real possibility. In response, Risson replies that there is no way the Empire would stay together under these conditions, even accounting for [[spoiler:FTL travel]]. Atvar agrees but claims that the Race will survive.
* In the [[Literature/HonorHarrington Honorverse]], the exodus from Earth led to the creation of several star nations, most prominently Manticore and Haven, most of which are sufficiently small to avoid major problems with governance. The major exception is the gargantuan Solarian League, whose poorly-written constitution renders the federal legislature virtually powerless, causing it to become overrun by corrupt bureaucracies and the (unelected) politicians who run them.
* 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 expansionism 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.
* Although ostensibly governed by the Commonwealth authorities and overseen by the United Church to reduce corruption, very little seems to stop ruthless trading House executives, Quarm assassins, or intruding [=AAnn=] expeditions from doing pretty much what they damned well please within the ''Literature/HumanxCommonwealth''. If would-be PlanetLooters make it obvious enough, they'll get run off by Humanx stingships, but cutting off all communications from some backwater colony-world and then stealing, kidnapping or destroying whatever you wish is well within the ability of even a second-rate CorruptCorporateExecutive or bush-league terrorist group. Slavery is practiced on Moth under a mere nominal cover of "contractual adoption", and governors assigned to "protect the interests" of developing worlds' natives have carte blanche to block said natives' bids for full Commonwealth membership as long as they can profit by their personal authority.
* In Creator/MichaelFlynn's ''Literature/SpiralArm'' series, two sections of the galaxy are nominally controlled. It is observed that the Ardry's authority really runs to wherever his Hounds are operating and no farther. In ''On The Razor's Edge'', a character makes a point that the Ouroborus Circle means that the Ardry has more control.
* One of Asimov's short stories (''Star Light'') is built around ThePerfectCrime made possible by this trope - there are millions of inhabited planets, but there is no way to even maintain any law enforcing cooperation with any but the closest. As such, a man can steal something that's valuable on any world, make a BlindJump, land on the nearest inhabited planet, and there is effectively a zero chance he will ever be caught.
* Downplayed in the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse. Though the Republic (and then the Empire, and then the Republic again) lay claim to the vast majority of the (known, inhabited) galaxy, ''keeping'' it is another matter entirely. The New Republic was especially prone to nearly coming apart at the seams, only to be united by a new, greater threat (usually the Empire, which both sides were prone to pointing out). The Empire kept somewhat better control of its territory, at the cost of vastly increased military expenditure and curtailed rights ([[LaResistance and we all know how that ended]]).
* In Creator/PoulAnderson's "Starfog" Laure explains that they are too large and disorganized to provide assistance to the spaceship. True, they have the money, here and there, but they do not have the focus to gather it up.
* Averted in Creator/HarryHarrison's ''Literature/ToTheStars'' trilogy, where the dictatorial Earth government (minus several "rogue" nations such as Israel, the last democratic state) has a number of colonies on other worlds. In order to avoid insurrections, they are deliberately kept dependent on something that only Earth can provide. Usually, this means CripplingOverspecialization in colonies. Even after LaResistance manages to win, it's clear that something will need to be done about the colonies in order to make them more self-sufficient in order to prevent this from happening again.
* Also in the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'', FTL travel is accomplished using space-folding jumpships traversing a [[OurWormholesAreDifferent complex network of natural wormholes]]. Direct travel between star systems is limited to those that have wormhole connections between them. Some, including [[InsignificantLittleBluePlanet Earth itself]], sit in cul-de-sacs in the Nexus and require travel through other systems to get to. There are no FTL communications. Instead messages are relayed to ships that carry them through the wormholes and then retransmit them to other ships traveling to the destination system. The result is that most colony worlds are independent, although a few multi-system space nations, such as the Barrayaran and Cetagandan Empires, exist. But these generally only control a handful of systems at best (the examples given have three and eight, respectively).
* In the ''Literature/WorldsOfShadow'' series, the Galactic Empire has telepathic mutants for communication, but outback worlds, such as the asteroid that the protagonists land on, can pretty much do what they like [[spoiler:including keeping slaves]], since it takes months to get anywhere by ship.
* 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[[note]]More specifically, an underling made a promise to stop the practice, and the Emperor decided to support the underling's decision.[[/note]], but this is exactly the kind of problem that is going to come up in any galactic-scale empire.
* The greater cosmos of ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' is largely this. While we do see a lot of wars, they never seem to be for conquest of the planet themselves (just the population) and no great imperial space empire is ever described (The Yeerk's describe themselves as an empire, but they largely abandon the invaded worlds or leave them as military outposts). This is helped by the fact that FTL travel is wildly unpredictable and the distance between two worlds is not static. A trip between two planets could take hours one time and years another time.
* ''Literature/TheFourHorsemenUniverse'': In theory there's a galactic Union that provides some measure of law and order, a successor state to TheFederation which collapsed in a civil war thousands of years ago. In practice this purported FictionalUnitedNations is little more than a weak guild system and wars over planets and resources are near-constant (providing plenty of business for the [[PrivateMilitaryContractors merc]] industry). In ''Winged Hussars'', merc commander Alexis Cromwell once wryly remarks to herself that this nigh-on anarcho-libertarianism isn't the ''best'' form of government the Union could have picked, it's just the only one that works even ''this'' well.
* ''Literature/KrisLongknife'': Due in part to CultureClash between the overpopulated urban core worlds such as Earth and New Eden and less-developed rim worlds such as Kris's homeworld Wardhaven, and also because of the lack of convenient FTL travel or communication (it's done by means of static jump points and travel within a star system is light-limited), the first book of the series ends with the dissolution of the [[TheFederation Society of Humanity]]. In its wake a number of smaller polities form, the two largest being the Wardhaven-led United Sentients (later renamed the United Society, an [[ElectiveMonarchy elective constitutional monarchy]]) and its rival the Greenfeld Confederation (really PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny, later turning into the [[TheEmpire Greenfeld Empire]] and finally becoming a HegemonicEmpire under Grand Duchess Vicky Peterwald). The most powerful alien race and the only one bordering human space, the Iteeche, are similar, being ruled in theory by a GodEmperor but with their many satrapies really being realms unto themselves in all but name.
* ZigZagged in ''Literature/{{Aeon 14}}''. At the beginning of the series each star system is an independent polity since FasterThanLightTravel has yet to be invented. After the TimeDilation-induced TimeSkip to ''Destiny Lost'', humanity has been embroiled in near-constant infighting since the onset of the FTL Wars a couple thousand years ago, especially in the Inner Stars (approximately a 1,500 light-year radius of Sol), with many, many expansionist polities and shifting alliances. In ''The Scipio Alliance'', Empress Diana remarks that her own Scipio Empire of roughly a thousand stars is probably already as big as it can get without undergoing {{Balkanization}}; the neighboring Hegemony of Worlds (which contains Earth) is of a similar size. However, the Transcend and Orion Guard nominally control swathes of space on the coreward perimeter of the Inner Stars that are each about as large as the entire central region (though their areas are much less densely populated). [[spoiler:That the two {{terraform}}er factions have [[CoolGate jump gates]] they can use in place of dark layer travel, which is relatively slow, probably contributes.]]
* Played straight and {{Discussed|Trope}} in the Creator/HarryHarrison short story "The Man from P.I.G". Since every linear increase in the range of starship engines creates a ''cubic'' increase in the volume of space that needs to be governed, lawmakers are far overtaxed and are pushed to unorthodox means of managing their bailiwicks -- such as a hokey rancher-sheriff with a herd of genetically enhanced pigs.
* A major plot point in ''Literature/TheLongEarth''. After the invention of Steppers, inter-dimensional travel becomes not only easy but convenient. Datum Earth suffers massive depopulation as people emigrate en-masse to other Earths. The governments of Datum Earth attempt to maintain rule over their colonies, but this becomes difficult due to the inability to use or even transport communication devices across dimensions, resorting to hand-delivered mail.
* In Christopher G Nuttall's ''Literature/WhenTheEmpireFalls'' the Imperials are forced to pull back in order to preserve their civilization. Admittedly, being a DyingRace didn't help matters much.
* Creator/FrankHerbert's ''{{Literature/Dune}}'' series essentially comprises a centuries-long BatmanGambit by two prescient galactic emperors to ''invoke'' this trope. Paul Atreides, and later his son Leto II, specifically act to oppress and tyrannize humanity so that when they're gone humanity will adapt by spreading out and freeing themselves from dependence on the things that allowed them to be dominated in the first place. The goal is a human race so diffuse and diverse that no one threat can destroy the entire race.
* ''Literature/RemembranceOfEarthsPast'': The Dark Forest theory doesn’t just mean every alien species is at war with every other alien species, it also means [[spoiler:every spacefaring species in the ''universe'' 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 destroyed the solar system is shown to be fighting a civil war between its homeworld and a colony world]].
* ''Literature/CrestOfTheStars'': This is one of the reasons why 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.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/BabylonFive''
** 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).
*** The TV film ''[[Film/BabylonFiveACallToArms A Call to Arms]]'' suggests that some Earth nation-states have their own warships, as indicated when the captain of an ''Omega''-class destroyer specifically identifies himself as from the Russian Consortium, despite clearly wearing an [=EarthForce=] uniform. It's possible it's a backlash in the aftermath of the totalitarian control of the Clark regime.
* 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 system 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.]]
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** ''Trek'' is probably one of the best examples of a ''governable'' galaxy, TheFederation and all that jazz, but ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' takes place before the Federation appears leaving Earth unable to control anything outside of the Sol System with even cargo-ships ignoring the authority of Starfleet. (And even once the Federation is established, it only governs a tiny chunk of one quadrant of the galaxy.[[note]]The Alpha Quadrant is dominated by three great powers (the United Federation of Planets, Klingon Empire, and Romulan Star Empire), six lesser powers (the Cardassian Union/Empire, the Breen Confederacy, Ferengi Alliance, Tholian Assembly, Gorn Hegemony and Orion Syndicate/Orion Union) and many dozens of smaller nations and independent planets, some of which despite lacking in size had the military strength to stand up to the great powers. The Federation itself is basically a speck in terms of actual territory covered (Qonos is less than 90 light-years from Earth), but has informal influence beyond its borders.[[/note]]) The heroes would run into a new hostile alien species in seemingly every other episode despite never venturing more than a couple hundred light-years from Earth (and usually being no more than a few dozen light-years away). It's also made clear that the Andorians, Tellarites, and Vulcans at this time are small polities that haven't extended far beyond their single home star systems, so don't expect any of them to bring order. Presumably, most of these species joined the Federation by the 24th century.
** In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', huge swaths of the Delta Quadrant appear to be lawless or contested territory, beset by interstellar plagues, within-species tribal feuds, extra-dimensional incursions or sheer chaos (which is probably mostly due to the Borg assimilating any polity in the area that could approach the size and power of the Alpha/Beta Quadrant nations or [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine the Dominion]]).
** ''Series/StarTrekPicard'':
*** 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 weak 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.
*** The series also implies that part of the reason the Federation was able to get so much bigger than the other two major powers is that it devolves ''significant'' power upon its member states, to the point where threats by members to secede over the evacuation of Romulus actually gave them enough leverage to kill the whole project after the Mars attack.
** ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' reveals that in the 32nd century, governing the galaxy has gotten worse in the wake of the Burn, which destroyed almost all warp-capable starships and nearly ended interstellar civilization. The Federation collapsed to 1/10 of its peak while crime syndicates like the Emerald Chain filled in the power vacuum.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games ]]
* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'': The Terran Hegemony and the Star League had tough times in their glory days; not only do they have to govern thousands of worlds, but they also have to hunt down pirates, and stamp out rebellion hundreds of light years away from each other. And the Successor States following the fall of the Star League have been unable to form a unified government for the past 400 years.
** The Free Worlds League can't even manage a unified government in the slice of the Inner Sphere it rules. The Captain General, while in theory the highest authority in the League, is often undercut by Parliament, and has to horse-trade with the provinces whenever they invoke the Home Defense Act and withdraw troops from the League's war effort. And then there's Andurien, which has a deep loathing of Atreus and is in rebellion against the Federal government half the time, and Regulus, which thinks it should be running things... Power dis get a little bit more centralized with the reforms of Thomas Marik finally declawing most of the laws that the provinces had used and bringing Andurien to heel. [[spoiler:It's a shame for all involved that he was a body double for the real Thomas Marik who was a loony, genocidal cult leader, and that the actions of the real Thomas pretty much caused the League to become literally ungovernable, prompting its [[TenMinuteRetirement temporary dissolution]] during the Jihad]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}''
** The Third Imperium can best be described as a "feudal confederation", individual planets are typically left to their own devices so long as they don't attempt to secede, withhold taxes, interfere with interstellar trade, or make war with other planets. Wars between factions on the same planet are allowed if they don't use nukes[[note]] They're [[SeriousBusiness dead serious]] about the nukes. Use nukes without Imperial authorization, and the consequences can be [[NukeEm dire]].[[/note]] or violate any of the other rules. The Imperial Nobility primarily administrate the Imperial Ministries operating within their domains, and have hereditary posts because the Imperium is too large to advance upwards within one lifetime. And the Imperium doesn't govern anywhere near the entire galaxy, or even all of Humaniti; they're bordered by five other empires that are similarly decentralized (save for the K'kree, whose system of government was so inflexible they had to stop at 2,000 worlds).
** This is a major aspect of the 3rd-party setting ''Clement Sector''. Outside of the Hub Federation, every planet is politically independent of each other.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':
** 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). And there is a chance even that won't happen, as entire populated planets may end up forgotten and ignored in the Imperium's vast bureaucracy due to simple filing errors.
** 40K has another example with the Tau Empire, which consists of well-regulated, disciplined and highly organized planet systems where every citizen does his part without hesitation. This is possible for two reasons: the Tau operate on HappinessInSlavery where no citizen will ever try to do less than their rigidly-defined part for the Greater Good (possibly via pheromonal mind control of their ruling class), and their empire is very restrained (their form of FTL travel is something like five times slower than Warp travel, which can often take months of real-time) compared to the Imperium (it helps that most don't realize just how vastly outnumbered they are). To see how small (and surrounded) they are compared to the Imperium, see the bottom right of [[http://i.imgur.com/m3iHUQ5.jpg this map]]: the Tau are only allowed to survive by the surrounding AbsoluteXenophobe Imperium because [[{{Realpolitik}} they're strong enough to make wiping them out an unsustainable expenditure of resources, and can counterbalance less-reasonable local threats such as Orks and Tyranids]]. And even then the Tau have their separatists, such as the Farsight Enclave.
** 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. Some Necron characters speak fondly of the glory days of the Infinite Empire, but none show particular interest in being governed by it again.
** One of the biggest setting changes was the fall of Cadia which allowed the forces of Chaos to spawn a series of Warp storms that essentially cut the galaxy in half, making it even ''less'' governable.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Stargrave}}'' is set in a galaxy where all attempts to govern so many worlds at once have failed, causing an apocalyptic war leading to a galaxy with no real government but the warlords/pirates whose presence is the closest thing to an actual power (well, really, it's more like the concept of them that is closest to a power).
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[[folder:Video Games ]]
* ''VideoGame/HalfLife'': The Combine are a universe-conquering (and probably full on MultiversalConqueror) superpower that was capable of subjugating the Earth in just seven hours when they arrived. However, since Earth was a low-priority, low-value world that was little more than a ball of resources to be harvested in their eyes, they only left behind a relatively small, if ''very'' well-armed, governing force [[VichyEarth made up mostly of human collaborators]] with a very small number of their own "advisors" keeping an eye on things. It's implied that this is the standard, since their slow method of travel around the universe doesn't allow them to hold more than a small number of "important" worlds with the kind of overwhelming force that they in theory can bring to bear. Part of the reason Earth later becomes a higher priority for them is when they realize that human scientists have developed a form of teleportation that's ''much'' faster than what the Combine are using; if they get this technology for themselves they'd be able to avert this trope and become truly unstoppable.
* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': As humanity expanded, insurgents began to spring up on colony worlds away from the central government, which escalated to the point that entire planets defected and the rebels began deploying [=WMDs=] and small fleets of warships. This prompted the UNSC to take action and eventually led to the creation of the [[SuperSoldier Spartans]]. The larger Covenant are far, far worse. CivilWar is the ''standard'' in that empire; [[https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/what-once-was-lost a summary]] of the career of a single mid-level military officer mentions that he alone led ''dozens'' of campaigns against rebels that saw entire planets depopulated.
** The situation is even more tenuous after the end of the Covenant War; as the UNSC struggles to reassert authority over its pre-war domain, many colonies have become effectively independent from Earth, due to {{Mega Corp}}s, Insurrectionists, and rebellious politicians alike all being increasingly able to establish their own spheres of control. Also not helping stability is a thriving black market in both Covenant technology and ex-Covenant mercenaries.
** Additionally, the collapse of the Covenant post-''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'' has caused a major power vacuum in the vast number of systems formerly under its rule, resulting in ex-Covenant space becoming a free-for-all as various factions vie for power or seek to profit from the chaos.
** The [[{{Precursors}} Forerunners]] notably did not have this problem. While they did fight multiple civil wars over their history, they seemed to be over which of their FantasticCasteSystem would be in charge of government, rather than wars of secession, extirpation, or revolution. By the time the Flood destroyed them, their Ecumene still dominated the galaxy as a single political body, stable at three million worlds.
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'': mostly subverted. Citadel Space with its thousands of worlds and trillions of sapients is remarkably stable, having been continuous with negligible internal conflict for over 2,700 years. Though the galaxy as a whole is, [[AllThereInTheManual according to the Codex]], barely 1% explored. There are however areas outside of Citadel Space that, such as the Terminus Systems, and others where there is no law at all. These areas are filled with tons of independent worlds and [[NGOSuperpower NGO Superpowers]] that, while extremely small and weak by the standards of the trillions-strong empires in Citadel Space, can at least maintain their independence out there.
** Even in the regions it controls, the Systems Alliance is, well, [[TheAlliance an alliance]] rather than a federation; human colonies can choose to opt out of the Alliance, and many do. Those who stay do so as much or more for the economic and military benefits as any particular loyalty to Earth. The Salarian Union is implied to have a similar arrangement, and the Asari Republics are even more decentralized (they are the only major species whose homeworld lacks even a ''de facto'' unified government, the Asari Republics being more like an EU equivalent). Only the turians exert ironclad control over their colonies.
* Despite having much more reasonable ambitions than an entire galaxy, the United Earth Directorate of ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' fame finds the Koprulu Sector untameable; their fleet manages to take over the sector in a matter of weeks, but loses it just as quickly. Short reigns characterized the other Koprulu governments, with both the Terran Confederacy (less than a generation after moving from TheAlliance to TheEmpire) and Emperor Arcturus's Dominion (roughly 4 years) falling just in the span of the games.
** There are no less than three human governments in the Koprulu sector, the Terran Dominion, [[OneNationUnderCopyright Kel-Morian Combine]], and [[TheRepublic Umojan Protectorate]]. The latter two were conquered by the Confederacy and briefly part of the Dominion but Mengsk couldn't maintain his hold on them for long.
* 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.
** Overhauled in subsequent patches. Now, your empire has an "administrative cap" that determines how much galaxy it can effectively control. Systems, planets and districts increase your sprawl, and if sprawl exceeds cap, there's a stacking penalty to tech cost, tradition adoption, and leader cost and upkeep, with no real limit: if you take over half the galaxy, you may well have to deal with a 1000% increase to leader cost and 300% to tech cost. You can increase admin cap, but it's unlikely to keep up with dedicated expansion, so you may well end up going with, again, the semi-autonomous vassals route to keep your empire sleek; you can always integrate them later, if they don't rebel.
** Further Patches developed this to a greater degree, especially the Overlord expansion: given time, it becomes more efficient for large Empires to delegate authority and autonomy to loyal and semi-loyal vassal states with a range of levels of autonomy, albeit at the risk of your vassals pledging fealty to other states and turning rogue and starting wars.
* One of the sparse setting details in ''VideoGame/{{Echo}}'' is that both interstellar travel and colonization is both extremely cheap and extremely slow. This leads to impossibly advanced planet-sized structures like The Palace being built over millennia without anyone noticing it until it is long abandoned.
* This is part of the background of ''VideoGame/{{Rimworld}}'' owing to the fact that there is ''no'' FTL travel. Despite the fact that humanity has spent over three thousand years exploring the cosmos and colonizing countless planets, no interstellar polity is able to maintain a grasp over more than a few, and the vast majority of planets are totally independent with little or no contact elsewhere, having slowly ([[ApocalypseHow or sometimes very QUICKLY]]) regressed back to pre-Space or even pre-Industrial levels of technology. The game takes place on one such planet and your colonists must survive amidst dozens of other sparse colonies with barely any overarching government between them.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Starsector}}'' it's been two hundred years since the collapse of [[TheEmpire The Domain's]] vast PortalNetwork cut off the Persean Sector from the rest of humanity. Owing to the general instability of the situation as well as a loss of technology thanks in part to InUniverse CopyProtection, the sector has split into five major factions, along with a collection of minor factions or independent planets all squabbling amongst one another. Out of several dozen inhabited "core worlds" and countless hundreds of (variously habitable) planets further into hyperspace, the two largest factions claim only twelve planets each and their holds are shaky.
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[[folder:Web Original ]]
* In the ''Website/OrionsArm'' galaxy, not even SufficientlyAdvanced {{Artificial Intelligence}}s prove able to rule an entire galaxy. [[http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/49c84127c0399 This synopsis]] explains some of the difficulties any space empire would likely encounter. In fact they don't rule anywhere near the entire galaxy. On [[http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/48028a7f74e6d this map]] all the Sephirotic Empires are within that fuzzy green dot (it's been only 10,500 years, and the setting does not have FTL).
* See the Website/AtomicRockets page on [[http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/stellarempire.php Galactic Empires]] for an exhaustive analysis of the logistics of governing an interstellar empire.
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[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In the backstory to ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'', [[TheWarJustBefore the Great War]] was fought between the Decepticon Empire and the Autobot Commonwealth. While the Autobots won the war and the Decepticons accepted amnesty and exile, the war outright ''[[EarthShatteringKaboom destroyed]]'' several colony worlds on both sides. Descriptions in the [[AllThereInTheManual Allspark Almanac]] suggests that the "New Decepticon Empire" functions like a real empire i.e. each world is ruled by its own governor, but they all answer to Megatron. Even Megatron's reach has its limits, though. Straxus rules the planet Lucifer with an iron grip, turning it into a hellhole. He's still a Decepticon and led an attack on the Autobot space bridges as requested, but otherwise he pretty much does whatever he wants.
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