Power structure
Similarly to a Patronage, the Curiate Assembly's Neo-feudalism is a complex political system that elects a delegate to represent its interests.In a Patronage, the gold standard of an efficent and just Imperial society, government positions are held according to a pyramid, constructed through a stratified representative democracy.
In a Patronage, free citizens politically support a group of elected representatives (the clients), who in turn elect their representatives (the patrons), who in turn support members of the highest political assembly in the Empire, the Senate.
Allegiances and supports change dynamically, and citizens can freely choose to support whichever client they wish, or try to become clients themselves.
However, in the Neo-feudal system enforced by the Curiate Assembly and by Rowe Holdings, things are done in a slightly different way.
In these systems, the choice each citizen has is more or less fixed to one specific representative, according to binding oaths he or she has made and further enforced by economic pressure.
The Imperial corporation (Rowe Holdings) underlying the Praetorian feudal structure is used as a way to enforce, economically, the oaths on the lower, less honorable levels of the pyramid.
- Alden Rowe is an Imperial patron and the majority shareholder of the holding company.
- Curii, members of the Curiate assembly, are very influential Imperial nobles, clients and major shareholders of Rowe Corp.
- Knights and lower ranked nobles are minor shareholders, or owners of controlled companies.
- Citizens are almost universally employed in the company, or in a controlled company, and they have enormous pressure on them to follow their employers' commands in regards to their choice of representation.
- Imperial slaves in these worlds are themselves employees, and their freedom rests entirely on the will of their owner to actually pay them. And that's when they're not treated as a commodity, or capital.
This system is more stable, as the allegiances never change, and the power rarely shifts from one patron to another.
However society is less fluid. For instance, it's not plausible for a citizen to become a Knight, and very unlikely for an Imperial slave to become a free man once again if his owner doesn't allow it.
While in a legal grey area, the Corporation and the Assembly have proven to be able to take control and hold territory for their higher ups in Eotienses and in Achenar, therefore their right to govern is seldom questioned.
The PCA has held very conservative ideals, especially after confronting with the Federation's Liberal party in several elections in 3302. Their agenda is often focused on internal security, and their economic policy has been consistently focused on supporting the enterprise of Imperial corporations (especially their own).