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Galactic empires are a science fiction setting trope, in which most or all of the habitable planets in the setting's galaxy are ruled by a single centralized political entity. Galactic empires most frequently appear in works in the sub-genres of science fantasy and space opera, although they may appear in other sub-genres as well. Works featuring galactic empires may have them as the story's focus, chronicling the empire's growth and/or decline. Alternatively, they may merely serve as a backdrop against which the events of the story play out.
While depictions of galactic empires can vary wildly from work to work, most galactic empires share several key tropes:
Characterizations of these empires can vary wildly from work to work. They may be benevolent or malevolent; all-powerful or too weak or incompetent to exert power in anything but name; or anywhere in between.
In many cases, the term "galactic empire" is misleading. First, the "galactic" in "galactic empire" suggests an organization encompassing far more star systems than is actually described. This may come about as a result of propaganda exaggerating the spread of an imperial entity in order to appear stronger than is actually the case — just as historical nation-states such as the 'Holy Roman Empire' presented themselves; being roughly twice the size of modern Germany. While some of the noted fictional empires encompass a large portion of the galaxy, many other empires may be classified as interplanetary or interstellar empires, since they encompass only a local group of star systems.
When works feature galactic empires that truly do span most or all of their parent galaxy, they usually depict their capital as a "core world", a planet in a star system relatively close to a galaxy's supermassive black hole. Typically, "core worlds" will be portrayed as wealthier and more politically powerful than "rim worlds" closer to the edge of the galaxy. However, this portrayal, while common, is not universal; many works may invert this dynamic or reject it altogether.
Second, the "empire" in "galactic empire" is also misleading, as it suggests the empire's government is Authoritarianism to at least some degree, if not completely autocratic. While many galactic empires do correspond to this description, many do not: galactic empires may adhere to any real-world political philosophy, or a unique form of governance created by the work's author(s). A prominent example of a non-autocratic galactic empire is the Galactic Republic of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, which is a hybrid regime parliamentary democracy (albeit one that collapses into Fascism over the course of the story).
Star Wars depicts an empire ruled autocratically by Palpatine, supported by a powerful space navy. It is stated in the original Star Wars film that there was an Imperial Senate that was later disbanded by the Emperor. There was a galactic empire called the Sith Empire founded by Darth Revan. This galactic power was close to overthrowing the Jedi's Republic during the Jedi Civil War.
As a military dictatorship based upon fear and terror, the Empire is an explicitly Villain with linguistic and visual traits directly reminiscent of Nazi Germany. For example, their armored forces known as "stormtroopers" are named analogously to the Sturmabteilung (often known as the SA), a paramilitary entity created by the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1920. Massacres of local peoples and the implementation of imperial protectorates administered by the Galactic Empire also mirror that seen throughout Europe during the Second World War. Their best-known weapon is the iconic Death Star, a Moon-sized space station that can destroy entire planets.
In the Star Wars universe, the fall of the Galactic Republic and its replacement by the Galactic Empire – as depicted in – recall the historic fall of the Roman Republic and its replacement by the Roman Empire headed by Augustus.
The term "galactic empire" has, perhaps because of association with the Empire from Star Wars, gained a pejorative meaning.
Galactic empires are in many cases consciously modeled on historical Earth-bound empires. Asimov stated explicitly that the Galactic Empire whose fall is depicted in his Foundation books is also modeled on the Roman Empire, with the author taking direct inspiration from the historical writings of Edward Gibbon, even to the point of basing some individual characters on historical figures. Specifically, Pebble in the Sky, which is set on Earth – a poor and backward province of the Galactic Empire – is modeled on Roman-ruled Judea in the 1st century AD. Asimov's Earth – like the historical Judea – is sharply polarized between those who accept the Imperial authority and the fanatic "Zealots" who hatch violent plots of bloody rebellion and are the book's clear villains.
Foundation is depicted as having started life as a Foundation of scholars, taking up just one city on one faraway planet and setting up a modest municipal government headed, naturally, by a Mayor. Through a centuries-long series of developments which are the main subject matter of the Foundation Series, the Foundation gains enormous power and territory and comes to rule virtually as many stellar systems as the earlier fallen Empire - but continues to call itself "Foundation" rather than "Empire", and its ruler - though wielding as much power as any Emperor - retains the title of "Mayor".
In Dune, the empire's power is held within three organizations: the Imperial family; the Landsraad, representing the nobility; and the Spacing Guild, an interstellar travel monopoly.
Bertram Chandler wrote two interstellar series – one featuring a Galactic Empire ruled by a series of non-hereditary Empresses while the other has a Republican Galactic Federation. Chandler's Empire and Federation, both relatively benign, have much in common – both covering the same volume of space, having much the same kind of Space Navy and both having the same commercial spaceflight company called "The Dog Star Line", suggesting that these are two alternate history timelines which branched off from the same original space travelling culture.
In Ursula K. Le Guin's Hainish Cycle, the interstellar entity known as "The League of All Worlds" and later as "The Ekumen" is in possession of the 'ansible' (a tachyonic device). Technology makes possible instantaneous interstellar communications, and the ability to send instantaneous unmanned ships carrying bombs to another planet is exploited as well. However, living beings cannot survive such travel, and thus humans are limited to space exploration at relativistic speeds. Correspondingly, this organization, despite on occasion waging war across interstellar distances, ends up being looser than a true empire.
Author Orson Scott Card's "Starways Congress", an organization featured in the work Speaker for the Dead (the follow-up to Ender's Game), similarly relies on the ansible. Yet it is more authoritarian and less benevolent than Le Guin's creation. Much of the story-line of the book and its sequels involves attempts to avoid interstellar bloodshed despite difficult circumstances.
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