Hundreds of years into the future humans have colonised the solar
system. Earth and the Moon are in a state of cold war with the much
bigger and far more prosperous Mars. Further out lie the numerous
clusters of small colonies on the asteroid belt off Jupiter and the
Moons of Saturn. These outer planets are totally dependent on Earth
and Mars, surviving on the export of the precious ore they mine.
Those on the outer planets isolated by distance , feel neglected,
exploited and taken for granted. Back on Earth the ruling government
resents the power of Mars, its economic dominance and its increasing
attempts to exert political influence. Mars has a military government
which sees itself as the natural leader of planets. This is the
setting for The Expanse a popular US science fiction series. The
context for life in the future is the relationship between these
planets/ power blocks and a running political theme of subjugation
and collaboration.
The language may be extreme but we don’t need to look to outer space
or science fiction to see dominance and cooperation in a political
context. We have the relationship between central government and local
government in which central government exerts political
influence/control with ring fenced grants and special funds. Distance
from the centre of power adds to feelings of neglect and being taken
for granted. We have the relationship between County Councils and
District, Town and Parish councils. In which big brother gets
frustrated in its attempts to establish strategies across local
government organisations and the outer districts feel neglected,
ignored and constantly over ruled.
The recent Levelling Up bids were a good example of domination and
cooperation in practice. Making the distribution of limited funds a
competitive process was part of dominating local government. In order
to win the much needed funds local government had to collaborate/
cooperate with central government. District Councils and Town councils
lacked the infrastructure and resources available to County Councils
and Borough Councils for putting a complex bid together but many still
produced bids reflecting the needs of their locality. However before
these bids could to go forward they had to have the support of
County or Bough Council who were putting forward their own competing
bids. A case of domination and cooperation.
Blair Mcpherson former Director author and blogger www.blairmcpherson.co.uk