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The Romulan Star Empire (or simply, Romulan Empire) is a major galactic regional power from the 22nd through 24th centuries, encompassing the Romulan people and their subject worlds and species. The Empire is known for its xenophobic character and policies of extreme secrecy and territorial protectionism.
Politics
In external application, Romulan political agendas appeared largely unified over the centuries. Their goals focused on maintaining Imperial security through vigilance, and negating the perceived advantages of their rivals. Both goals were accompanied by a near-paranoid reticence to reveal information, even facts as basic as their racial identity, that might illuminate other Romulan ambitions or motivations. Short of war, the means to those ends have generally varied between favored methods:- Surreptitious political disruption of rivals –
as in the secret relationship with V'Las of the Vulcan High Command
in the 2150s, participation in the Khitomer Conspiracy of 2293, secret
alliances both with the Klingons- such as in the House of Duras from
the 2340s or against the Klingons, or the aborted attempt to replace
key Starfleet officers with clones in the late 24th century.
- Limited, surprise or covert military action – as in the use of telepresence-operated drone-ships to spark the "Babel Crisis" among neighboring powers in 2154, a single Bird-of-Prey used to attack the Federation border and gauge its weaknesses in the Neutral Zone incursion of 2266, or the attack on the Klingon outpost at Narendra III in 2344.
The Empire did resort to open warfare when it was deemed necessary, but in typical fashion, their reasons for war were less than candidly expressed, as in the Earth-Romulan War and the enigmatic Tomed Incident of 2311. Unlike the Klingon objectives of the Federation-Klingon War (2267), Romulans do not appear to have gone to war with neighboring powers under a flag of "expansion", and no competition existed for the development of Class M worlds along the Romulan Neutral Zone. Romulans expressed little resentment for the negotiated Zone they zealously guarded, and following their conflicts, the Empire withdrew behind the safety of the buffer for many decades of self-imposed isolation from Federation affairs.
After a clone intended to replace decorated Starfleet Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Shinzon, turned on the Romulans and committed a coup in 2379, the Federation (including Picard himself) helped stop Shinzon's plans of interstellar domination. The Romulans at that point suggested that an era of warmer relations may be beginning with the Federation.
Government
The Romulan Star Empire is ruled by the Romulan Senate, which is overseen by the Praetor. The Continuing Committee is another powerful government body the praetor presides over. In 2373, Q considered the Romulan empress as an adequate mate.
The Senate represents an oligarchy; like an authoritarian system, an oligarchy is controlled by a small group of individuals, who govern mainly in their own interest. Clearly, given Tal Shiar ubiquity, the Romulans have a dictatorship; however, relatively little is known about the Romulan civil legal system.
The political structure of the Romulan Star Empire is unknown, but it seems to be unitary, since the central governments holds all power.
The Romulan Senate has dispatched ambassadors from time to time, including Caithlin Dar to the Planet of Galactic Peace and Nanclus to the United Federation of Planets.
Copyright
See the original version at Memory Alpha