May the 4th Be With You: A Star Wars Policy Analysis

In 19 BBY Supreme Chancellor Palpatine enacted Order 66. Clone troopers, once loyal to the Galactic Republic, turned on their Jedi generals-- killing all but a few. With this, Palpatine appointed himself emperor of the newly formed Galactic Empire. He stripped the Senate of all power and reorganized the clone army of the republic into the Imperial Army.

 How was such a prodigious betrayal possible? The Galactic Republic lasted for a thousand years before its fall, and the Jedi Order for longer. The Galactic Senate and Jedi Order’s inability to prevent Order 66 and the rise of Emperor Palpatine is due to structural weaknesses within the Galactic Senate and the Jedi Order and poor leadership incentives within the Jedi Order which begat a toxic culture preoccupied with overly stoic and masculine practices.

As the civil war between loyalists and separatists intensified, the Jedi Council and the Galactic Senate placidly accepted the increasing powers of Chancellor Palpatine. Certainly, allowing the head of government and state expanded authority in wartime is practical-- the expansion itself was not flawed. Rather, the expansion was left entirely unexamined by the Galactic Senate. This was only possible as the senate lacked an opposition party and hence any political incentive to investigate the Chancellor. Palpatine used this political freedom as an unobstructed and unscrutinized “action channel” to obtain emergency powers, usurp the senate, and mobilize the clone army against the Republic.

The self-proclaimed ‘guardians of the republic’ were no more aware of Palpatine’s machinations. Structurally, the Jedi Order was “ossified”-- too sure of its own abilities from a millenium of unchallenged dominance. The organization was fraught with “inflated self-appraisal” and almost cartoonishly over-confident in their abilities from “imperfect self-assessments” (Kruger & Dunning, 1999, p. 1122). Perhaps the best example of this is the Jedi’s failure to prevent the catastrophic Order 66. In 22 BBY, Jedi Master Kenobi discovered the infamous Clone Army on the planet Kamino. Allegedly, Jedi Sifo-Dyas had ordered its creation, though he had disappeared on Felucia several years prior. Oddly, the clones were left unquestioned by the Jedi Council and used as the primary fighting force against the separatists. In fact, in the last years of the war when it seemed the Republic would prevail, the Jedi Council discovered the Sith had been involved in the creation of the clones. Rather than disclose this information Grand Master Yoda told the Council to keep it a secret-- thus sealing the fate of the Jedi and the Republic. By opting for secrecy over action, the council signaled their hubris and that they believed themselves invincible.

Organizations do not only become entrenched in dispositions (like arrogance), but also in certain cultural mores-- in this case, a biased composition of leadership. The Jedi Council was made up of 12 members, 5 permanent, 4 long-term and 3 short-term. From BBY 32 to BBY 19 the five permanent members were: Plo Koon, Mace Windu, Yoda, Ki-Adi-Mundi, and Saesee Tiin, all 5 men. In fact, from the time of the invasion of Naboo until the fall of the republic the two ranking members of the Council: Grand Master of the Order Yoda and Master of the Order Mace Windu, were both men. Only three members of the Council were women: Shaak Ti, Adi Gallia, and Depa Billaba. This gender disparity reflected a rigid organizational culture within the Council. As all new members to the council were elected by the group itself, there was no incentive to include individuals who were overly different. Hence, the majority of the members on the Council were historically men. Further, they were often chosen for their abilities as warriors or perceived wisdom within the framework already agreed upon within the council. Hence, the council was a self-perpetuating ‘in-group’ with poor election incentives which served only to ensure that like-minded individuals were appointed.

There is only one major exception to this rule and that is Anakin Skywalker. When, per Palpatine’s request, Skywalker was appointed to the council, he was chastised for his emotional attachments: demonstrating his status as an ‘out-group’ individual placed within the council by an exogenous force. The requirement that Jedi not show nor act on emotions especially love, passion, or empathy were impossible strictures. The Council demonstrated incredibly low tolerance for nuance or grey area. Yoda’s maxim to Luke, “do or do not, there is no try” typifies this obsession with absolutism. This thinking is engrained in the Order to such a degree that even emotions which are not associated with the Dark Side, but could feasibly lead to emotions associated with the Dark Side are treated with suspicion and shame. In fact, the Jedi’s obsession with Light Side traits, typifying toxic masculinity, pushed Anakin Skywalker further down the path to becoming Darth Vader-- without whom Order 66 would not have been possible.

It is evident in the Council’s treatment of the dark and light sides of The Force that members were “low-complexity” individuals. Just as Schafer predicts, low complexity is correlated with groupthink. The Council largely sees the Force as a zero-sum entity and the Order as a whole does as well, without dissent. The Jedi failed to see how differentiated thought patterns might benefit their cause. Unfortunately, this low-complexity thinking was allowed to go unchallenged as the structure of self-promoted Masters into an in-group prevented any new organizational behaviors from forming. Instead, the homogenous organizational culture blocked any changes to organizational behavior for a millennium.

Hence the failure of the Senate and Jedi can be summarized in three points: 1) the Senate lacked a proper opposition party to investigate Palpatine while the Jedi were too self-assured due to their long-term dominance ; 2) the Jedi Council was plagued by an insular promotion structure which prevented the Council from seeing the risks outside of their paradigm; and 3) this flawed promotion structure encouraged low-complexity thinking which ultimately led to Darth Vader and the destruction of the Jedi Order and ultimately, the Republic.