Part 49: Governmental structure redux

Yes. The Constitution has been mentioned before, and was amended back when we became a Federation. The authority of the Great Senate is relatively limited by 21st-century standards, and even under Conservative or Social Democrat administrations the United Republic is considerably more economically and socially open than most 21st-century states. There is a strongly-ingrained tradition of respect for constitutionalism in the United Republic, and a loathing for autocratic systems that has become almost reflexive, which tends to limit the political options of Senators that hope to get re-elected.

There are a wide variety of sub-states under the Great Senate with authority to pass legislation over their own constituents within the bounds of the Constitution; competition between sub-states tends to drive assorted legal reforms as relevant to local interests. One of the more unusual sub-states is the Bifrost Asteroid-Kombinat, which has described its own internal structure elsewhere.