Once transforming the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire and declaring himself
as Emperor, Palpatine allowed the democratically elected senate to exist for close to 20 years
during his reign.
So what was the motive behind that decision?
Well despite what many may think, when Palpatine declared himself as Emperor he didn’t immediately
obtain absolute power and total control of the galaxy.
Instead that was just the first step in his long term plan of reaching ultimate, direct
authority over the galaxy, and the existence of the senate unknowingly allowed him to reach
that goal by keeping things functional and in order for the time being.
When he became Emperor, Palpatine mainly expanded his control by having all the emergency powers
that he obtained in the years leading up to and during the Clone Wars go from being temporary
to becoming permanent, as they were embedded into the newly crafted galactic constitution.
These new permanent powers allowed Palpatine to remain as ruler for the rest of his life,
as well as giving him essentially ultimate authority over the military.
However, at the beginning the Imperial military wasn’t as expansive and mightful as it needed
to be to allow him to do anything he wanted without having to worry about backlash that
threatened his hold over the galaxy.
So the senate remained around to give the illusion that the people and the planetary
governments that the senators represented still had power within the new galactic government.
Had Palpatine disbanded the Senate the moment he became Emperor, then that would have resulted
in another full blown galactic civil war as all the planets that were represented within
the senate would have rebelled against the newly formed empire.
A newly formed empire that didn’t have the vast and powerful military yet to keep everyone
in line through fear.
And the renamed Imperial senate had a good amount of power during the initial years of
the Empire.
For one they still set the budget for all central Imperial services, including the military
budget.
But that didn’t really matter, as a majority of senators were in favor of a bigger and
more powerful central military, just as Palpatine had planned through his manipulations of past
events.
The Clone Wars that had preceded the new Empire had left thousands of worlds devastated and
billions of beings dead.
No one wanted a repeat of that.
So in hopes of preventing such a massive war the senate fully supported the idea of creating
and sustaining peace and order through a large military.
On top of that, there were many separatist holdouts and terrorist groups that still continued
to wreak havoc in the outer rim and western reaches of the galaxy, which in turn garnered
even more support for the build up of a larger military to go deal with those chaotic forces.
Now although the Senate remained to have a good amount of power during the start of the
Empire’s reign, this power began to wither slowly over the years as the senators unknowingly
supported policies that took away their control over their respective planets.
For example, in the beginning senators tended to compete with each other over Imperial contracts
that sought to utilize their respective planets’ resources onto a galactic scale.
Senators saw these contracts as massive investments for their worlds that would greatly increase
their planet’s prosperity as Imperial controlled corporations began constructing infrastructure
that brought in jobs and wealth to the people.
On top of these investments done through the contracts, the Imperial military tended to
appear and occupy the affected planet.
The Empire argued that because it had so many of its own assets invested into the planet,
it needed a big military presence to protect them from pirates and the like.
Which at the time made sense to the senators and rulers of the planet, who openly allowed
for the Imperial military to take control and protect them.
Palpatine also began to reduce the senate’s influence by diverting more power away from
the senators and giving it to the Imperial governors, who tended to be more loyal to
him than the planets that they oversaw.
And lastly, Palpatine’s final step to obtaining ultimate authority over the galaxy was to
construct a weapon that would strike so much fear into the galaxy that no one would dare
stand up to him.
A weapon that could obliterate any planet in a matter of seconds.
The Death Star.
Palpatine believed that once the planet destroying superweapon was completed and fully operational,
he would be allowed to do anything he wished without having to worry about entire worlds
rebelling against him.
Which is why once the Death Star was completed, the senate was immediately dissolved by Palpatine.
No more did he have to pretend that they had power.
With the senate gone, and an entire command structure created that was solely loyal to
him, Palpatine had finally achieved the unlimited power he had always desired... that was until
the death star got blown up.
But the loss of the death star was not a crippling blow to the Empire.
All it did was severely set back any plans Palpatine had in mind.
Although both the senate and death star were gone, he still had a massive military on his
side along with all the governors and moffs that were solely loyal to him.
Plus no longer did the Imperial military have to be bound by the rules that the senate imposed
on them.
Now the military was free to do whatever it needed to fight the rebellion without having
to disguise any of its methods or weapons.
All Palpatine simply had to do was build another death star and not die, and then he was set
to proceed with whatever plans he had for the galaxy as its ultimate ruler.
But we all saw how that turned out.