There is a whole lot of politics in The Universe.  Humanity still hasn't abandoned it's second oldest profession.

Much of what you would like to know about political organisation are on the Polity pages.

Suffice it to say that every complexion of political thought, structure and practice is represented somewhere in The Universe.  No matter how barmy or brilliant, somewhere out there is a world run like that.

Of course, the more barmy ones tend to be small subsistence colonies with backward, no-hope economies, but nevertheless, they exist.

The major polities rule most of humanity and - as mentioned in the colonisation section - out in the colonial quadrants they often allow local practices to continue unchanged

Democracy in it's various forms remains a common practice, and all of the Big Four powers (Earth, Mars, Venus and Asteel) have forms of democratic system - though with often widely differing methods of reflecting that democracy.

Undemocratic worlds do exist, but they generally find it difficult to attract or train a population capable of developing economically to a level where they are noticeable on the interstellar arena - except possibly as a nuisance.

In getting a sense of what a polity is like, we have set some standard questions in an Internal Affairs Questionnaire.

Here is the Internal Affairs Questionnaire  - look at the National pages for examples of how each polity has answered these questions.