Who would ever want the Galactic Empire back?

In previous posts, I've looked at how thoroughly rotten the leadership of Palpatine's Galactic Empire was, and explored the underlying reason for this. The short answers are: "so rotten that you'd have to kill off almost the entire leadership just to get some half-way decent people in charge" and "because Palpatine was an evil space wizard who powered his dark voodoo by causing untold suffering". None of that sounds even remotely attractive, and yet there were entire cohorts of people who fought avidly to defend and maintain the Empire. What's more, there were even quite a few who held on to "the Imperial way" long after Palpatine had been vapourised for good. The obvious question is: why? The Empire was undeniably terrible. So what drove the people who fought for that Empire? And what would possess someone to set up an Imperial Remnant, out on the fringes of the galactic disk? Let's try to find an answer.

First, we must look at what motivated the creation of the Empire in the first place. Beyond Palpatine's own ambition, what were the socio-cultural forces he latched onto (and radicalised) in order to amass support for the New Order? The important thing to understand, in that regard, is that the Banite Sith had been manipulating the politics of the Republic for a very long time. This had involved a deliberate worsening of corruption and inefficiency in the Senate and the bureaucracy (including support for corrupt or damaging figures, and the sabotage or even assassination of potential reformers). The armed forces had gradually been dismantled completely during the long peace, to the point where the Republic became dangerously vulnerable to all sorts of threats, including piracy. The megacorps had been given sweeping powers, including private armies (to combat said piracy), and had eventually gained direct political representation. Meanwhile, the Jedi Order had gradually been isolated.

All of these things had been a result of the Sith machinations. As a result, the Republic had become weak, corrupt and inefficient. The megacorps ruled vast swathes of the Rim as their personal fiefs. Slavery had become normalised throughout the Outer Rim. Faith in the central government had been almost entirely eroded. And the Jedi Order was seen as a congregation of arcane mystics and wizards, poorly understood by the populace. It cannot come as a surprise that calls for a change became increasingly loud. Yet the very gridlock that the Sith had gradually manipulated into existence prevented any kind of reasonable, moderate reform. Thus, the only avenue for the alteration of the circumstances became... radicalism. And the Sith had their very own charismatic radical waiting in the wings: Senator Palpatine of Naboo. Certainly not known for frothy-mouthed tirades, but very much a proponent of a drastic overhaul of the whole Republic.

He could reap the fruits of the long manipulation, by combining the various strains of reformist thought that had emerged. First of all, he was a centralist, who openly declared that Coruscant needed sweeping new powers in order to bring order to the lawless Outer Rim. He was also an avowed militarist, advocating the build-up of substantial government forces in order to actually enforce the law. Although it is rarely made very explicit, it can be inferred that Palpatine was also a vocal supporter of a the redistribution of means. That is to say: he proposed heavily taxing the corporations in order to pay for various forms of welfare.

There was also an underlying strain of thought, which he didn't vocalise early on, but which tied into the rest of his ideals implicitly. Since the megacorps were often owned by non-humans, Palpatine's agitation against them carried the subtext of "freeing humans from the alien yoke"; especially since the megacorps owned enormous numbers of human slaves. Implicitly, Palpatine was a pro-human, anti-alien candidate. His centralism depicted the Core as the beacon if civilisation. Note that the Core was human-dominated, and that promoting Core culture automatically implied promoting human culture. In this sense, Palpatine's idea of building up 'welfare' by taxing 'the rich megacorps' carried the same kind of undertone that one saw when Hitler promised the Germans "work and food", promising to pay for it by "taking from the rich Jewish bankers". The age-old trick of robbing Peter to give to Paul. Or rather: robbing Xwiluq to give to Paul, if you get my drift...

In the same way, Palpatine promised jobs for the masses. In many cases, this held the implicit message of jobs for humans, to be provided by gradually barring non-humans from more and more professions. (Palpatine could justify this during the Clone Wars, by specifically targeting those aliens whose governments had sided with the Separatists. After the War, he would of course increasingly target all non-humans.)

The final element of support for Palpatine came from the conservatives. Palpatine courted, subtly at first, the reactionaries via his appeal to the civilised Core culture, which had a conservative undertone to it. Most especially, a "family values" sort of conservatism that implied a lot about the "correct" gender roles. By which should be understood: women ought to stay home, and shouldn't have a career. Especially not one in the military or in politics.  Note that this would not be presented as an "anti-woman" policy, but as a sign of wealth and civilised (Core) society. Along the lines of: "The alien megacorps exploit poor humans so badly that both husband and wife have to work full time! Palpatine will ensure fair pay, so that decent people will have the time and means to raise a family!"

This gives us a rather clear idea of where Palpatine got his support. Militarism ("we need a strong military to finally bring order"), Core-based elitism ("bring civilisation to the Outer Rim"), jingoism ("those opposing centralism are traitors, and secessionist are traitors twice over"), populism ("I'll give you free stuff, and I'll take the money for it from the big corporations"), xenophobia ("aliens aren't loyal, and also they're taking your jobs"), authoritarianism ("only a firm hand can right all the galaxy's wrongs") and centralism ("Coruscant has an imperative to rule the outlaw fringe, even if the people there are opposed to it") all came together in Palpatine's propaganda. All of those ideas were much older than his bid for power. Many of them had already been connected in political strains for a long time, too. But due to the Sith manipulations, they were ready to be truly unified in a powerful cocktail. One that would get a great mass of people drunk on Palpatine's promises.

So, who backed the Empire? Naturally, the upper echelons of the Imperial government and military, since their position depended upon it. The wealthy cronies who owed their affluent positions to Palpatine's patronage. The Dark Side adepts that Palpatine cultivated. The people who genuinely believed in authoritarianism as the "most efficient system" (as Thrawn did). The genuine xenophobes who bought into the Human High Culture thing. The genuine sexists who believed women should stay home and raise children. Conservatives who honestly believed in the "traditional Core values" and likewise believed the Empire was upholding them. Dedicated centralists. Career military men. And finally, a whole lot of poor humans who had profited from the fact that non-humans had essentially been driven off the labour market.

That's a not inconsiderable number of people. The Empire was a draconian regime, and a lot of the aforementioned people probably knew that (at least deep down), but they also had a bunch of (self-interested) reasons to keep backing the system. After all... doing what's best for society overall is a lot less enticing when it may well end up being worse for you personally. (Which is precisely the kind of division that Palpatine was banking on.)

However, the Empire was defeated. And as it turned out, Palpatine's centrally-commanded system was horribly inefficient, and the New Republic returning to decentralism and a galaxy-wide free market actually caused an economic boom. Which meant that, on the whole, a lot of people who thought they'd be worse off without the Empire were actually better off after it collapsed. We know for a fact that popular support for the Empire was always low: as outlined above, it was a deliberately-spread fear that kept people in line. The vast majority of the populace either rejoiced, or grew to like the New Republic, or was simply a-political and didn't grumble.

But there were Imperial die-hards. People who actively strove to maintain the "Imperial way", either in the context of the Imperial continuation government, or in the service of one of the several warlord states, or as part of the eventually established Imperial Remnant. Their motivations can be explained as follows:

— Those high-ranking Imperials who formed the continuation government or turned warlord, and the cliques who coalesced around these centres of authority, require little explanation as to their motivations: self-interest, occasionally paired with genuine (and fanatical) belief in the Empire's legitimacy.

— The wealthy oligarchs who continued to back the Empire: also self-interest. They either backed the continuation government or some warlord they found to be promising, all in a bid to retain their wealth and influence. They understood that under the New Republic, their ill-gotten gains would be confiscated, and they'd most likely have to face criminal prosecution.

— The Dark Side adepts: pure power-lust. These figures either tried to set up their own terror-regimes, or operated with a fanatical loyalty to Palpatine (and/or his legacy), or they shopped out their services to one of the successor regimes (usually in a bid to use its resources for their own ends).

— The people who genuinely believed in authoritarianism as the "most efficient system": driven by the hope of preventing "chaotic" democracy from prevailing. To this end, they kept supporting whichever neo-Imperial faction looked most credible.

— The genuine xenophobes and sexists: motivated by bigotry, and correspondingly tended to set up their own radical splinter factions, or otherwise cluttered to the most extreme and hateful of the various warlords.

— The conservatives: we know that many of them simply defected to the New Republic, which was after all decentralist, meaning that localist conservative government was completely viable. Only the true reactionaries who sought to impose conservative standards on everyone stayed loyal to the Imperial cause, and they did so because the New Republic's policy of tolerance was anathema to them.

— Dedicated centralists: sheer horror at the New Republic's dedication to radical decentralism tended to keep many centralists loyal to the Imperial cause.

— Career military men: again, self-interest, plus "a way of life". The Empire was highly militarist, the New Republic far less so. To those who had committed their whole lives to the vast Imperial military, the New Republic wouldn't be very attractive. The successor factions to the Empire generally maintained the high degree of militarisation, and their societies as a whole were regimented in the Imperial style. To people who truly considered themselves soldier-citizens, this would be attractive.

— Poor humans who felt their lot had improved under the Empire: most of these went over to the New Republic, and indeed found life was actually better in a free society, but not all of them were interested. The certainty of a regulated economy is attractive to some people.

Most of the warlord states were essentially military forces controlling swathes of space; the general populace felt little to no loyalty to the regimes, and as the New Republic defeated the warlords in succession, their territories were absorbed into the Republic with relative ease. The surviving forces of the defeated warlords were another story: these tended to seek refuge under the wing of other warlords. The noted exception is Ardus Kaine's Pentastar Alignment, which set up a functional government that survived Kaine's death without major incident. It is no surprise that at the end of the New Republic's warlord campaigns, most of the Imperial forces that had once served those warlords had ended up in the Pentastar Alignment. The others had retreated into the Deep Core. After the New Republic defeated the Empire's crumbling continuation government, most of its remaining forces likewise ended up seeking refuge in these places.

The dedicated radicals of various sorts tended to form splinter factions, most of which fought to the bitter end— either against the Republic, or against other Imperials. As such, the number of rabid fanatics, xenophobes and Dark Side adepts among the dwindling and scattered Imperial cohort was soon reduced disproportionally. Even where they remained undetected, they generally tended to branch out on their own, and were little inclined to join the remaining "organised" factions of Imperials. This was only reinforced by the temporary leadership of Thrawn, a non-human, and the later leadership of Daala, a woman. That these two actively worked to end the formal discrimination against women and non-humans only ensured that the true zealots left.

After the failed Daala campaign, Pellaeon assumed command, and oversaw an exodus of Imperials from the Deep Core words the Pentastar Alignment. With all remaining Imperials concentrated there, the Imperial Remnant was consolidated, under Pellaeon's leadership. The remaining high-ranking Imperials of the old guard; the few oligarchs who had managed to hold on to portable assets; the true believers in authoritarian rule and the skeptics of democracy; the conservatives who could overlook an end to the structural sexism if it mean not having to live in the liberal New Republic; the dedicated centralists; and above all the bulk of the remaining Imperial military. These were the inhabitants of the Remnant. The number of "ordinary Joes" who simply favoured the Imperial way because they felt it had improved their lives must by this time have been modest, but certainly some migrated to the Remnant.

The exodus of schismatic radicals, who proceeded to wage their own doomed little crusades against the New Republic, was ultimately a blessing for the Remnant. It both distracted the New Republic by providing far more hostile targets, and removed the insane trouble-makers from the Remnant's fold. his only helped in eliminating the leftovers from the old Human High Culture nonsense. Only controlling a modest section of the galaxy, originally very thinly settled and by this point predominantly inhabited by Imperial loyalists, the old impulse to impose order on the galaxy by force simply became moot. Furthermore, a smaller, regional power could be centralist without being ruthlessly tyrannical about it. A simple matter of greater ideological homogeneity: when the vast bulk of the populace supports centralism, it no longer needs to be utterly tyrannical to maintain itself.

As such, the Imperial Remnant gradually evolved into a "normalised" regional power. Centralist, highly militarist, rather authoritarian (despite certain modest reforms by Pellaeon), and considerably more conservative than the New Republic. This is the strain of Imperial ideology that ultimately survived, whereas the insane bigotry proved to be fruitless and unsustainable. It is for that reason that the Imperial Remnant actually enjoyed the active support of its populace, and it is also why it became a state with which the New Republic could at long last sign a peace treaty.