Perhaps that's merely _the closest translation_ into our language? :) I mean, if I were trying to translate the idea of a limited liability corporation into no

Perhaps that's merely _the closest translation_ into our language? :) I mean, if I were trying to translate the idea of a limited liability corporation into non-English, I'd probably come up with a phrasing that ended up being very similar (if not the same) to whatever they use in Dutch or Japanese or Chinese etc. If you had a multi-star-system government that wasn't an empire, it doesn't seem a stretch that you'd call it something similar to a 'federation'.