http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Federation_of_Planets
United Federation of Planets
The United Federation of Planets, also known as "the Federation" or the UFP, is a fictional interplanetary federal republic depicted in the Star Trek television series and motion pictures. In those episodes and films, the Federation is described as an interstellar federal polity with, as of the year 2373, more than 150 member planets and thousands of colonies spread across 8,000 light years of the Milky Way Galaxy, and taking the form of a post-capitalist liberal democracy and constitutional republic.
The Federation is founded under a document known as the Charter of the United Federation of Planets, which is occasionally referred to informally as the "Constitution." It draws text and inspiration from the United Nations Charter and other sources. An important guiding principle — indeed, it is listed as General Order One in the list of Starfleet general orders — is the Prime Directive, which forbids any interference in the natural development of any pre-warp civilization. This is intended to prevent even well-intentioned Federation personnel from introducing changes which could destabilize or even destroy other pre-warp-era cultures through interference. In practice, however, consistent application of the Prime Directive tends to be a controversial issue, and the Federation does not always abide strictly by it, such as when it attempted to strongarm the Organians into forming an alliance with it, or when it initially approved the forced relocation of the Ba'ku from their adopted homeworld--although it was eventually figured out that the Ba'ku were not a pre-warp civilization.
