Most business occurs either on the floor of Coruscant’s Senate rotunda or within various adjacent Senate offices. The rotunda interior is a large sphere containing more than a thousand Senate pods. There are far more Senators than pods in the rotunda, and as such, only the most senior member worlds enjoy a pod assignment. Other pods are reserved for those with business on the day’s agenda, and some are set aside for Senators present in a nearby facility, engaging in debate via hologram remotely. It is unofficial Senate practice for those Senators with pod assignments to exchange use of their pod for favors. To join the Republic, regions must satisfy a variety of population and governing requirements to become a “functional constituency,” typically an entire system of space holding to the Republic’s values. Senate elections determine the senior Senator for a constituency, though a runner up, traditionally from a minority species or ideology, is named junior Senator. While a junior Senator can only cast votes if the senior Senator is absent, they can still accept committee seats and chairs, and they receive the same briefings as their senior counterparts.
The Senate is divided into three main political parties: the Core, Rim, and Militarists. The Core advocates for more centralized government power, often including more taxes to fund programs aimed at expanding and elevating civilization in such a way as to make the rest of the galaxy more like the Core planets. The Rim Faction usually votes against taxes and centralized power in favor of systems’ rights, arguing that Coruscant for example, wouldn’t know what was best for Ryloth. A third group, known as the Militarists, often vote with the Core, but is focused on restoring a centralized military. Its members cared little for economic issues, concentrating instead on checking Hutt expansion and crushing both pirates and organized crime. For this, they favor a formal Republic military instead of the ad hoc network of planetary defense forces supplemented by Judicials and Sector Rangers.
The Supreme Chancellor oversees much of the Republic bureaucracy and appoints directors and chiefs of the countless government agencies within his purview. These bureaucrats compete with Senators and lobbyists for the Chancellor’s time, hoping he’ll use his executive power and influence to turn the gears of democracy in their favor.