Would an aristocratic government be feasible in a sci-fi story?

So I am interested in doing a kingdom building novel in a sci-fi universe. I was thinking of having a English aristocratic government. With the king at the top and various nobles ( Dukes, Earls, Marquis, Count, Baron).

The justification i have for this government is the lack of FTL tech. There is no FTL travel although there is FTL communications ( Communication Relay Nodes). This makes it impossible for a central government to exist because they would simply not be able to enforce their authority on distant star systems.

Furthermore I want to introduce Jump gates; these gates were technology discovered from ancient alien ruins. They do allow instantaneous travel between gates; however, there is sort of a cool down and the jump distance is limited to nearest star systems. This makes it so that the forces of the king can reach a connected star system. However, anybody that wants to escape will have plenty of time to do so.

The king stays in power because he has a monopoly on the tech for gates and comms nodes. He also owns the largest space ship manufacturing company. The king can conscript fleets to fight against aliens.

The noble titles are earned by explorers who establish outposts and settle new star systems. They have to hook up the star system with gates to earn the baron title. Higher titles will be granted based on contributions to the king. In exchange all the celestial bodies in that star system belong solely to that noble.

This is the general setup I have so far. What do you guys think? Is this feasible. I want to take a hard science approach yet there are some things I will have to make up because it is science fiction.

posted over 5 years ago

Sam Joseph‭

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