#Federal division of powers#

Although the Hegemony is a single unified government, in practice it's far too large to be run as a unitary body. It must maintain different levels of bureaucracy, governing areas ranging from cities to what we would think of as countries. Potential competitors for each region's rulers and bureaucrats abound: other regions of similar size, smaller constituents, larger regions they are a part of. Since your police and military forces are controlled by the bureaucracy, they are part of that competition for power.

One natural result is that individual regions of various sizes have their own security forces, with very strict rules about where they are and are not welcome. A nation-like region might not even have the power to send police into individual provinces or cities, depending on whether or not it has a justification that won't make it look like a power play. Because they're effectively in competition, police forces at different levels and in different places aren't likely to have very good communication - this is something that perfectly friendly agencies and nations struggle with in the real world, after all. So criminals (or criminal syndicates) that can move between regions can stay ahead of the local police.

Enter bounty hunters. Unlike police/military forces that represent the encroaching power of a rival power bloc, individual bounty hunters are hardly a threat to the established order. If they cause problems, the host region can easily censure, expel, even kill them without much difficulty. They can take down lone criminals who flee between jurisdictions, and gather information about larger syndicates to feed to the local law. (They might even serve as an informal communications channel for police forces whose superiors are feuding but who must cooperate against a particular threat.)

Federal division of powers

Although the Hegemony is a single unified government, in practice it's far too large to be run as a unitary body. It must maintain different levels of bureaucracy, governing areas ranging from cities to what we would think of as countries. Potential competitors for each region's rulers and bureaucrats abound: other regions of similar size, smaller constituents, larger regions they are a part of. Since your police and military forces are controlled by the bureaucracy, they are part of that competition for power.

One natural result is that individual regions of various sizes have their own security forces, with very strict rules about where they are and are not welcome. A nation-like region might not even have the power to send police into individual provinces or cities, depending on whether or not it has a justification that won't make it look like a power play. Because they're effectively in competition, police forces at different levels and in different places aren't likely to have very good communication - this is something that perfectly friendly agencies and nations struggle with in the real world, after all. So criminals (or criminal syndicates) that can move between regions can stay ahead of the local police.

Enter bounty hunters. Unlike police/military forces that represent the encroaching power of a rival power bloc, individual bounty hunters are hardly a threat to the established order. If they cause problems, the host region can easily censure, expel, even kill them without much difficulty. They can take down lone criminals who flee between jurisdictions, and gather information about larger syndicates to feed to the local law. (They might even serve as an informal communications channel for police forces whose superiors are feuding but who must cooperate against a particular threat.)