Barrayaran Government

The Government of Barrayar consisted of quite a few bodies, jobs and positions.

Positions in Barrayaran Government

Emperor - head of all three planets

• Imperial Counselor - Head of Komarr
• Viceroy and/or Vicereine of Sergyar - Head of Sergyar

Council of Counts

• 60 Counts, including the Emperor, Count Vorbarra.
• The Lord Guardian of the Circle kept arguments under control.
• They judged cases and resolved disputes, such as water rights, between Districts.

Council of Ministers

• Head was probably the Prime Minister.
  • Duties included budget wrangling with the Council of Ministers
  • Received status reports on ImpSec's view of the empire
  • Was the only person other than the Emperor who was above the Chief of ImpSec.
• 15 members after dissolution of Ministry of Political Education; Ministers appeared to hold their position for long tenures (e.g. Quintillan)
  • Minister of the West
  • Minister of War
  • Minister of Political Education (Grishnov, during Ezar Vorbarra's reign; abolished afterwards)
  • Minister of the Interior (Quintillan, during Ezar Vorbarra's reign and Aral Vorkosigan's regency)
  • Minister for Heavy Industries (Vorvane, during Gregor Vorbarra's reign)
  • Minister of Agriculture
  • Minister of Finance

Joint Council

• Council of Ministers and Council of Counts meeting together; 15 + 60 = 75 people.
• Their general role in government included:
  • The central committee of the two Councils consulted Aral Vorkosigan about Escobar invasion.
  • Full Councils Assembled voted for Regent.
  • Budgeting for wars
  • Taxation
  • Rulings for new laws
  • A 3/4 vote of the joint council could remove an Imperial Auditor from a case.

Diplomatic Corps

The entitiy that ran the various embassies and Consuls across the nexus. Known roles included:

• Ambassador or Consul
  • Consul Vorlynkin in Cryoburn, Ambassador Vorob'yev in Cetaganda
• Senior Military Attaché
  • Captain Duv Galeni (for Earth) in Brothers in Arms, Lieutenant Johannes in Cryoburn, Ivan Vorpatril in epilogue to Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, Commodore Destang (for Tau Ceti) in Brothers in Arms
• Second Assistant Military Attaché (Third, etc)
  • Ivan Vorpatril and Miles Vorkosigan in Brothers in Arms
• Protocol Officer
  • Colonel Vorreedi in Cetaganda (actually was Eta Ceta-local head of Imperial Security)
• For Consuls, Consulate Clerk
  • Juuichi Matson in Cryoburn

Different planets had Embassies or Consulates or just a local lawyer depending on their importance to Barrayar; Earth had a Class III Embassy, which was subordinate to the Sector 2 Security Headquarters on Tau Ceti, and the Kibou-Daini consulate was a branch of the Embassy on Escobar. Quaddiespace just had a local lawyer, though it apparently acquired a consulate headed by Ensign Corbeau at the end of Diplomatic Immunity.

Appointed Positions

• General Staff
  • Head was Chief of Staff of Imperial Service
  • Members included: Knollys, Kanzian, Vorlakial, Desplains, Hessman
  • Specialties of members: Operations, Intelligence, Procurement, Service Security, Budget and Accounting, Logistics
• Imperial Auditors
• Imperial Security
  • Domestic Affairs
  • Komarran Affairs
  • Galactic Affairs
  • Sergyaran Affairs
• Imperial Accounting Office
  • Henri Vorvolk
• Imperial Lands Distribution Committee
  • Count Vortala, Minister Vann
  • The purpose of the committee was to deal with South Continent issues.
• Social Secretary to the Imperial Residence
  • Lady Vorpatril
    • Lady Vorinnis and others were part of her staff.
• Major of Protocol - served the Emperor

General jobs and organizations within the government

• Imperial Civil Service/Security
• Imperial Postal Service
• Imperial Court of Inquiry
• Imperial Service Veterans' Hospice
• Imperial Service Orphanage
• Miscellaneous government jobs
  • Judges, lawyers, staff to counts, personal secretaries, Village Speakers, District Magistrates, District agronomy officers, District Militia, Municipal Guard, Imperial Customs, various kinds of servant.
• Disestablished government bodies
  • Privy Council, Defenestrated by Mad Emperor Yuri.

Behind the scenes

• On May 29, 2014 the author has commented about the Barrayaran Government on the mailing list archive

"Barrayar has a large Imperial civil service, a reasonably highly organized bureaucracy mostly staffed and run by proles. Who do you think has been doing all the _work_, while the Counts are swanning around? (Or so they might put it. Most of the counts are, in fact, very hard-working, in their spheres. Falco is a fair average sample. The behavioral outliers, natch, get more press.) Vorbarr Sultana does not consist of only 3 government buildings; all those hundreds of others are there for reasons...."

• Another explanation from March 18, 2024 on goodreads goes into more detail.