system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Mass Effect] How powerful is the Citadel Council?

It seems that they have direct control of C-Sec, but outside of that, aren't the individual Councilors more like representatives of their respective governments, and if so, wouldn't every decision of the Council have to be ratified by the individual government leaders?
gpt
The Council's decisions do not bind the individual governments, you are correct. The weight of a Council decision comes in the form of pressure from the other Council species. Though the asari are old and strong, though the turians have an incredible fleet, though the salarians have sneaky ways to accomplish things, the fact remains that no one species can overpower the others. It's this balance of power that gives the Council its influence. Councilors are just representatives, and especially in the case of the asari do not stand for a certain government, but rather the species as a whole. It's the most illustrious post a politician could want, but it comes with proportional stresses, having to think about galactic stability for *every* decision. We may mock them for being ineffectual at times, but the Council is often more decisive than any racial government. We may not always notice, of course, as those decisions are often rendered in the form of Spectre activity.