Colonial Society/Political Structure

[bionicbob]

So I have been rewatching the series on DVD and I am scratching my head at how Twelve Colonies were structured as a society....

First off, the Colonies are thousands of yarhns old, so why do they still call themselves Colonies?

Is it a democractic system or more of feudal system? I would assume the Council of Twelve is made up of representatives of each of the 12 worlds, but are those representatives the Rulers of those worlds or just abassadors? Adama is on the Council in SAGA, so obviously he is extremely powerful person on Caprica, but was he the ruler? Or is each world comprised of individual city/states (like ancient Greece) and are aligned loosely through the Council? And are battlestars like individual deepspace castles for each ruling world or family? The reason I ask, Adama and his entire family serve on the Galactica and I am pretty certain the novelization stated the Galactica had been commanded by Adama's father previously, (and on the Pegasus Cain has his daughter Sheda serving), so would that mean Apollo would inherit the Galactica next (as in Richard Hatch's novels/Second Coming)?

Any thoughts....????

[gmd3d]

In the novel by Larson Adama father passed the Galactica on to him ..

[jewels]

The novels also talk of almost a class/trade structure clearly dividing the bureaticians from the warriors, and lean towards at least a hereditary aristocracy and definately a capitalistic society, though one that's thrown much resource into defense and military expense.