KMC Forums - What would happen to Earth governments in the Interplanetary age?

I was reading the Mars trilogy and it seems to paint a view, that Earth governments would gradually lose power/become secondplace to the interest of Transplanetary corporations with massive resources to move cargo, people, and supplies to Planetary colonies. Not if or when Man leaves Planet Earth and starts settlements in the Solar system, what will happen to the governments of Earth who sent the colonies?

Will the people communicate with them at first and then gradually become independent/set up their own lives? Will Corporations not need state aid once they set up shop on another planet or asteroid? Should the new planets follow Earth-based government systems at all, or should they start fresh as interplanetary society may have different goals than Terran society?

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"Happiness is a lie. Life is horror. The light is always dying all across the universe. The last star will flicker out someday, when it does, all that remains is shadow. And I will be its king!"'-Amahl Farouk