sith and empire

I went to see Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith over the weekend. It was the best movie of the three prequels, not that that is saying a lot, and I give it a definite thumbs up. It's a decent sci-fi movie with some good political commentary as well. Lucas, although clearly a left-leaning thinker, makes some good pro-freedom statements during the movie, as he tries to show how Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader and how the Republic becomes an empire. My only problem with the way Lucas sees the transformation from republic to empire is that he portrays it as a conspiracy rather than a flaw in the institutions of the state. To Lucas, the problem is an evil man, Senator Palpatine, rather than an evil institution, the state.