The New Order served as the official political belief system, and atheistic state-sanctioned faith, of the First Galactic Empire. It was imposed by COMPNOR, with the Grand Architect of the New Order heading up its political messaging, and was the political ideology.
Sheev Palpatine stood before the entire Galactic Senate when he proclaimed himself Emperor. He pledged that his new government would bring about a thousand years of peace by eradicating the corruption and incompetence of the previous democracy-based political structure.
In the early days of the Empire, various sub-commissions started planning the role of the "ideal" Imperial citizen within a political religion that would eventually be known as the New Order. The Empire's bureaucratic and authoritative approach attracted disillusioned young people who felt powerless and victimized. The Empire presented them with an opportunity for revenge and an alluring sense of power.
Order, control, and adherence to the rule of law were the regime's primary values. However, the Alliance to Restore the Republic, in their Declaration of Rebellion against the Imperial regime, used legal and democracy-related terms to argue that the Empire governed through systematic oppression, enforcing unfair laws without the agreement of the people. Additional values encompassed unity through civic pride, patriotism, militarism, and the state's dominance under a personality cult centered on Emperor Palpatine—fascism. Imperials justified xenophobia and humanocentrism, central to New Order policy, as a logical outcome of the supposed human right to govern.