In his speech to the Senate announcing the creation of the Empire, Palpatine states that the new order will be jointly governed by him and 'this august body' (this part of the speech wasn't in the movie). In stating this, he promised a substantial constitutional role for the Senate within the governmental structure of the Empire. This was of course all a lie, and it did not take long for him to accrue nearly all power to himself. But was this small statement crucial to the formation of the Empire? If he had said that he planned to rule alone, would the Senate still have supported him, or would the move have been more controversial, or would the Senate just have rejected him outright? The Senate did want him to continue to govern as a strong leader, but I can't see its members wanting to be denied any role in the government whatsoever. Sidious was a master bullshitter and manipulator, so I can't help but think that this statement was a carefully worded so as to assuage any concerns that the Senate might have, especially concerning those who had been critical of his ever-increasing power during his time as Chancellor, promises that of course he had no real intention of honoring.

For an extra question, was one of the reasons the Senate welcomed his enthronement because they thought that he was going to die soon, and thus wouldn't be in power for very long? I mean, he was pretty old (though his Force powers were keeping him alive), so I can see the senators reasoning that the Empire might be a temporary solution so as to provide the galaxy with some much-needed stability after the Clone Wars to allow for reconstruction, the formalizing of how the new army and navy were going to be used in the future, how the government could be kept from falling into the corruption and decadence of the pre-war era, and how the galaxy was going to transition to a Jedi-less state. They probably figured that once Palpatine died, a reformed Republic could then take over. If Palaptine had been a much younger man however, I can could see more resistance from the Senate, as the senators might think that they were going to be subservient to him for decades to come, and that the Empire could be more entrenched, more viewed as the norm by the common people, and thus a good deal more difficult to reverse some time later. What do you think?