I would turn to the dark side based on the principle that the current government system is an absolute joke. Seriously take a minute and think about it, you have a government based on what seems to be hundreds if not thousands of planets, yet we see no real army or force to enact the laws of this government. This is where the biggest problem pops up, someone comes along with any sized army and just wreaks havoc, like the Trade Federation. And the government is 1) Unable to stop them and 2) Completely ineffectual in even investigating the mater. Seriously they send two jedi to look into the matter, and even the trade federation knows that the current government is such bs that they would kill the jedi and be like what jedi? we didn't see any jedi. And even when the Jedi get back and report on the whole damn matter you'd think the government would be like uhh trade federation you tried to kill our investigators and you're actually doing acts of aggression, we're going to have to put a stop to you. But no, they have to investigate the matter further.
Hell we've seen cloud city under the Imperial empire, it doesn't seem like people are suffering, it seems to be that the Empire is actually working as well or even better than the previous gov't. Sure there is a power hungry dictator at the helm who sprouts anti rebel propaganda, but they actually did some good. Technology (at least in the books) went pretty damn far, people are still prospering, there is an actual enforcement of law. I mean yea sure a dictator is at the helm but he is just power hungry, it isn't like he is taxing the people into starvation or performing acts of genocide (lets ignore that one planet going boom).
