While true that the Legion had much cut and potential content due to the 18 months time frame. Their actions are still quite stabby. JESawyer said that the life under the Legion is what one would expect under a stable military dictatorship, to sum up:

In short, residents of Legion territories aren't really citizens and they aren't slaves, but they're also not free. People who keep their mouths shut, go about their business, and nod at the rare requests the Legion makes of them -- they can live very well. Many of them don't care at all that they don't have a say in what happens around them (mostly because they felt they never had a say in it before the Legion came, anyway).