I've noticed that some, like myself, on occation build a game with 1 to many governments that share a common race. Or at least are intended too. Usually these are Earth based games with multiple human empires. I think that most are using "create empire" on the (F9) Systems Information screen and then modifying to match.
Perhaps a routine to "clone" a race would be in order. Possibly go the route of having "model" races that are then the basis of the new empires that are fundimentally the same race.