Recently on the Metashow, an interesting question was raised: The Mittani asked why other alliances are half-assing industry. I argue that alliances, and to a degree coalitions, are organized on a spectrum of authority. In federations, there is usually a single powerful centralized command structure through which policy and organization can flow through. In confederations, the leadership usually rules through suggestions and non-binding guidelines. Over time, the harsh rules of nullsec will move alliances which operate as confederations to either centralize, disband, or ally with a more powerful federation. When confederations start centralizing, suggestions start becoming binding rules. The last barrier to centralization is usually industry, which is uniquely difficult to organize. To consolidate industry, it usually takes the empowerment of industrial minded people (who are often not respected as much as military minded) where they will have great authority to organize industry in an alliance wide scale. This is met with great resistance from industrial corps.This I fear is short sighted. Alliances can use their huge pools of resources to create a more profitable environment for all industrial players. A head industrial guy can reduce inefficiencies in production and mass produce what the alliance needs. This matters greatly in matters of warfare as the metagame shifts towards supercapitals dominating the battlefield, and player-owned structures becoming more important.Without the empowerment of an industrial core, alliances will lack a super fleet. Only through a great concentration of effort can alliances create titans and Keepstars.
Confederations
Confederations are the norm in Eve. These are simply alliances that operate with a very loose command structure, whose leaders usually limit their authority to concerns of diplomacy and war. Alliance leaders are usually swamped with the day-to-day tasks of the alliance. There is simply not enough hours in a day for them to take up organising the industrial efforts of an Alliance. Consequently, more mundane tasks such as industry are be left to individual corps and players. Alliance leaders in confederations are more often than not fleet commanders (FCs) and diplomats; they usually think more about fleet composition than industrial issues. The result is usually like Prussia, where the military has a state rather than the state has a military. In this system, industry is carried out by the Eve equivalent of skilled artisans working together in hidden cloisters, who jealously guard their trade secrets and use armies of alts to help with production. Well-meaning members who wish to contribute and aid in an alliance-wide production are left out of the loop.
I have had the opportunity of being inside alliance that has had this discussion. Picking through long-dead alliance forums, I can see the pattern repeated over and over again. Whenever posters brought up the idea of an alliance-wide industrial effort, leaders dismissed it with platitudes such as “I don’t have the time” or “We just have to get better at the way we are doing it,” followed by industrial corps and those benefiting from the status-quo blasting the OP for daring to suggest they are doing anything but a stellar job.” Before we can continue with this discussion its important to define what a technocrat means. This word will appear throughout this article. A technocrat is a person who has high competence in a specific field and given wide ranging powers to regulate the field for example the head of the United States Department of Energy was a nuclear physicist by the name of Ernest Moniz.
In order for an alliance to have a consolidated industrial effort, the leaders must delegate authority to organize industrial matters to a small class of technocrats. These individuals could use alliance generated income to create a reward structures using macroeconomic techniques to mass produce any asset the alliance requires. Here lies the problem: Eve leaders (for good reasons) are mistrustful towards any ideas or acts that gives power to a bureaucrat. Every time a bureaucrat is empowered, alliances risk the possibility of leaks or stolen assets. No one wants an insider to potentially cripple an alliance. It takes a lot of time and effort to create a proper bureaucracy that can successfully organize industry on such a scale that can be competitive or conduct market PvP. Confederations usually designate a few industry-minded corporations to handle the industrial concern. They may have one corp dedicated to building titans while another corp focus on sub caps. Secondly, people hate bureaucracy, and Eve players have a pathological hatred towards it; many Eve cultures consider taking the game seriously (to the point of forming bureaucracies) to be lame. Players often don’t respect leaders who are diplomats, often brushing them aside as mere pencil pushers, while FCs are seen as the proud heroes of the alliance, heroically protecting them from enemies within and without.
No alliance operates exactly as discussed above, but alliances do exist on a spectrum. Some are more confederated than others. This organization-light approach usually keeps leaders focused on war efforts, leaving players to produce for themselves. You can generally tell if your alliance operates like this if you can’t point to a person who directs the industrial efforts.
Federations
Federations are the exception. Federations can only exist if a single political leader accumulates enough trust and power to both delegate responsibility and dictate, leading to a command structure that more resembles When I think of federations, I think of the Imperium and its astounding rankings in the Monthly Economic Reports. Federation leaders are political in nature, having the final say over alliance-wide matters. The delegation of specific roles and responsibilities, when properly managed, leads to a functioning bureaucracy filled with experts in their fields as opposed to loosely organised groups within the alliance vaguely working in the background. In short, a higher level of organization and bureaucracy helps carry the load of responsibility. All alliances who wish to be economically competitive have to drift towards this direction in the end. The absolute advantage of supercaps will leave any sov-holding entity homeless. A confederation can only survive with the protection of a more powerful federation or by modernizing into one.
The slow crawl to the Federation.
Space Darwinism rules null. The powerful feast on the weak. If your alliance pretends otherwise and remains a loose cluster of space tribes, they will never compete against the highly organized. An alliance that does not compete economically can never produce a competitive capital fleet. Space democracy does not work in Eve.
This is a statement about democracy in the real world, but it is true under the mechanics of Eve Online. The vast power vested upon alliance leaders need to recognize this and stop resisting their mantle. The industrial revolution in the United States forced the creations of administrative agencies. The competence necessary to legislate effectively the economy was long ago designated to technocratic agency heads. Yeoman farmers may have been all that was required for the American revolution, but the industrialized slaughter of Verdun required massive concentrations of industry. Alliances which only exist in lowsec may never need to face this issue, but once they reach nullsec, they will always be overwhelmed by older neighbors. Technocrats who can focus on market PvP can reap untold riches for their alliance. An industrial agent with knowledge in economics can focus the alliance on capital production. Believe you me, there are legions of nerds fascinated by economics. They exist in every alliance, and are willing and waiting to help in this effort. It is up to the alliance to empower these individuals. Alliances should not be afraid to create a financial team.
Modernization and the Reign of the Czars
How does an alliance federate? Due to the nature of Eve organisations, this can only be done from the top down. Alliance leaders need to rethink how they approach managing an alliance by appointing czars that have the same authority as FCs. These technocrats need to empower deputies that they can plan and organize with. The alliance leader needs to look more at the broad picture and delegate responsibility to competent individuals where the leader sets our clear goals. Leaders should stop resisting the temptation to use their authority. Corporations need to be brought into the fold and shown that, like in fleet PvP, working together can be more profitable. Existing corps which are great at industrial efforts should be seen as ample pools of talented individuals that can be promoted into these ranks. If your Alliance is still small, you hopefully with very little political cost can start centralizing.
I’m not suggesting concentrations of power can’t be done poorly or come at no cost. Any time the shift becomes more centralized, the risk of losing corp identity diminishes. A careful leader will balance the shift not making it to heavy handed. Similar a reckless leader would attempt to compete against an industrial juggernaut who can trade out produce supers.
Conclusion
In summary, the best answer I can come up with of why the Imperium dominate in economics is that it has created an organizational structure. This structure empowers individuals who organize the economy. Many alliances are struggling with this question on how to compete. They tend to do what worked when they were allied with more powerful federations. This has lead to months of head scratching and frustration.
Thank you for reading I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. I could rant on but I believe I have left enough for a discussion.
