Where are all the democracies?
“In third world countries,” stated one professor on a PBS special this morning, “democracy is often the cause of extreme outbreaks of violence.” One does not need to look very hard to understand where this professor is coming from. Many seemingly democratic states in the world are fraught with violence before, during, and after elections. In response to the violence, political commentators often say that the society in question just was not ready for the responsibilities a democracy places on the population.
In EVE Online, there are few player-run democratic institutions (aside from the few Gallente role-players out there). I understand the near daily conflict in EVE leans corporations towards dictatorships and military modeled institutions (something I view as naive that I’ll touch upon later), but the lack strikes me as odd. A decent amount of players in New Eden live in societies that embrace democratic ideals, transition power relatively peacefully, maintain effective and powerful militaries, and have some form of separation between military and civil affairs. So why aren’t there more democratic governments controlling corporations in EVE?
