When we talk about Citizenship we are specifically talking about who can vote and what, if any, benefits should people receive for being a citizen? The idea of citizenship, i have found, is a very controversial topic amongst eve players. It is odd how in the real world not many people would bat an eye to the idea of only citizens having the right to vote however in Eve the idea seems repulsive to many.
People have told me that the idea of citizenship is primarily wrong because it splits society into those who posses citizenship status and those without it, this causes a social divide to occur which could break down social cohesion in an alliance, something obviously people want to avoid. However this social divide already exists amongst many alliances. In most nullsec alliances it is standard practice to treat members who have been around longer with more respect, this could be through soft discrimination such as trolling a newer member on ts3/mumble or it could be through hard discrimination such as not allowing members SRP until they have been a part of the alliance/corp for a month or more. It may seem unreasonable to demand a member to be a part of an alliance for 3 months before having the right to vote however is it really? In most nullsec corporations a new member will not get roles until they are in that corporation for at least 3 months (exceptions do exist), this is because roles are a form of trust, with roles (even the basic ones) players have the ability to cause harm to the corporation. This is no different from voting though, where people’s vote massively effects the alliance due to the fact that each vote really does matter when the group is comprised of 100 people (for example).
In most countries in the real world you have to complete several prerequisites before you can apply for citizenship. Amongst these are living in the country for X amount of time, passing a test proving your understanding of the country’s values and history, and not getting in trouble with the law (much). We can apply this to eve by saying that someone has to be a part of a corporation for 1-3 months, pass a short test on the values and history of the alliance and having a clean API key. As discussed above, the idea of people having to wait to get a say in leadership of an alliance is nothing new and so in democracy the idea of members having to wait to get a vote should not be a controversial matter. The test is something i can see many people being concerned about. When i first started Eve i joined an academy for a nullsec corporation and before i could graduate to the main corporation i had to pass a short test that proved i knew the basics of eve, the values of the main corporation and the history of the corporation. I did have to spend a few hours learning about all these things however when i passed the test it made me more heavily invested in the main corporation as i felt i had earned a place there and it made me more invested in that corporation then i ever would of been if i had simply joined it. The most obvious argument against a test as being a prerequisite for citizenship is the simple fact that Eve is a game and no-one likes doing tests so why would people want to do one in Eve? You’ll struggle to find many people who enjoy structure bashing yet people still do so, why? Because it helps the alliance, you are giving up some of your time in order to further the cause of the alliance and while structure grinding can be boring, a little bit of it does help invest pilots into the alliance. The same can be said for Eve, yes taking a short test is boring but it will undoubtedly help commit people to the alliance which would help keep social cohesion, improve participation rates and lower turnover.
So if people are going to go through the effort of a short test and sticking around with the alliance for a couple of months, they should get some reward, or should they? Aside from the right to vote, it may not necessarily be an awful idea for alliances to only offer SRP to citizens. This may scare people as it sounds like discrimination and you’re right, it is discrimination however as Eve alliances/blocs becomes increasingly smaller we’re going to see alliances unable to fund SRP in the manner they do now. Most of an alliance’s isk comes from either renting (not feasible in a fully fragmented nullsec) or moons which provide surprisingly little isk when compared to renting. It thus makes sense for alliances to want to channel the limited funds they have for SRP into those members who are most committed to the alliance. Another potential reward for being a citizen would be prioritising cap programs (putting members in capitals, funded by the alliance) for citizens. The same argument we used for SRP, that citizens are more invested in the alliance, can be used for this too.
The potential effects of spies can have on a democracy really cannot be understated. In a dictatorship you limit the potential affects spies can have as the power is in the hands of the few however in a democracy the power truly is in the hands of the people/masses. This means that the alliance is more open to spy sabotage, especially in a republic or a representative system. It is very hard to limit the potential affects of spies even in dictatorships as we’ve seen countless times in the past with alliance disbands, huge thefts and sensitive information leeks. However Citizenship may be able to provide a potential partial safeguard against spies. If we make people go through a series of trials in order to gain citizenship then we weed out the lazy spies. If we make citizenship a little tougher by adding on a personal chat with the CEO a pre-requisite then we may also be able to weed out the spies who have issues disguising their true intentions. Ultimately there will never be a sure way to prevent spies from infiltrating your ranks and even the best of entities (PL) are aware, and suffer, from this however Citizenship could potentially provide a small safeguard and ‘level the playing field’ in the democracy vs. dictatorship debate in regards to security.
In conclusion i think Citizenship could be a wonderful tool for potential democracies in Eve to utilise in they apply it in the right way and adjust it over time to the will of the people. Being a citizen in an alliance would undoubtedly make you more invested in the alliance and if players are more invested in an alliance then the alliance will undoubtedly be stronger.
