Empires Are Fractal Structures of Coordinated Power

September 22, 2022

An empire, in Burja's usage, is any group of coordinated actors operating around a central power. The definition is deliberately broad: a corporation is an empire, a university is an empire, a nation-state is an empire. Empires are fractal; they contain sub-empires, which contain sub-sub-empires, all the way down.

"The tense interaction between Mid and High is the most important dynamic for understanding any empire." Samo Burja

Burja classifies actors within an empire into four power tiers:

High is the central power that defines the terms of coordination
Mid can challenge High and is the most important class to watch
Low can challenge Mid but not High
Outside is not coordinated by High at all

The tension between High and Mid drives most of the consequential politics in any organization. Mid players are powerful enough to be dangerous but not powerful enough to replace High outright; High must manage them through a shifting mixture of incentives, threats, and co-optation.

This framework explains why empires do not grow to the limits of their material capacity. The binding constraint is not resources but internal coordination cost. Top players prioritize controlling the central sub-empire over expanding the empire's reach, because losing control of the center means losing everything. Resources spent on internal power struggles, on managing the Mid-High tension, are resources unavailable for external expansion. Every empire reaches a point where maintaining internal coherence consumes all available surplus.

The four anti-High coalitions that can form map the entire space of political opposition:

Conservatives accept High's legitimacy but oppose specific policies
Coup plotters want to replace the person at the top while preserving the structure
Secessionists want to leave
Dissolutionists want to destroy the empire itself

Understanding which type of opposition an institution faces is the key to predicting its political trajectory.

Power is not a property of individuals but of the relationships between positions in a fractal hierarchy; change the structure and you change who has power.