SpaceX, the East India Company, and the political economy of space

Abstract

Private corporations and state-owned enterprises are becoming increasingly important vehicles through which nations project power into space. This paper argues that the emerging political economy of space displays institutional dynamics reminiscent of an earlier era of frontier expansion: the Age of Sail dominated by the European East India Companies. Drawing on original data on the concentration of global launch capacity and on the historical record of chartered-company governance, we show how frontier firms can accumulate concentrated market power, exploit legal ambiguity, blur the boundary between public and private authority, and gradually acquire governance-like functions in domains beyond effective sovereign reach. Using Susan Strange’s framework of structural power, we explain why geopolitical competition generates incentives for regulatory forbearance, as states become increasingly dependent on their national champions. The historical record suggests that once dependence on a dominant provider becomes entrenched, governance reform tends to occur only after crises, coming at high costs. We conclude by outlining policy implications for the governance of the emerging space economy.