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What is your opinion of the administratum? Is it doing it's job well enough? Would the Imperium benefit if the organization went up in flames?

The official variant ( to be copied and stored ):

...the Administratum is order itself, it organizes us well and we happily fill any form they request....

the sad truth:

... these bureacrats have lost more worlds than any enemy of mankind could conquer! They are dangerous! Stop them now!....

The Imperium needs it...
It isn't a good system but stopping it would be impossible.
It could be worse...

I love the Administratum. Can't imagine 40k without it. The IoM is run by Vogons.

Without it, the Imperium would crumble.

It isn't inconceivable some strong-willed and competent individual couldn't introduce sweeping reforms to make it more efficient. That's the best humanity can hope for.

There really hasn't been a charismatic and dynamic Imperial political leader since Malcador, imo. That is one of the reasons the bureaucracy has deteriorated as far as it has.

Harriticus wrote:There really hasn't been a charismatic and dynamic Imperial political leader since Malcador, imo. That is one of the reasons the bureaucracy has deteriorated as far as it has.

That's a good point.

Malcador was so intelligent and was such a great political leader that no one could fill in the gap after his death.


I suppose the Administratum could be improved. We could definitely not make it a perfect organisation, but we can make it a bit better, I guess.

For instance, AFAIK, it took centuries for these guys to notice that Huron was not paying his taxes any more! How could they be worse than that?

We should send the evil minions from HM Revenue&Customs to the Administratum, because I can tell you that these guys are REALLY good at collecting our taxes!

They had that planet that just dropped off the radar and when they found it and came to take their tithes the planet rebelled.
Admittedly this did give rise to the Land Raider Redeemer so it's not all bad but still...

It's hilarious in a grimdark way that the Imperial bureaucracy managed to miss a whole military taskforce being slaughtered by Daemons, then task them with leading the invasion on another planet and declaring them heretics when this task force didn't obey to the order, being sentenced to death posthumously.

In the grim dark future of the 41st millenium there is only paperwork...and apparently it never gets done.

Whole planets going missing might be the funniest thing in 40k.

They are buried in work, that explains hiw they lost a system or two every few days...
But they play very important rule in not just Imperium but Humanity as a whole. Imagine all those Guardsman without their salary.

Brother Coa wrote: Imagine all those Guardsman without their salary.

Isn't it done by the Munitorum? And not the Administratum?

Laodamia wrote:

Brother Coa wrote: Imagine all those Guardsman without their salary.

Isn't it done by the Munitorum? And not the Administratum?

Munitorius provides the ammunition and equipment,
Administratum gives the salary.

"The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy."

I guess it gets the job done...slowly...but if you had to manage an entire galaxy with the warp messing around with all your messages, what would you do?

Witzkatz wrote:It's hilarious in a grimdark way that the Imperial bureaucracy managed to miss a whole military taskforce being slaughtered by Daemons, then task them with leading the invasion on another planet and declaring them heretics when this task force didn't obey to the order, being sentenced to death posthumously.

When did that happen?

with the bureaucracy keeping track of 'untold billions' of people, it's no wonder things get bogged down. Here in the states, dead people somehow wind up voting every election because their information is lost in the shuffle and manipulated. Now multiply that by about a trillion and whole worlds going missing isn't that crazy.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:

Witzkatz wrote:It's hilarious in a grimdark way that the Imperial bureaucracy managed to miss a whole military taskforce being slaughtered by Daemons, then task them with leading the invasion on another planet and declaring them heretics when this task force didn't obey to the order, being sentenced to death posthumously.

When did that happen?

IG Codex...
In the important events/timeline bit.

Let's face it, they've got a lot to do and in such a chaotic universe all that bureaucracy is downright necessary to maintain any level of order. If the Administratum's system were used here in the States I'm sure things would actually be greatly improved.

Brother Coa wrote:

Laodamia wrote:

Brother Coa wrote: Imagine all those Guardsman without their salary.

Isn't it done by the Munitorum? And not the Administratum?

Munitorius provides the ammunition and equipment,
Administratum gives the salary.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. The IG gets paid? I figured with was some kind of indentured servitude and if you lived through your deployment, maybe you got to go home.

Lonecoon wrote:

Brother Coa wrote:

Laodamia wrote:

Brother Coa wrote: Imagine all those Guardsman without their salary.

Isn't it done by the Munitorum? And not the Administratum?

Munitorius provides the ammunition and equipment,
Administratum gives the salary.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. The IG gets paid? I figured with was some kind of indentured servitude and if you lived through your deployment, maybe you got to go home.

You get paid, but you don't get to go home.

It's a necessary evil, unfortunately. It sucks, and I honestly find the Administratum one of the most grimdark things in all of 40k. The idea that the whole of the galaxy is ruled, not by a leader, but by a faceless, slowly grinding bureaucracy? =Shudders=

THat being said, without one charismatic leader like the Emperor...you need the bureaucrats to run things.

The best and most disturbing thing in Eisenhorn is when they have to infiltrate the Administratum. Very scary! - and Orwellian.

Actualy its one of the best parts of 40k history, men runing thousand of worlds, taxes military e.t.c.. while in the mists afecting thousands of lifes, a single mistake and bilion of lifes get lost just like that.

This is just the cheer size of the imperium, where whole planets get lost ;D

Owain wrote:Let's face it, they've got a lot to do and in such a chaotic universe all that bureaucracy is downright necessary to maintain any level of order. If the Administratum's system were used here in the States I'm sure things would actually be greatly improved.

You have got to be freaking kidding me.

FourCartridge wrote:

Owain wrote:Let's face it, they've got a lot to do and in such a chaotic universe all that bureaucracy is downright necessary to maintain any level of order. If the Administratum's system were used here in the States I'm sure things would actually be greatly improved.

You have got to be freaking kidding me.

IoM with out the Administratum would be sort of like Orkoids that do not go looking for fights. Fragmented and pointless sitting ducks. Without strong AI I highly doubt anything resembling efficiency is even possible over the scale of space-time that IoM encompasses.

Administratum better States' system? That is highly dependant on what your definition of improvement or efficiency is. Two immediate efficiency differences I would image though. First, there would be many fewer currency units dedicated to super-safe-investments that inevitability result in massive rent-seeking-activity pressure. Second, the Administratum would not tolerate any form of outsourcing to any non-Imperial entity.

Were it not flooded with multiple planets' worth of data and often with hive-level population density, the adepts of the Administratum would out-administrate any bureaucracy in human history.

Like most things in the imperium the administratum is meant to be a parody of humity's beauracratic tendencies not a paragon of it.

Hmm 40k is a universe where things are turned up to 11. Warfare up to 11, guns up to 11, tanks up to 11; so maybe the Administratum takes pencil-pushing up to 11. They might be most extreme, hardcore bureacrats out there.

They take beauracracey to 11 and then some.