Some Faction Comparisons

Just thought I'd give the relative status of who's got what, social-factor-wise.

Economy: The big winner here is Morgan Industries, with +4, meaning the average wealth in the faction is Wealthy, while the max wealthy is Multimilionarie 2. It's closely followed by C^3, with +3. The Peacekeepers and Spartans both have +2 each, while the Hive has +1. Most other factions have 0, while the Cult of Planet trails the pack with -1, meaning the average member is Struggling, while the max wealth is Comfortable.
Efficiency: A three way tie for winner here, with the Data Angels, the Nautilus Pirates, and the Cult of Planet all having +3. C^3, Gaia, Morgan, and Sparta follow up with +2. Meanwhile, the Free Drones, the Peacekeepers, and the University all have +1. The Hive is fairly beaureaucratic at -2, and the Lord's Believers win the Red Tape Race with -4. Still, clearly Planet society is, overall, not very entangled in the cursed crimson tape.
Growth: The Free Drones and, oddly, the University are the leaders here, with +4 (5%/year) each. (Must be the good medtech at the University. Lowers infant mortality.) C^3 is a close seconds with +3 (3.5%/year). The Lord's Believers, the Data Angels, Morgan, the Peacekeepers, and Sparta all have +2 (3%/year). The Human Hive has +1. Gaia and the Cult of Planet are both poor performers, with -2 (1%/year), while the Nautilus Pirates have the worst record, with -3 (.5%/year).
Industry: The Hive is the big winner in the industry sweepstakes, with +4 (a 40% discount!). The Free Drones follow it up with +3. C^3 has a respectable +2, and Morgan and the University both have +1. The Data Angels and the Peacekeepers are average at 0. The religous types, the Believers and the Cult, have -1. The Nautilus Pirates and Gaia are unproductive at -2. The big loser, however, is Sparta, with -3. Clearly, not giving any rewards to the plant managers is not paying off. No wonder they teamed up with the Free Drones to beat the Hive.
Morale: Sparta, unsurprisingly, has the best morale on Planet, with +4. No poorly trained troops there. The Believers, motivated by religous fervour, follow up with +3. The Peacekeepers and Nautilus Pirates are both well trained at +2. Gaia and the Cult are decent at +1. The Data Angels, Drones, and University are all average, with 0. C^3, the Hive, and Morgan are all rather badly motivated, with an uninspiring -2.
Planet: The Cult, big surprise, is the most touchy-feely hippie faction, with +4. Gaia is a close second with +3. Following them are the Nautilus Pirates, with +2. Then there's a gap, and we get C^3, The Angels, the Drones, and the University at 0. The Believers are a little sloppy, and get -1. Then another gap, and we come to the really messy factions, the Hive, Morgan, the Peacekeepers, and Sparta, all with -3.
Police: The most restrictive society on Planet turns out to be Gaia, with +1. The Believers, C^3, the Drones, the Human Hive, the Nautilus Pirates, the Cult, and the University are all fairly Canadian in their governement standards, with 0. The Data Angels are mildy permissive, with -1. Then, we get the libertarian factions, with Morgan, the Peacekeepers, and Sparta all at -2.
Probe: The Believers are the surprise winners here, with a probe score of +3. Most of the other factions have a score of 0, while the Drones live in a house with big windows, at a -2, and the University basically resides in a glass box, with a score of -4.
Research: To no-one's surprise, the University is the big reasearch winner, with +4. C^3 and the Angels follow up with +2 apiece. The rest have 0, except for the Luddites in the Believers, who weigh in at an utterly abysmal -4. Good thing they have that high probe, otherwise they'd never find out anything at all.
Support: A four-way tie on this one, with the Believers, Gaia, the Hive, and the Cult all having scores of +3 or higher, giving them a standing army of 5% of their population. Actually, the first three all have +4, while the Cult has +3, which may affect quality of support, I dunno. Anyway, we then have a big step to the Peacekeepers, the Nautilus Piriates, and Sparta, all with 0 (3% standing army). Another step takes us to C^3, the Angels, the Drones, and the University, all with -2 (2% standing army). Finally, Morgan trails the pack, with -3, giving him a 1.5% standing force.

Issues: Primarily the Hive's low Police score. Not only does it lead to a radically different Hive, it also means that the faction will have a hard time getting in to outside conflict, due to protests from its citizens (not to mention the fact that its troops are crap).
The Police scores of both the Peacekeepers and the Spartans are also issues, because of the game's association of low Police and civic pacifism. Both factions really should be mixing it up with others, the Spartans just because and the Peacekeepers to spread the word about Love, Justice, and Freedom, so public protests don't go well with that. In the Spartan case at least, I think we should just drop that aspect of Police.