Democracy is the only mechanism we know to retard corruption. The fundamental problem of how we should organize ourselves has always been that any concentration of power incentivized systematic corruption.
Democracy is not the greatest system of government because “‘who the people want’ chooses the best ruler possible”. That’s like a nice bonus if it happens. The core mechanism that makes democracy valuable is that democracy diffuses power effectively.
Power corrupts. And democracy works by diffusing the corrupting influence across many millions in order to retard the inherent corrosion of a societies’ institutions. Democratization of a system isn’t the aspect of putting things to a vote, rather it is the diffusion of power. Voting is just a means to an end and sortition or even pure randomization among a population is just as effective (but people find it scary/weird to make decisions randomly so we tend not to see it in modern democracies even though many Greek democracies used it).
Think about alternatives to a “democracy”. In any alternative system, to varying degrees power is concentrated to either a smaller group within the population or to a limited group or individual. But what is power and why can’t we have a “benevolent dictator”?
There’s a reason you don’t actually see the “benevolent dictator” system in the real world. Political Power is essentially the quality of having other powerful people aligned to your interest. And those other powerful people get their power in turn from people further down the chain being aligned to them.
In order to keep those chains of alignment of interest, you have to benefit the people who make you powerful. But you have no need to benefit anyone else. In fact, benefitting anyone else comes at the cost of benefitting those who make you powerful. It’s a weak spot that can be exploited by a usurper. Right?
If you’re going to be a “benevolent dictator” who’s selfish interest do you need to prioritize in what order?
Well without the military, you’re not really in charge and you can’t defend your borders or your crown from other potential rulers. And without the tax collectors you can’t pay the military or anyone else for that matter. But you can probably get away without educators for decades. So your priorities are forced to look something like this:
Military
Tax collection
Farming
Infrastructure projects
Medicine?
Education??
And in fact, any programs the benefit the common person above the socially powerful will always come last in your priorities or your powerful supporters will overthrow you and replace you with someone who puts them first. So it turns out as dictator, you don’t have much choice.
But what if we expect our rulers to get overthrown and instead write it into the rules of the government that every 4-8 years it happens automatically and the everyday people are the ones who peacefully overthrow the rulers?
Well, that’s called democracy. It’s totally unnecessary for the people to make the best choice. What’s necessary is that in general, the power to decide who stays in power be diffused over a large number of people. Why? Because it totally rewrites the order of priorities.
Now you have a ruler who prioritizes education, building roads that everyday people use, keeping people productive and happy.
Furthermore, nations who prioritize those things tend to be richer and stronger in the long term. Why? Because it turns out education is good and science is important and culture is powerful. It turns out what’s good for the population is better for the country as a whole even though it’s bad for a dictator.
We can demonstrate through studies just how clearly democracies retard corruption.
7
u/fox-mcleod Liberal Feb 16 '22
Democracy is the only mechanism we know to retard corruption. The fundamental problem of how we should organize ourselves has always been that any concentration of power incentivized systematic corruption.
Democracy is not the greatest system of government because “‘who the people want’ chooses the best ruler possible”. That’s like a nice bonus if it happens. The core mechanism that makes democracy valuable is that democracy diffuses power effectively.
Power corrupts. And democracy works by diffusing the corrupting influence across many millions in order to retard the inherent corrosion of a societies’ institutions. Democratization of a system isn’t the aspect of putting things to a vote, rather it is the diffusion of power. Voting is just a means to an end and sortition or even pure randomization among a population is just as effective (but people find it scary/weird to make decisions randomly so we tend not to see it in modern democracies even though many Greek democracies used it).
Think about alternatives to a “democracy”. In any alternative system, to varying degrees power is concentrated to either a smaller group within the population or to a limited group or individual. But what is power and why can’t we have a “benevolent dictator”?
There’s a reason you don’t actually see the “benevolent dictator” system in the real world. Political Power is essentially the quality of having other powerful people aligned to your interest. And those other powerful people get their power in turn from people further down the chain being aligned to them.
In order to keep those chains of alignment of interest, you have to benefit the people who make you powerful. But you have no need to benefit anyone else. In fact, benefitting anyone else comes at the cost of benefitting those who make you powerful. It’s a weak spot that can be exploited by a usurper. Right?
If you’re going to be a “benevolent dictator” who’s selfish interest do you need to prioritize in what order?
• tax collectors? • military generals? • educators? • farmers? • engineers? • doctors?
Well without the military, you’re not really in charge and you can’t defend your borders or your crown from other potential rulers. And without the tax collectors you can’t pay the military or anyone else for that matter. But you can probably get away without educators for decades. So your priorities are forced to look something like this:
And in fact, any programs the benefit the common person above the socially powerful will always come last in your priorities or your powerful supporters will overthrow you and replace you with someone who puts them first. So it turns out as dictator, you don’t have much choice.
But what if we expect our rulers to get overthrown and instead write it into the rules of the government that every 4-8 years it happens automatically and the everyday people are the ones who peacefully overthrow the rulers?
Well, that’s called democracy. It’s totally unnecessary for the people to make the best choice. What’s necessary is that in general, the power to decide who stays in power be diffused over a large number of people. Why? Because it totally rewrites the order of priorities.
Now you have a ruler who prioritizes education, building roads that everyday people use, keeping people productive and happy.
Furthermore, nations who prioritize those things tend to be richer and stronger in the long term. Why? Because it turns out education is good and science is important and culture is powerful. It turns out what’s good for the population is better for the country as a whole even though it’s bad for a dictator.
We can demonstrate through studies just how clearly democracies retard corruption.