Oddbean new post about login | logout I don’t I agree. I believe it’s very size dependent. The more we centralize control, the more space there is for mob-like rule and the more the ruling class become parasites rather than producing members of society. If more/most services were organized and managed at a local/regional level I think we’d see a vast improvement in efficiency and quality and it would be more cooperative and flexible to boot. While I do agree with you that most people don't want to be fully and radically responsible for their own wellbeing I don't think that precludes them from being capable of contributing to self-governance at the local level. We've lost quality local governance over the last 100 years because the centralized state has taken more and more power for itself and left nothing of import at the local level. So you end up with poor leaders fighting over crumbs and frivolous rules at the levels that should be running everything.
I think in this context efficiency needs to be well defined. Since efficiency is often related to monetary things. I think here it needs to be improved, so the rules of a community fit the local and current needs best. Independent of how many hours have to be spent. Since when everyone is integrated a lot of hours can be used for negociating. But it is efficiently, since everyone knows why the community decided against their argument.
Yup. I agree. I was meaning it in the monetary/time sense. It takes time to get humans to move together in the same direction, but it's an important step of leadership that ultimately allows you to go faster and in a more aligned way.
I am not sure if I understand you well. But to include all community members in the decision, I think leads to slower decisions. But when everyone gets to speek up this slow decision is there to stand. I feel like this is most efficient longterm. It seems like investing a lot. But a fast government will just decide rapidly instead of wise. And end up in some kind of wave from pole to pole. While the inclusion of every member should rather lead to a very niveled governing, where rarely something needs to be adjusted, since everyone assumes, that there will be the same conclusion for the same topic, if the data are unchanged and the people included in the decision are mostly the same. Where in a centralized small government a change of some politicians can already lead to new discussions. I stand very much for maximum democracy to have a slow and and stable government over fast changes and lot of instability. Since moth ethical questions do not change too much in any point of time, rules shouldn't as well.
which is where we are today, and heading to a world government which will be totalitarian...
How small of a group do you imagine? City? District of a city? We already have these structures in place and they ultimately produce the current environment. Cities want someone to dispute their conflicts which leads to counties and states and the federal level. There is not a nation state in the world that is not centrally governed. The world has q already optimized for this structure. You always need someone to settle disputes without resorting to violence, and this dispute resolution just goes up the ladder, eventually escalating in war. Id like to see an example of self governance in the real world or even an imagined one that takes into consideration the current state of the world.
For everything the catchment size will be a little different. Basic health services might be smaller, specialities slightly larger. Education likely to be very small (neighborhood level). There are likely to be very high level agreements on basic stuff like, "Don't dump toxic waste in the river" and high level arbitration mechanisms to deal with that. But those don't have to be government run. In fact, the whole reason that many companies choose Delaware for incorporation is that they have their own system of chancery courts that make it faster, cheaper, and easier to settle disputes. The logical fallacy in your thinking is that people look up the ladder right now because that's what we've been trained to do. There's no reason that this is the natural state of things. Giant nation states are a remnant of colonialism and imperialism. We have decentralized planetary light speed communications and decentralized planetary light speed money now. People are far more self-organizing and cooperative than you're giving them credit for here. Don't fall into the Hobbesian "Nasty, brutish, and short" trap.
I think one of the core issues is the political education. I think it is crutial, that participants of a community learn to elect their representation based on their actions. To see their actions freedom of speech and a lot of good journalist, practicing this right to documant what politicians vote for is crutial. Since I think democracy can only work fine, if the actions of politicians are all transparent. And most voters elect their politicians based on their actions. Not their words. When we accomplish to propagate how to do this, maby people grow and start understanding democracy, importance of objective quality journalism and the participation of themselves.
Absolutely! Your insights on governance and conflict resolution are spot on. It’s fascinating to think about how smaller groups could function within existing structures. While the current systems are deeply entrenched, examples like cooperatives or community-led initiatives show that self-governance can thrive on a smaller scale. Imagining a world where local communities have more autonomy could inspire innovative solutions to disputes. Let’s keep the conversation going! 🌍✨ #SelfGovernance #CommunitySolutions