The Revision History of Democracy

[maradydd]

Apart from being one of our nation's founding documents and an eloquent call to resistance against tyranny, the Declaration of Independence happens to be a great template for how to structure a logical argument as a springboard for further action. Its form is that of a syllogism, one of the oldest methods of deductive reasoning. First it

Comments

[jodi_davis]

Genius. You. Are.

[maradydd]

Aw, I'm just assembling puzzle-pieces. Regulatory capture's been a known problem since the 1950s, and Pease, Shostak and Lamport described the Byzantine generals problem when I was three. I have to think about Byzantine attacks in a lot of the threat modeling I do in my research, so it just seemed like the natural thing to do. But thank you. :)

[jodi_davis]

Humble is so cute on you!

[morbid_curious]

It's not at all a bad lens to view governmental systems through, really. I think there are a lot of people who don't realise just why it is that the in-built checks and balances aren't sufficient in this day and age to protect the country's democratic foundations.

The initial framework may have been reasonable and workable, but over the years successive development teams have rolled out a bunch of unsecured plugins which, while they provide more useful features, are also able to compromise the rest of the system when they themselves are compromised.

...dear gods. Couched in those terms, the U.S. government sounds just like a web content management framework. And I'm dreading waking up one morning to find a "H4CK3D BY TE4P4rTY!!1" message on their front page.

[whswhs]

There is fairly strong evidence that much of the movement for regulatory agencies, back in the 19th century, was primarily driven by the desire of large business firms for effective cartelization arrangements. "Wicked big businessmen are despoiling the public; government has to protect us!" was just the sales pitch. See for example Gabriel Kolko's Railroads and Regulation, or more recently Spulber and Yoo's discussion of AT&T in their book on networks and telecommunications. That is, it's not just regulatory capture; a lot of regulatory programs are born already captive.

[darthzeth]

I've read a bunch about the Federal Reserve lately, and it followed the same path. "Protect the banks' business interests" was the real goal, but not a great sales pitch.

[maradydd]

Is The Creature from Jekyll Island on your have-read/to-read list? If not, I strongly recommend it.

[darthzeth]

Yup, it is in my possession, but I haven't finished it. I've been reading it in chunks. right now I'm on a fantasy book bender >_>

Interestingly enough, these books (The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie) include a subplot of certain banks financing politicians and wars in return for favors. So it's almost like learnin' :D

[hukuma]

The Chairman of FCC is appointed by (and serves at the pleasure of) the president, and has to be confirmed by the senate. So you can't say that there's no accountability, but clearly there isn't a sufficient amount.

I also wonder how much of the effects you speak of stem from regulatory capture, rather than from the general problem of lobbying / special interests-it's not uncommon for congress to enact laws that protect corporations against the public interest.

[links] Link salad remembers eating lamb yesterday

[pingback_bot]

User jaylake referenced to your post from [links] Link salad remembers eating lamb yesterday saying: [...] - A very strange photo from x planes. The Revision History of Democracy [...]

[whswhs]

Incidentally, your argument about the specific details of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights being fixes for the problems that the Declaration of Independence identifies strikes me as a really fascinating one that I have not seen before. Would you feel able to develop it systematically at some point? I would enjoy seeing a full length essay. In fact, I have in mind a site that could suitably carry it and might well be interested; e-mail me if you'd like details.

[darthzeth]

The Constitution made a lot more sense to me when viewed in it's historical context as trying to fix specific abuses during it's time. It also tries to fix problems with the Articles of Confederation, as well.

[maradydd]

The conversation that you and kenshi are having below, and the review you cited, make me think that I really need to read the books he's talking about before writing such an article, for context if nothing else. But yes, I'd certainly be interested in doing so. Email en route.