Expert GovernmentI believe that civilisation is now too complex to be effectively managed by current forms of government. They fail principally because authority exists in a small hierarchy of generalists, i.e. they are elitist based systems. There are no people capable enough for elitist based systems of government to be effective.
My solution is a new form of government called Expert Government. The efficacy of Expert Government mainly comes from its design, much less so the attributes of the individuals in government. Expert Government is a self-organising system of many independent specialisms, each containing many specialists with equal authority. The behaviour of Expert Government is based on conformance to generic rules, rather than being orchestrated by an elite group. So its efficacy is an emergent property, rather the result of direction by an elite. It is called Expert Government because it aspires to use experts, i.e. those specialists acknowledged as the most effective in their field.
There are innumerable examples that demonstrate that civilisation is now too complex for elitist based system to be effective, but recent financial debacles are perhaps the strongest. Not only has the situation been allowed to arise by ineffective government, but it also clearly lacks the capacity to address it effectively now it has arisen.
Financial crisis
November 19th, 2011Events in Italy and Greece have resulted in a shift from systems of government based on authority granted to representatives by citizen voters, to quasi technocratic systems of experts not elected by citizen voters. This is a tacit admission that their voter-representative systems of government have failed. While the immediate causes are financial, this situation is consistent with my conjecture that many problems are rooted in increasingly complex civilisation that cannot be effectively managed by governments based on voter-representative systems of government. Other countries with such systems of government are in less extreme but nonetheless difficult positions, which is also consistent with my conjecture. It is also clear that there is a collective lack of ability to resolve this financial crisis. This is perhaps the strongest indication that my conjecture is correct. Elected politicians cannot resolve this crisis because at a fundamental level they lack the ability. While they may be advised by a range of experts, the solution evades them because they have the authority to exercise their poor judgement over the best technical advice.
It could be argued that my case is not yet proven, but I think it looks extremely strong. If we wait until conclusive evidence is in there will be a disaster. How else could these events be interpreted but as a failure of voter-representative systems of government to effectively manage increasingly complex civilisation?
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We need a new form of government
September 20th, 2011Observations:
Voter-representative systems of government are evidently not effective.
Effective government should be the primary objective of any form of government.
Civilisation is becoming progressively more complex.
Complex matters are better managed by specialists than non-specialists.
The consideration of a matter by many people is better than by fewer people.
Independent subsystems reduce total complexity relative to connected subsystems such as hierarchies.
Self-organising complex systems are more adaptable and responsive to change requirements than complex systems orchestrated centrally by a few people.
Hierarchical authority structures concentrate authority with a few people.
Authority tends to be abused.
Abuse of authority leads to non-egalitarian behaviour.
Assertions:
Voter-representative systems of government are becoming progressively less effective because they are not designed to accommodate increasingly complex civilisation.
A new form of government is required that is designed to manage increasingly complex civilisation.
Government should be by a system of many self-organising independent specialisms each employing many individual specialists but preferably experts. Authority of specialists should be non-hierarchical and limited to their specialism.
Tags: authoritarianism, complex system, corruption, design objective, dogma, escalating complexity, increasingly complex civilisation, independent, ineffective management, progressively more complex civilisation, self-organising, selfishness, social unrest, Sovereign debt, specialisms, wealth disparity
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