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I heartily recommend Seeing Like a State to anyone interested in the development of the modern state, some of the largest misteps made by a slew of modernist au

I heartily recommend Seeing Like a State to anyone interested in the development of the modern state, some of the largest misteps made by a slew of modernist authoritarian regimes (such as the Soviet Union), and an introduction to some very legitimate criticisms of modernism which postmodernism makes. However, I want to caution anyone from thinking that this book says anything about Game Theory. I'm not sure why it's being recommended here, it doesn't have much to say about the current topic, except in that it often points out that authoritarian governments are free to ignore any feedback, feedback of the kind that incentive schemes are usually designed to generate.

wonder_er 6y ago
You pointed out exactly why I mentioned it: > except in that it often points out that authoritarian governments are free to ignore any feedback, feedback of the kind that incentive schemes are usually designed to generate. A view of the modern state is made more accurate if one views the state as an entity desirous to ignore feedback from citizens, rather than actively responsive to citizen opinion. Robert Caro has written amazing books. I'm half-way through this two-hour dialog titled "On Power"[0]. He says he essentially stumbled into writing The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York[1] after observing how Robert Moses (an unelected bureaucrat) completely controlled huge "democratic" institutions. I mention the books because they highlight some of the means and ways in which the state encourages it's people to think it is responsive to them, but this responsiveness is a slight of hand, even as plenty of participants in the system (both as citizens and as representatives of the state) earnestly believe that the state is responsive to public input. [0]: https://www.audible.com/pd/On-Power-Audiobook/B06XNKVH16 https://www.audible.com/pd/On-Power-Audiobook/B06XNKVH16 [1]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1111.The_Power_Broker https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1111.The_Power_Broker

wonder_er 6y ago

You pointed out exactly why I mentioned it: > except in that it often points out that authoritarian governments are free to ignore any feedback, feedback of the kind that incentive schemes are usually designed to generate. A view of the modern state is made more accurate if one views the state as an entity desirous to ignore feedback from citizens, rather than actively responsive to citizen opinion. Robert Caro has written amazing books. I'm half-way through this two-hour dialog titled "On Power"[0]. He says he essentially stumbled into writing The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York[1] after observing how Robert Moses (an unelected bureaucrat) completely controlled huge "democratic" institutions. I mention the books because they highlight some of the means and ways in which the state encourages it's people to think it is responsive to them, but this responsiveness is a slight of hand, even as plenty of participants in the system (both as citizens and as representatives of the state) earnestly believe that the state is responsive to public input. [0]: https://www.audible.com/pd/On-Power-Audiobook/B06XNKVH16 https://www.audible.com/pd/On-Power-Audiobook/B06XNKVH16 [1]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1111.The_Power_Broker https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1111.The_Power_Broker