> How do we prevent (4) • By ensuring there is always an opposing power. • By maintaining democracy, by which I mean the tenet of electing governments from th

> How do we prevent (4) • By ensuring there is always an opposing power. • By maintaining democracy, by which I mean the tenet of electing governments from the citizenry as well as by the citizenry, and specifically rather than any of the oligarchical forms. • By maintaining the rule of law. The consequences being, if all encryption is backdoored, then any encryption used by politicians is by definition eavesdroppable by their opponents and enemies. Since all politicians thrive in a web of mendacity and confidences, they have a strong incentive for strong encryption, and will eventually terminate/abandon legislation that weakens it. Any politician that threatens otherwise is therefore a) grandstanding, and/or b) using the issue to leverage/negotiate something else. Corollaries: • Any government seriously implementing such a plan is operating as an oligarchy rather than a democracy, and will have plans to defend themselves from the surveillance imposed on the citizens. • The first instinct of every would-be oligarch is to undermine the machinery of democracy and compromise the rule of law. c.f. Utopia (Australia, 2014) Season 4 Episode 4 "Mission Creeps", and probably at least one Jim Hacker moment.