But stable/self-constrained governments require consensus to operate. They don’t just ask politely and prefer it. Checks and balances are preserved not because

But stable/self-constrained governments require consensus to operate. They don’t just ask politely and prefer it. Checks and balances are preserved not because all the parties are interested in preserving them overall, but because they each want their own power not to be impeded. The systems that can’t achieve this balancing act fall over after a while, and this happens very frequently (99.999% of governments in history?). Nuclear MAD produces a similar equilibrium but this is stable due to specific characteristics of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems (expensive to produce; almost impossible to produce, test, or use secretly; impossible to reliably intercept). We shouldn’t bet on AI development reaching the same equilibrium.