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"This, it turns out, really harms the capacity for governments to make decisions that make everyone better off on average but might make any given small region
by EliRivers 14y ago
"This, it turns out, really harms the capacity for governments to make decisions that make everyone better off on average but might make any given small region of people unhappy (say, by building a powerplant or a garbage dump)."
Can you explain why? I don't understand this. I would have thought that, for example, given a country of 50 districts, and the decision is being made "shall we build this dump in district 1", you'll get 49 voting yes and the representative of district 1 voting no.
- textminer 14y agoBut District 1's representative is chair of a committee you need to sweet talk in two months, and is maybe a tie-breaking vote for that other thing you want.
- aptwebapps 14y agoI'm not sure that was the best example. If you're talking about NIMBYism, there's generally some sort of veto power or capacity to obstruct involved. The Congressional equivalent would be earmarks and pork. Not that we don't have quite enough of that already but the argument is that absent larger, more ideological themes and the parties' whips, it would be just about all we would have.
- saraid216 14y agoI would strongly recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Rationality-Power-Democracy-Practice-Morality/dp/0226254496 http://www.amazon.com/Rationality-Power-Democracy-Practice-M... It's a case study of power dynamics inside the city of Aalborg with respect to a specific project and shows the influences of counties, businesses, and political climate on the result. Not sure why Amazon doesn't seem to have it anymore... :(