Dictator’s Handbook sees everyone as just following their incentives. Moloch is very strong in organizations closer to the dictatorship end of the spectrum, and relatively weak in organizations close to the democracy end of the spectrum.
I think this is either using a version of ‘Moloch’ that’s too specific, or is ignoring what’s bad about democracies. Moloch in democracies looks like politicians who give voters what they think they want, instead of what they ‘actually’ want, or who drive turnout mostly by demonizing the opposition rather than credibly promising to improve things.
I agree, and worded myself carefully to avoid going into that too much:
and relatively weak in organizations close to the democracy end of the spectrum.
IE, relative to dictatorships.
In the big picture, democracies are way, way better than dictatorships. This doesn’t stop democracies from being pretty crappy in a lot of easily identifiable ways.
A problem we currently have is that we don’t have a very good picture, at present, of what we could aspire to that’s better than democracies.
Futarchy is a start, but it’s rather untested, and there are some plausible problems with it.
I think this is either using a version of ‘Moloch’ that’s too specific, or is ignoring what’s bad about democracies. Moloch in democracies looks like politicians who give voters what they think they want, instead of what they ‘actually’ want, or who drive turnout mostly by demonizing the opposition rather than credibly promising to improve things.
I agree, and worded myself carefully to avoid going into that too much:
IE, relative to dictatorships.
In the big picture, democracies are way, way better than dictatorships. This doesn’t stop democracies from being pretty crappy in a lot of easily identifiable ways.
A problem we currently have is that we don’t have a very good picture, at present, of what we could aspire to that’s better than democracies.
Futarchy is a start, but it’s rather untested, and there are some plausible problems with it.