The failure mode of having a lot of veto-holders is that nothing ever gets done. Which is fine if you are happy with the default state of affairs, but not so fine if you prefer not to run your state on the default budget of zero.
There are some international organizations heavily reliant on veto powers, the EU and the UN Security Council come to mind, and to a lesser degree NATO (as far as the admission of new members in concerned).
None of these are unmitigated success stories. From my understanding, getting stuff done in the EU means bribing or threatening every state who does not particularly benefit from whatever you want to do.
Likewise, getting Turkey to allow Sweden to join NATO was kind of difficult, from what I remember. Not very surprisingly, if you have to get 30 factions to agree on something, one will be likely to object for good or bad reasons.
The UN Security Council with its five veto-bearing permanent members does not even make a pretense at democratic legitimation. The three states with the biggest nuclear arsenals, plus two nuclear countries which used to be colonial powers. The nicest thing one can say about that arrangement is that it failed to start WW III, and in a few cases passed a resolution against some war criminal who did not have the backing of any of the veto powers.
I think veto powers as part of a system of checks and balances are good in moderation, but add to many of them and you end up with a stalemate.
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I also do not think that the civil war could have been prevented by stacking the deck even more in favor of the South. Sooner or later the industrial economy in the North would have overtaken the slave economy in the South. At best, the North might have seceded in disgust, resulting in the South on track to become some rural backwater.
The nicest thing one can say about that arrangement is that it failed to start WW III
You say this like it’s some kind of grudging acknowledgement, but it’s actually the entire point of the structure and a Big F’n Deal. Recall that there was less than 25 years between WW1 and WW2. It’s been almost 80 years without WW3, despite high tensions at various times.
WW3 would have been catastrophic, and preventing it is a great accomplishment.
I think veto powers as part of a system of checks and balances are good in moderation, but add to many of them and you end up with a stalemate.
Yes, there’s actually some research into this area: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rvv7 “Veto Players: How Political Institutions Work”. The theory apparently suggested that if you have too many “veto players”, your government quickly becomes unable to act.
And I suspect that states which are unable to act are vulnerable to major waves of public discontent during perceived crises.
The failure mode of having a lot of veto-holders is that nothing ever gets done. Which is fine if you are happy with the default state of affairs, but not so fine if you prefer not to run your state on the default budget of zero.
There are some international organizations heavily reliant on veto powers, the EU and the UN Security Council come to mind, and to a lesser degree NATO (as far as the admission of new members in concerned).
None of these are unmitigated success stories. From my understanding, getting stuff done in the EU means bribing or threatening every state who does not particularly benefit from whatever you want to do.
Likewise, getting Turkey to allow Sweden to join NATO was kind of difficult, from what I remember. Not very surprisingly, if you have to get 30 factions to agree on something, one will be likely to object for good or bad reasons.
The UN Security Council with its five veto-bearing permanent members does not even make a pretense at democratic legitimation. The three states with the biggest nuclear arsenals, plus two nuclear countries which used to be colonial powers. The nicest thing one can say about that arrangement is that it failed to start WW III, and in a few cases passed a resolution against some war criminal who did not have the backing of any of the veto powers.
I think veto powers as part of a system of checks and balances are good in moderation, but add to many of them and you end up with a stalemate.
--
I also do not think that the civil war could have been prevented by stacking the deck even more in favor of the South. Sooner or later the industrial economy in the North would have overtaken the slave economy in the South. At best, the North might have seceded in disgust, resulting in the South on track to become some rural backwater.
You say this like it’s some kind of grudging acknowledgement, but it’s actually the entire point of the structure and a Big F’n Deal. Recall that there was less than 25 years between WW1 and WW2. It’s been almost 80 years without WW3, despite high tensions at various times. WW3 would have been catastrophic, and preventing it is a great accomplishment.
Yes, there’s actually some research into this area: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rvv7 “Veto Players: How Political Institutions Work”. The theory apparently suggested that if you have too many “veto players”, your government quickly becomes unable to act.
And I suspect that states which are unable to act are vulnerable to major waves of public discontent during perceived crises.