I believe in the state. I believe that the ideal society would not be democratic but governed by a meritocratic professional class and would essentially be what we Westerners would now describe pejoratively as “authoritarian.” Information about society as a whole would be gathered through statistically-sound methods of polling and deliberative focus groups but only where it actually made sense to consult the community. Corruption would be excluded through transparency, the rule of law and institutional dynamics (as it is now; I don’t believe electoral democracy actually achieves much beyond the infantilism of political discourse and the resulting stability achieved by having a populous that views politics solely as a source of entertainment). I think the antagonism between state and society that pervades Western political discourse is a folk sociological fiction; state and society form an organic whole.
I believe in the state. I believe that the ideal society would not be democratic but governed by a meritocratic professional class and would essentially be what we Westerners would now describe pejoratively as “authoritarian.” Information about society as a whole would be gathered through statistically-sound methods of polling and deliberative focus groups but only where it actually made sense to consult the community. Corruption would be excluded through transparency, the rule of law and institutional dynamics (as it is now; I don’t believe electoral democracy actually achieves much beyond the infantilism of political discourse and the resulting stability achieved by having a populous that views politics solely as a source of entertainment). I think the antagonism between state and society that pervades Western political discourse is a folk sociological fiction; state and society form an organic whole.