Does anyone here ever think to themselves, or out loud, “Here I am in the 21st Century. Sure, all the old scifi stories told me I’d have a shiny flying car but I’m really more interested in where my 21st Century government is?”
For me that is premised on the view that pretty much all existing governments are based on theory and structures that date at least back to the 18th Century in the West. The East might say they “modernized” a bit with the move from dynasties (China, Korea, Japan) to democratic forms but when I look at the way those governments and polities actually work seems more like a wrapper around the prior dynastic structures.
But I also find it challenging to think just what might be the differentiating change that would distinguish a “21st Century” government from existing ones. The best I’ve come up with is that I don’t see it as some type of privatization divestiture of existing government activities (even though I do think some should be) but more of a shift from government being the acting agent it is now and more like a markets in terms of mediating and coordinating individual and group actions via mechanisms other than voting for representation or direct voting on actions.
I think 20st century big bureaucracy is quite different from the way 18st century governance. The Foreign Office of the United Kingdom managed work with 175 employees at the height of the British Empire in 1914.
In some ways I think one can make that claim but in an important ways, to me, numbers don’t really matter. In both you still see the role of government as an actor, doing things, rather than an institutional form that enables people to do things. I think the US Constitution is a good example of that type of thinking. It defines the powers the government is suppose to have, limiting what actions it can and cannot take.
I’m wondering what scope might exist for removing government (and the bureaucracy that performs the work/actions) from our social and political worlds while still allowing the public goods (non-economic term use here) to still be produced and enjoyed by those needing/wanting such outputs. Ideally that would be achieved without as much forced-carrying (the flip of free-riding) from those uninterested or uninterested at the cost of producing them.
Markets seem to do a reasonable job of finding interior solutions that are not easily gamed or controlled by some agenda setter. Active government I think does that more poorly and by design will have an agenda setter in control of any mediating and coordinating processes for dealing with the competing interest/wants/needs. These efforts then invariable become political an politicized—an as being demonstrated widely in today’s world, as source of a lot of internal (be it global, regional/associative or domestic) strife leading to conflict.
Thanks. It was an interesting view. Certainly taking advantage of modern technologies and, taken at face value, seem to have resulted in some positive results. Has me thinking of making a visit just to talk with some of the people to see get some first hand accounts and views just how much that is changing the views and “experience” of government (meaning people experience as they live under a government).
I particularly liked the idea of government kind of fading into the background and being generally invisible. I think in many ways people see markets in that way pretty much too—when running to the store to pick up some milk or a loaf of bread or whatnot, who really gives much though to the whole supply chain aspect of whatever they were getting actually being there.
Does anyone here ever think to themselves, or out loud, “Here I am in the 21st Century. Sure, all the old scifi stories told me I’d have a shiny flying car but I’m really more interested in where my 21st Century government is?”
For me that is premised on the view that pretty much all existing governments are based on theory and structures that date at least back to the 18th Century in the West. The East might say they “modernized” a bit with the move from dynasties (China, Korea, Japan) to democratic forms but when I look at the way those governments and polities actually work seems more like a wrapper around the prior dynastic structures.
But I also find it challenging to think just what might be the differentiating change that would distinguish a “21st Century” government from existing ones. The best I’ve come up with is that I don’t see it as some type of privatization divestiture of existing government activities (even though I do think some should be) but more of a shift from government being the acting agent it is now and more like a markets in terms of mediating and coordinating individual and group actions via mechanisms other than voting for representation or direct voting on actions.
I think 20st century big bureaucracy is quite different from the way 18st century governance. The Foreign Office of the United Kingdom managed work with 175 employees at the height of the British Empire in 1914.
In some ways I think one can make that claim but in an important ways, to me, numbers don’t really matter. In both you still see the role of government as an actor, doing things, rather than an institutional form that enables people to do things. I think the US Constitution is a good example of that type of thinking. It defines the powers the government is suppose to have, limiting what actions it can and cannot take.
I’m wondering what scope might exist for removing government (and the bureaucracy that performs the work/actions) from our social and political worlds while still allowing the public goods (non-economic term use here) to still be produced and enjoyed by those needing/wanting such outputs. Ideally that would be achieved without as much forced-carrying (the flip of free-riding) from those uninterested or uninterested at the cost of producing them.
Markets seem to do a reasonable job of finding interior solutions that are not easily gamed or controlled by some agenda setter. Active government I think does that more poorly and by design will have an agenda setter in control of any mediating and coordinating processes for dealing with the competing interest/wants/needs. These efforts then invariable become political an politicized—an as being demonstrated widely in today’s world, as source of a lot of internal (be it global, regional/associative or domestic) strife leading to conflict.
I’m not Estonian, but this video portrays it as one way a 21st century government could be like.
Thanks. It was an interesting view. Certainly taking advantage of modern technologies and, taken at face value, seem to have resulted in some positive results. Has me thinking of making a visit just to talk with some of the people to see get some first hand accounts and views just how much that is changing the views and “experience” of government (meaning people experience as they live under a government).
I particularly liked the idea of government kind of fading into the background and being generally invisible. I think in many ways people see markets in that way pretty much too—when running to the store to pick up some milk or a loaf of bread or whatnot, who really gives much though to the whole supply chain aspect of whatever they were getting actually being there.