charleshughsmith | The first question identifies the structural weak points in the system. These weak points could
have any number of sources: they could be perverse incentives embedded in the system, elites
caught up in their own enrichment, or even a willful blindness to the nature of the crisis
threatening the system.
Here's an example in the U.S. system: corporations reap $2.4 trillion in profits annually, roughly
15% of the nation's entire output. Politicians need millions of dollars in campaign contributions
to win elections. Those seeking political influence have not just billions but tens of billions.
Those needing to distribute political favors will do so for mere millions.
Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups,
and Average Citizens:
"I'd say that contrary to what decades of political science research might lead you to believe,
ordinary citizens have virtually no influence over what their government does in the United States.
And economic elites and interest groups, especially those representing business,
have a substantial degree of influence. Government policy-making over the last few decades reflects
the preferences of those groups -- of economic elites and of organized interests."
This asymmetry
cannot be overcome. Indeed, the past 40 years have witnessed an increasing concentration of
wealth and power in corporations and their lobbyists and a decline of political influence of
the masses to near-zero. Every reform has failed to slow this momentum, which is constructed
of incentives to maximize profits, gain political favors and win elections.
In a similar fashion, the Imperial Presidency has gained power at the expense of Congress for
decades--a reality that scholars bemoan but the reforms allowed by the system are unable to stop.
So we have endless wars of choice without a declaration of war by Congress, one of the core powers
of the elected body.
An analogy to these systemic weak points is the synergies of an organism's essential
organs: if any one organ fails, the organism dies even though the other organs are working
just fine. In other words, any system is only as robust as its weakest essential
component/process.
Whatever problems the system is incapable of resolving have the potential to bring down the system
once they interact synergistically.
The second question identifies how many groups have been suppressed, silenced or ignored by
those at the top of the heap. If these groups have an essential role in the system as producers,
consumers and taxpayers, their demand to have a say in decisions that directly affect them is natural.
Another group with understandable frustrations at being left out of the decision-making are those
in the educated upper classes whose expectations of roles in the top tier were encouraged by their
families, society and training. When these expectations are not met because there are no longer
enough slots in the top tier for the rapidly proliferating upper classes, the group left out in
the cold has the time, education and motivation to demand a voice.
In other words, those denied access to resources, capital and agency who felt entitled to this
access will not be as easily silenced as those who accept their low status and restricted access
to resources, capital and agency as "the natural order of things."
All the groups that are denied a voice and access to resources, capital and agency are in effect
a sealed pressure cooker atop a flame. The pressure builds and builds without any apparent consequence
until it explodes.
The more that power is concentrated in the hands of the few, the greater the desperation of the
groups who are locked out of power. As their desperation rises, some of these groups are willing
to go to whatever lengths are necessary to effect change.
The process of explosive demands for change erupting is difficult to manage once released.
The system's essential subsystems may be destabilized--the equivalent of organ failure--and
once destabilized, it's often no longer possible to restore the previous stability.
In this environment, the common good falls by the wayside and the system collapses.
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