Book Excerpt One

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foreword

Design is not the problem, what is designed is the problem. America's transformation from a wasteland to a superpower was one of the factors that determined the design of the dozens of human minds gathered in Philadelphia. What needs to be distinguished are two designs, one design for goals, the utopias that have taught painful lessons in the past; the other design for methods, the "rules that produce order" in Hayek's words - the United States The constitution is such a rule, as is progressive self-organization. Doctrine focuses on what should be, but methods focus on what can be. In the final analysis, different social forms have adopted different methods - the use of slaves, feudal establishment, representative system, separation of powers, elections, nationalization... It is the emergence and implementation of different methods that create different societies and eras.

Of course, the epoch-making method must touch the essence, and therefore must contain the doctrine of interpreting the world. A method without ism is just a trick and cannot be an epoch-making. The complementarity of doctrine and method has always been the source of the progress of human society. Today, from the East to the West, people generally lose confidence and look around at a loss. The competing old systems faltered in their respective predicaments, unable to extricate themselves. In the face of this loss of direction and the end of the road, the self-styled academics will only change their clichés, and the thoughts frozen on the edge can only be self-pity or self-appreciation. Whether the grand methods and new doctrines that are enough to open up a new era can finally come out and create a new society, although people make things happen, it needs to be done.

Autocracy lies in restricting communication

The main reason why autocracy becomes autocracy and can achieve autocracy is to cut off the vertical communication between society and power, and to control the horizontal communication within society and within power. Taking elections as an example, autocratic rulers do not seem to deprive the people of their right to vote, they do not falsify votes, there are short-term candidates, and they also engage in secret voting... Where does their autocracy come from? Namely in its limitations on communication - the key is to limit campaigning.

In elections with large crowds, campaigning is the only way for candidates to communicate with voters. The verbal expression of individuals has little effect on large populations. There are two kinds of communication required for election campaign: one is through indirect communication structures, such as political parties or campaign organizations; the other is through communication media, such as newspapers and television. The autocratic power prohibits "illegal organizations" and turns the media into "mouthpieces", with "election" but no "competition", so that voters can only vote on the list given by the autocrat. Such an election, no matter how much difference is given, is tantamount to the appointment of a despot.

The key to despotic power preventing rebellion is to control communication. Cut off the public's access to other information, and only accept its propaganda through one-way communication; use words to punish crimes to suppress the spread of dissident ideas; try to make the public ignorant and estranged from each other, so that common public opinion and joint forces cannot be formed. Any communication structure outside the system, even a larger family, would be seen as a threat to the system and forcibly dismantled.

The control of autocratic power over all areas of society, including religion, morality, and education, is mainly from the perspective of communication: it restricts or controls religious organizations, cuts off the communication between religion and true teachings, and becomes the regime controls the communication between the parishioners; change is not conducive to the communication between the regime The traditional morality of the people (such as replacing loyalty to the family with loyalty to the party); turning education into brainwashing to remove pluralism, etc.

Restricted communication is not only used to rule people, but also to control power. Autocratic powers often exercise vertical jurisdiction, and horizontal communication between subordinates is not allowed (since ancient times, the “connection” of subordinate officials with each other is a taboo), and it is also necessary to prevent subordinate officials from forming independent personal communication in the jurisdiction. Frequent mobilization of army generals so that "the generals do not know the soldiers, and the soldiers do not know the generals" is also to avoid the formation of an independent communication system. Including the avoidance system that is not allowed to be an official in the native place, it also cuts off the communication network formed by officials in the local area and relatives.

"Divide and rule" is a habit of autocratic powers, and it is only by cutting off communication with "divide" that we can create barriers, incite jealousy or hostility, and then use the position of the communication hub to make all parties in the "divide" restrict each other and only accept their own communication. The commander, the arbiter, the balancer... to achieve the purpose of "governance".

Confidentiality is also a limitation on communication. The despotic powers who are in power often make people unable to understand the real state, so that the subordinates cannot understand the overall situation in the cloud and fog, so they are deterred and at the mercy of them.

Some people were puzzled by Deng Xiaoping's mobilization of troops from several military regions to Beijing during the June 4th crackdown . In fact, the deployment of so many military units is not mainly to deal with unarmed protesters, but to form checks and balances between the military. Although the troops of a military region are enough to suppress protests, the same military region can communicate with itself without going through the central government, and it is easy to chain coups. Troops in different military regions can only communicate with the center as a hub. At that time, troops from various military regions in Beijing were deployed in a staggered manner, restraining each other, and they could not understand each other's attitude and strength, so no one dared to act rashly. In addition, the channels for social information to enter the army were cut off (the officers and soldiers were not allowed to read newspapers, listen to the radio, etc.) The army tamely carried out the repressive order.

On the pyramid of authoritarian power, those in power at each level use the above methods to control their subordinates, and they are also controlled by their superiors in the same way. They are masters to the subordinates, and their power is exercised according to their own will, and they can also make personal profits, so they are privately owned; but to the superiors, they are tools, and their power can only be an extension of the superior's will, not privately owned by others. Every level of the autocratic power structure has this duality. Only the supreme ruler at the top of the power pyramid, the entire power structure is its subordinates, responsible to it, and is the ultimate private owner of social power.

Millennium authoritarian power has developed the skills of limiting communication to perfection. Especially in a super-large society where communication is difficult, communication is inherently difficult, and it is easier to restrict communication. One of the reasons why coups are frequent in small autocratic countries is the ease of private communication. Because of the inconvenience of communication in big countries, autocratic power can be as firm as a rock for a long time. However, once it falls into turmoil, it is not easy for major powers to restore integration, and they suffer from communication difficulties.

Vetocracy

Western political culture is strongly suspicious and wary of centralization. The representative system tames power mainly by the separation of powers and checks and balances, hoping to divide a devil into three and become an angel. Although decentralization is essentially a political technique that lacks value, the people have not gained power and participation, but the checks and balances it has played are indeed effective. Arendt (Hannah Arendt) believes that Thomas Jefferson's concerns about the representative system-either falling into the tyranny of the majority, or allowing the people in power to use power for personal gain because the people do not care about public affairs-are mainly achieved by the separation of powers. avoid. However, as decentralization and checks and balances gain weight, another problem can arise—that of political decay, which Francis Fukuyama refers to in his self-coined term Vetocracy (veto politics).

For example, in order to prevent the government from abusing power, the United States divides power between the president and Congress; state and local governments retain considerable autonomy; allow courts to overturn laws on constitutional grounds; After that, it must be reviewed by the Parliamentary Rules Committee to determine whether it complies with the law and decide which committee to send it to; then the corresponding committee will vote to decide whether to proceed further; it also depends on whether it involves finance, and it can be sent to the Parliament for voting after it is sent to the Appropriation Committee for review and approval. ; After one of the Houses of Representatives is passed, the other house must also pass; the bills passed by both houses are sent to the President for signature; the President can veto; Any link in the middle can make the legislation premature.

In addition to the layers of barriers of legislation, the judiciary can also impose various kinds of interference. Many actors exert influence on the formulation of public policies, resulting in multiple political parties; and the opposition of party ideologies and power struggles make them use the separation of powers to check and balance, and oppose for the sake of opposition, resulting in low administrative efficiency, inability to make decisions, internal friction and even idling. Caused a government shutdown... This political decay is thought to continue to worsen.

Fukuyama believes that interest groups play an important role in Vetocracy. Theoretically, democratic politics hopes that the people can use the counterweight to check the power, and the counterweight belongs to the plural participatory groups. In reality, however, it is mainly interest groups that own and control the counterweight. Legislation has so many links and obstacles, and most of them are closed, making it difficult for ordinary people to intervene. Interest groups hire “outside lobbying groups,” and if they spend enough money, their influence can extend to the president, both chambers, and committee chairs, persuading them to advance or block a plan, so that the bill can be passed or not passed. Rather than benefiting the people, this kind of counterbalance by interest groups has weakened the political mechanism for expressing the will of the majority and distorted democracy. Either the laws passed on the basis of their respective standards are contradictory, which damages the quality of public administration; or the courts are used to obstruct the administration and stifle reforms to protect the interests of the group, turning the mechanism of separation of powers and checks and balances into a tool for manipulation by interest groups.

From the root, vetocracy is the natural gene of representative system and separation of powers, and it is innate. Each actor in the multi-party competition and decentralization structure must use opposition and checks and balances to reflect its own value or strive for interests. Since the purpose of decentralization is to form checks and balances, vetocracy must be placed in the structure. And veto is power, and human nature that loves power can still abuse it. Even interest groups use vetocracy under the guise of preventing abuse of power, but in fact it is for their own benefit. Each additional vetocracy link increases the ability to contain the overall situation, and this power creates more and more vetocracy.

Quantitative summation is manipulated

In theory, as long as there are elections, power must yield to the pressure of social will, otherwise it will be renewed by elections. However, this is not entirely the case. Although the will to power will not openly distort the social will, and all actions are in line with laws and procedures, there is still a gap between it and the social will. A typical example is that in the Gallup polls for several years, members of Congress have been rated by the American people as the worst in terms of ethics and integrity, and even the bottom of the occupation ranking (Note). However, members of Congress are elected by the people to represent themselves. If it wasn't for the problem of representation, why would such a darkly humorous outcome occur?

From the perspective of this paper, the root of the problem lies in the fact that the representative system is a structure of summation of quantities, while social will is the result of summation of vectors. The summation of quantities structure cannot complete the summation of vectors, so the social will cannot be truly reflected in the summation of quantity structure.

It is the difference between the summation of quantities and the summation of vectors that creates the distance between the reality and the ideal of representation. On the one hand, representative power will indeed give in under the pressure of the people, but it is not the pressure of vector sum, but the pressure of quantity sum; Only lead to the above black humor.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore recalled his 1984 Senate campaign, when polls showed his lead was disappearing, campaign advisers proposed spending and strategy on advertising, and pledged to stick to their plan. Raised Gore's approval rating by 8.5% in 3 weeks. After 3 weeks, the approval rating has increased by exactly 8.5% (Al Gore: The Assault on Reason). Although there may be coincidence factors, it can also explain the manipulation of the sum of numbers by representative politics to a certain extent.

In a representative election, "yes" or "no" votes are added up against each other to determine the final result. How to use the summation of quantities to achieve goals is both a precise discipline and a considerable industry. Money spent on campaigns and legislative lobbying has exploded, and the results of representative politics are inextricably linked to the money spent. The dominance of this process rests with the power element. Although Wuquanyuan holds the right to vote, he jokes that "the powerless can vote freely, money and power can be manipulated freely, and the powerless can also be manipulated freely". Although this is a partial generalization, it is also a reflection of reality to a considerable extent.

There are too many stories of politicians playing tricks on the representative political game so that they lose credibility with the public while keeping them from getting enough votes. The various voting systems of the representative system cannot change this absurdity, because the structure is limited by the sum of the numbers.

As long as society is still in a dual structure, the communication channel between the powerless and the powerful can always be manipulated by power. Compared with autocracy, representative power uses soft methods. The tyranny of the autocracy is obvious at a glance, but the representative system makes the result seem to be the people's own choice. In transitional societies that copy the representative system, some democracies have regressed or even only remained in form. Often, those in power use the political means of the representative system to manipulate elections, deceive public opinion, and control public opinion. The newly born dictator can get enough votes without cheating at all, but it is the sum of numbers formed through bewitching and manipulation, not the vector sum of social will.

If you want to read the book but can't buy it, you can read the ebook I made: link

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1C4knoRiDsAFvDHogwIY9V7BYrojFKj-y?usp=sharing

If you want to read other Wang Lixiong articles, please follow Wang Lixiong's youtube channel Jedi Jinshu

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL3-ObG85Ugm8Zx-tnEKCkw