Aphorisms on the State
And Democracy, Education, Development, Equity and Identity
Published in
3 min readDec 27, 2019
The State
- A state is a collection of individuals known as citizens.
- Every individual has needs
- Some individuals have the ability to satisfy needs. We call this ability power.
- Citizens act to satisfy some subset of their needs. Which subset varies from situations to situation. And might be unpredictable and irrational.
- Control is the ability of one individual to influence the actions of another individual. Citizens with needs are controlled by the citizens who have power to satisfy those needs.
- The law is a collection of conditions. That specify if something happens, then something else must happen. Whether it will happen depends how the citizens decide to act.
- Different states differ in how laws are defined, executed and judged. This system of defining, executing and judging laws is known as a “system of government”.
- A Democracy is a system of government where all citizens have an equal opportunity to act in defining, executing and judging laws.
- Since citizens act to satisfy their needs, these actions in defining, executing and judging laws are controlled by citizens with power. Hence, in a democracy defining, executing and judging are influenced by citizens with power.
Education
- A Perfect Democracy is a system of government where all citizens have an equal influence to act in defining, executing and judging laws.
- An educated citizen is one with the ability to influence productive outcomes.
- Hence, a perfect democracy with educated citizens achieves productive outcomes. One without educated citizens does not achieve productive results.
Equity
- Equity is the equalise of a state’s citizens’ power.
- In an equal state, equal opportunity to act in defining, executing and judging laws converges with equal influence in defining, executing and judging laws. Democracy and Perfect Democracy converge.
- In an unequal state, influence concentrates in the hands of a few. Such a state is known as an oligarchy.
- Hence, Democracy can coexist with both Oligarchy and Perfect Democracy. Depending on the nature of equity.
Development
- Development is a measure of the sophistication of a state’s citizens’ needs. A more developed state has citizens with more sophisticated needs.
- Sophistication is a measure of the intrinsic nature of needs. Needs that must be satisfied externally (extrinsically, hence less intrinsically) are less sophisticated. Needs that must be satisfied intrinsically, are more sophisticated.
- Hence, citizens whose needs are more sophisticated are less vulnerable to control from other citizens.
- Hence, a developed state is more likely to tend towards a perfect democracy, as opposed to an oligarchy.
Identity
- State Identity is a citizen’s need to align their needs with the needs of other citizens. A state with strong state identity has citizens with shared needs.
- State Identity tends to have “medium” sophistication. It relies on some extrinsic “feedback signals”, but also intrinsic beliefs.
- The need to act in defining, executing and judging laws of the state (i.e. “participate”), is an example of state identity.
- Hence, states with strong state identities are more likely to tend towards a perfect democracy, as opposed to an oligarchy.