Aphorisms on the State

And Democracy, Education, Development, Equity and Identity

Published in

On Politics

3 min readDec 27, 2019

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.

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 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 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.

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.