tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9087565.post7319301268673029435..comments2023-10-24T07:06:36.815-07:00Comments on Small Precautions: The future of economic growth and democracyNilshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04220861634503974376noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9087565.post-71433530844915451572012-09-13T10:01:15.957-07:002012-09-13T10:01:15.957-07:00Several nice points here, particularly the idea th...Several nice points here, particularly the idea that democracy is a social technology correlated with (and perhaps adapted to) a specific set of economic, technological and environmental conditions. I would add that computing technology does more than enhance the aggregation of preferences. To some degree it diminishes the need to aggregate preferences in the first place, somewhat analogous to the way that markets allow a range of solutions to address similar challenges across diverse contexts. If accumulated mountains of data and massive computing power allow individual instances of challenges to be analyzed more granularly and addressed case by case, then response to those challenges becomes less a matter of principle and policy and more a matter of pragmatism. As you say, legitimacy will derive more from performance than process. <br /><br />That is not to say that the need for collective action will disappear but the domain of collective action may thin out. In that kind of environment the collective challenges may have less to do with solving pragmatic problems and more to do with making sense of (conceptually organizing) all the chaos and rediscovering some basis for community/shared identity. Gregory Raderhttp://onthespiral.comnoreply@blogger.com