Churchill famously called democracy “the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time” - referring presumably to the relative success of his native Britain, the US, and more generally Western Europe and today most of the first world.

I claim that Churchill was importantly wrong. Not (necessarily) wrong about the relative success of Britain/US/etc, but about those countries’ governments being well-described as simple democracy. Rather, I claim, the formula which has worked well in e.g. Britain and the US diverges from pure democracy in a crucial load-bearing way; that formula works better than pure democracy both in theory and in practice, and when thinking about good governance structures we should emulate the full formula rather than pure democracy.

Specifically, the actual governance formula which is “worst except for everything else we’ve tried” is:

Give a de-facto veto to [...]

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Outline:

(01:08) A Stylized Tale of Democracy

(02:58) The Recipe Which Works In Practice

(05:17) Some Takeaways

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:
March 17th, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/MCa2aQPXgbCvuoHGM/the-worst-form-of-government-except-for-everything-else-we

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“The Worst Form Of Government (Except For Everything Else We’ve Tried)” by johnswentworth

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“The Worst Form Of Government (Except For Everything Else We’ve Tried)” by johnswentworth