Note 121

The two virtues of governance are adaptiveness and accountability. These may or may not be satisfied by mechanisms of democracy.

Mechanisms of accountability, including democratic ones, cannot be defined out of the context of the social, cultural and institutional legacies and structures within which they operate. There are multiple models and configurations of political management.

But the optimality of the system depends on its ability to identify problems and address them, while providing checks and accountability.

Conditions which determine the tradeoffs and scope of action which society faces change, as do the values and preferences of populations. This creates continual demand for adaptation of ancillary structures and relationships that constitute a political society. The success or failure of key institutions to adapt, mostly conditioned by human agency, drive systemic stress and change, in Plato’s sense of the word.

Quotes 14

"Structurally deficient nominal demand could arise if desired savings exceed desired investment, and forces at work in modern economies may make that imbalance inevitable."

"At the core of macroeconomic instability in modern economies lies the interaction between the limitless capacity of unconstrained private and shadow banking systems to create credit, money and purchasing power, and the inelastic supply and rising demand for locationally specific urban land. Most modern macroeconomics has failed to focus on this interaction. This is in large part because it was uninterested in the empirical reality of what banks actually do." - Adair Turner

Quotes 13

"Exceptional sense in everything, I say. It's the first and principle rule of conduct and speech, especially necessary the greater or higher your position. An ounce of good sense is worth a pound of subtlety. It's a sure path, although often not to praise, even though a reputation for sense is the crowning triumph of fame. It will suffice to please the wise, whose opinion is the touchstone of success." - Gracian

Note 120

The art of life: playing language games without becoming trapped in them. Floating free above the compartments, and yet being within them.

Note 119

Just as there are no means of escaping the iron laws of economics, there are no means of escaping the velvet laws of Society. One is a bondage to the physical; the other a bondage to the mind.