IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2017 - 66

core requirement of any sustainable democratic society.
Beyond political power (who can change, interpret, and
apply the rules directly), other power forms are just as
essential in their ability gain control over societal
change - e.g., economic power (who controls production,
consumption, job markets and financial markets); information power (who dictates how information is produced, distributed and controlled); and technological
power (who controls the development, distribution and
use of technology).

Disruptive factors may seriously
undermine comprehensible
transparency, discourage reasoning
and action, and impede traceability.

U.K. politician Tony Benn's five questions for people
of power - "What power have you got? Where did you
get it from? In whose interests do you use it? To whom
are you accountable? How do we get rid of you?," with
the additional comment that "Anyone who cannot
answer the last of those questions does not live in a
democratic system"3 - demonstrate the need for
transparency, critical thinking, open discussion and
the ability to enact change in the (re)distribution of regulatory power, in order to ask such questions and to
act accordingly.

Societal Pathologies and Existing
"Defense Mechanisms"
In the setting and assessment of goals and the establishment and enforcement of rules, the ability to take
decisions, interpret and apply policies, and to give orders
are all key "powers" that fall upon, or are assigned to
(e.g., by election), individuals in the collective. Here, we
examine some of the recurring social pathologies where
the balance between individual and collective interests
breaks down.

Individuality Overpowers Collective Interests
As Michel's iron law of oligarchy would have it (i.e., "who
says organisation says oligarchy") [4], no matter how
well-intended or democratically-structured an institution, community, or society is constituted initially,
there is a tendency for individualistic interests to take
over collective aspirations and, if left unchecked, to
3

66

Since essential to the fluidity of a nonviolent power distribution process [3].

concentrate power in the hands of a ruling minority.
This stems from situations where power assigned to
individuals for managing collective objectives (i.e., legitimate power) is diverted over time for individual benefits, or the narrow interest of a ruling clique, or oligopoly
(i.e., illegitimate power). Therefore, a fine balance must
be maintained between power granted to achieve necessary change, and control over the way in which that
power is being acquired, accumulated, used, and eventually relinquished (non-violently [3]).
A common way to avoid formal power accumulation and abuse relies on frequent changes in power
assignments, e.g., through fixed terms of office. However, this can encourage short-term thinking, firstly
since decision-makers who leave office are not held
responsible for the consequences of their decisions,
and secondly since decisions that may yield future
benefit but cause short-term disruptions and unpopularity are avoided. Furthermore, efficient representation requires specialization of representatives, in turn
creating mutual dependence - of the collective on
the expert representatives, and of the representatives on their jobs -hence increasing resistance to
their replacement.
A seemingly viable solution relies on rephrasing the
question of "who should rule" into "how should any
ruler be prevented from causing too much damage?"
[3]. To answer this question, various institutions are
defined to ensure necessary checks-and-balances on
the accumulation and usage of power (e.g., the tri-partite parliamentary system; democratic elections); and,
the institutions themselves need to be defined and
changed via participative democratic processes (i.e.,
democratic institutions).
However, as the number and the geographic distribution of citizens extends, the scalability and adaptability
of such democratic institutions and of the associated
processes needs to be addressed. The trade-off between
participatory and representative democracy is one concern, as is institutional structuration and polycentric
governance (checks and balances between multiple,
possibly conflicting, centres of decision making) [21].
Maintaining a high degree of comprehensible transparency in democratic processes and institutional developments, despite the growing scale and complexity, is
essential. Indeed, it has been argued that the long-lived
success of Athenian democracy was founded not just on
its model of participative democracy, but primarily on
the way it supported transparency and inclusivity across
multiple inter-dependent knowledge management processes [12]. Hopefully, some form of representative
democracy (which seems necessary at large scales),
kept in check by transparent democratic institutions,
can ensure the sustainability of democratic organizations

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

∕

SEPTEMBER 2017



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