Comment 30195

By LL (registered) - website | Posted April 16, 2009 at 19:03:33

I must say, I found this article a tad confusing.

The title poses the question, "are governments inefficient because they're hierarchies?" Then you go on to laud the efficiency of hierarchical business orginazation. Then you go on to compare the efficiency of government and corporations.

I'm left with many questions about what you're trying to say.

Which is more hierarchical in your analysis, corporations or the state? What model of non-hierarchical organization are you comparing hierarchy to? What is "free and voluntary exchange"?

Does the latter refer to the organizational structure of corporations? If so, I'd have to differ. Most "transactions" within corporate bureaucracy are the same as in government bureaucracy: ie., people telling others what to do.

What is efficiency? Is there some absolute definition, or is it always relative to some end? (ie, profit maximization, distributive justice, or eco-sustainability)

In your analysis, is democratic accountability a hierarchical tendency, or an anti-hierarchical one? Is the mechanism of party politics and elections the be-all and end-all of said accountability?

If so, I'd have to disagree strongly again. This whole problem seems to by crying out for non-hierarchical public institutions of direct democracy.

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