Fukuyama og íslenska stjórnarskráin

Fukuyama and the opposition to the new Icelandic constitution

It is  imperative, that we be able to transcend our own mental models of the world.

Francis Fukuyama was wrong to state that we had reached the end of history, But he has some very valid points elsewhere in his writings. Here are some ecerps from an article “America in Decay – The Sources of Political Dysfunction”.  

I like to read these excerpts also as arguments for a new constitution for Iceland.  Here goes:

FF: “…This model is a good starting point for a broader understanding of political decay more generally. Institutions are ’stable, valued, recurring patterns of behavior,’ as Huntington put it, the most important function of which is to facilitate collective action. Without some set of clear and relatively stable rules, human beings would have to renegotiate their interactions at every turn. Such rules are often culturally determined and vary across different societies and eras, but the capacity to create and adhere to them is genetically hard-wired into the human brain. A natural tendency to conformism helps give institutions inertia and is what has allowed human societies to achieve levels of social cooperation unmatched by any other animal species.”

“The very stability of institutions, however, is also the source of political decay. Institutions are created to meet the demands of specific circumstances, but then circumstances change and institutions fail to adapt. One reason is cognitive: people develop mental models of how the world works and tend to stick to them, even in the face of contradictory evidence. Another reason is group interest: institutions create favored classes of insiders who develop a stake in the status quo and resist pressures to reform.”

“Elite insiders typically have superior access to power and information, which they use to protect their interests. Ordinary voters will not get angry at a corrupt politician if they don’t know that money is being stolen in the first place. Cognitive rigidities or beliefs may also prevent social groups from mobilizing in their own interests. For example, in the United States, many working-class voters support candidates promising to lower taxes on the wealthy, despite the fact that such tax cuts will arguably deprive them of important government services.”

“Decay can afflict any type of political system, authoritarian or democratic. And while democratic political systems theoretically have self-correcting mechanisms that allow them to reform, they also open themselves up to decay by legitimating the activities of powerful interest groups that can block needed change.”