Title:      Polity by Design; an engineering approach

Authors:    Saurabh Kwatra

Entrydate:  2007-12-12 12:44:01

Keywords:   Genuine Political Engineering, Design Methodologies,
Interdisciplinary, Governance

Abstract:   Rules by which societies govern themselves are
called institutions. Institutions can be political, economic,
social, but generally they are a complex combination of these.
Universities and Academies of higher education include a course
or paper titled 'Political Engineering'; as reflected in the
title, some kind of so-called engineering is applied to
political science. The phrase 'so-called' has been used with
intent and some disgrace is associated with it. This paper,
while justifying these adjectives, is categorically the first
bold attempt to apply genuine engineering practice to political
science. Till date, so-called Political Engineering as taught
and done, uses tools of economic theory, game theory,
social-choice theory and formal logic to both understand
(analyze) and create (synthesize) institutions. The choice of
word engineering is a misnomer as the word is used very loosely,
almost to the extent of disrespect for it. Still, institutions
designed by using this loose engineering meet certain technical
specifications and are therefore undoubtedly superior to their
haphazardly evolved cousins. Just like genuine industrial design
engineering when applied to medical technology translates an
advanced momentum exchange theory to manufacture a regenerative
flow-type blood pump, (pseudo) political-social-economic
engineering translates its rational-choice-analysis (probably
with some inbuilt equal opportunity axiom) into an
Internet-enabled stepped-fashion Auctions (a modern bargaining
and arbitration Procedure). This paper deals with the
application of genuine engineering design methodologies to
political institutions; it should be termed as honest political
engineering. As an example of genuine political engineering
exercise, consider an analogy between the physical world of
technologists and the ruled society in democracy. Compare the
problem of 'working out' the ideal area of a road-roller for
resurfacing a highway of a given area most efficiently with the
problem of 'computing' the size of House of Commons (number of
elected representatives) required to democratically govern the
given size of British population with optimum efficiency. The
developed software, 'political machinery' solves these problems,
taking input parameters like, population to be governed, per
capita income, the kind of economy, environmental favor-ability,
corruption level and statistical figures of previous successes or
failures of earlier governments. The alternative
analysis-synthesis approach, as is done in reverse engineering,
would be performed by the program - number of Members of
Parliament being the numeric output! Perhaps the coiner of the
term, Political Machinery was a machine designer! I wait when
parliamentarians and policy-makers are replaced by
engineer-turned-designers.

http://polmeth.wustl.edu/retrieve.php?id=728

**********************************************************
             Political Methodology E-Mail List
   Editors: Melanie Goodrich, <[log in to unmask]>
            Delia Bailey, <[log in to unmask]>
**********************************************************
        Send messages to [log in to unmask]
  To join the list, cancel your subscription, or modify
           your subscription settings visit:

          http://polmeth.wustl.edu/polmeth.php

**********************************************************