[P2P-F] autocracy as most efficient governance?

Thu Jul 14 14:47:16 CEST 2011

hi george,

don't you agree that a lot of open source projects have some degree of
autocratic rule (the so-called benevolent dictator phenomenum), in order to
insure productivity .. .(though this does not involve command and control
over labour, nor over the allocation of resources, but rather over the
post-hoc quality control mechanisms)

now, regarding " self-rule leads to totalitarianism"

this was the debate between rosa luxemburg and lenin, discussed in the
poulantzas books which I have been reading this year (p. agrees with rl).
Basically, Rosa Luxemburg warned that a total reliance on self-rule through
soviets, could lead to authoritarianism, so she urged the bolcheviks to
retain representational parliaments in a structure of dual power ... I tend
to agree that we need plurarchic forms of governance keeping each other in
check, to avoid the degeneracy of any form of self-rule that may be the
'only game in town' ..

I'm also warming up more and more to greek sortition mechanisms ..
interestingly, this is now also being discussed by the new Anonymous Party I
believe ..

Michel

On Thu, Jul 14, 2011 at 12:22 AM, George Dafermos
<G.N.Dafermos at tudelft.nl>wrote:

>  Yes, you're right: the interviewee (MT) uses the word - erroneously - in
> both senses, without realising he's contradicting himself by saying first
> that social conduct in his world is based on players' self-rule and then
> going on to say that his authority is fast becoming 'autocratic' (i.e.
> totalitarian).
>
> the point he's apparently making is that self-rule is the norm for vast
> sections of eve space that remain free from 'policing' but authority inside
> the big corporations/alliances of eve tends to be autocratic (i.e.
> centralised in the hands of one person). yet, there is no logical connection
> between the two: there's no proof - neither in the real world nor in eve -
> that self-rule leads to totalitarianism.
>
> g.
>
>
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* p2p-foundation-bounces at lists.ourproject.org [
> p2p-foundation-bounces at lists.ourproject.org] on behalf of Apostolis
> Xekoukoulotakis [xekoukou at gmail.com]
> *Sent:* Wednesday, July 13, 2011 6:09 PM
> *To:* P2P Foundation mailing list
> *Subject:* Re: [P2P-F] autocracy as most efficient governance?
>
>   I think that what he is saying is that he is the ultimate ruler, ie an
> autocracy.
>
>
> 2011/7/13 George Dafermos <G.N.Dafermos at tudelft.nl>
>
>>  Hi Michel,
>>
>> there's a basic misunderstanding here. the passage conflates *autocracy*
>> with *autarchy* (i understand that greek words can be confusing..). the
>> author uses the former term to refer to a situation 'where players rule
>> themselves'. That is, what he means to say is 'self-rule', self-government.
>> that being the case, (s)he should have used the word autarchy instead; or
>> even better: self-rule or self-management. in light of this correction, the
>> subject line of your email should read: 'self-government as the most
>> efficient governance?'
>>
>> x,
>> g.
>>
>>
>>  ------------------------------
>> *From:* p2p-foundation-bounces at lists.ourproject.org [
>> p2p-foundation-bounces at lists.ourproject.org] on behalf of Michel Bauwens
>> [michelsub2004 at gmail.com]
>> *Sent:* Wednesday, July 13, 2011 10:53 AM
>> *To:* p2p-foundation
>> *Cc:* John Robb; Robert Steele
>> *Subject:* [P2P-F] autocracy as most efficient governance?
>>
>>    see
>> http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/04/07/eve-online-audience-with-the-king-of-space/
>>
>> Autocracy is the most effective form of government in null sec [the
>> enormous sections of space within Eve Online with no AI police, where
>> players rule themselves]. Council systems don’t work very well. Goonswarm is
>> very lucky in that we have one large corporation, Goonwaffe, which used to
>> be Goonfleet, which is mostly Something Awful members and has over 2,000
>> people. Since I’m the CEO of that corporation all the other ancillary
>> corporations in the alliance are relatively powerless, and that works
>> towards an autocracy. Council-based alliances typically have corporations of
>> roughly the same size.
>>
>> (I actually agree with this, in case of warfare, even egalitarian tribes
>> had warchiefs for the duration of hostilities; or does anyone want to
>> challenge thi?)
>>
>> --
>> P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
>
>
> Sincerely yours,
>
>      Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis
>
>
>
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