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The Minnesota protests are over a real injustice, but also part of the crisis of authority @mgurri identified with the information age.
They are as much about racist police brutality as the Chilean protests are about transport fares, i.e. simultaneously 100% and not at all.
They are as much about racist police brutality as the Chilean protests are about transport fares, i.e. simultaneously 100% and not at all.
The difference between proximate and ultimate causes is a kind of gestalt. Affirming the existence of forests does not negate the existence of trees. Yet if you're morally invested in a particular tree, seeing it as one among an ensemble can be challenging, maybe even offensive.
Understanding the root causes behind growing global unrest is important for both diagnosis and prescription.
Chilean protests won't resolve with reduced transport fares. Nor will these protests resolve with sanctions against the four guilty cops, or acts of restorative justice.
Chilean protests won't resolve with reduced transport fares. Nor will these protests resolve with sanctions against the four guilty cops, or acts of restorative justice.
Do all those things, too. But if @mgurri's thesis is right, it may amount to watering one tree while the forest burns. Indeed, growing disillusionment with authority is taking place despite positive background trends, be it in US policing practices or the Chilean economy.
So then what is the right prescription? @mgurri suggests decentralization.
In a sense, that overlaps with one of the protestors core demands: Demographically representative community policing.
"Self-government" may be more accurate, the essence of which is mutual recognition.
In a sense, that overlaps with one of the protestors core demands: Demographically representative community policing.
"Self-government" may be more accurate, the essence of which is mutual recognition.
In the Chile, the issue was not *really* higher transport fares. Rather, the hike in fares â recommended by a technocratic "Panel de Expertos del Transporte PĂșblico" â symbolized the gulf between the public and their capacity for self-government.
Same for France's Yellow Vests movement. Nominally about excise taxes on diesel fuel, the issue symbolized the disconnect between technocratic elites and those forced to live under their rule â elites who subsidized mass diesel engine adoption in the first place!
There's a unified theory of populism to be had, combining @mgurri's thesis with institutionalist political economy.
As the public becomes more autonomous, whether due to institutional shifts or technologies like the internet, patronage networks breakdown https://twitter.com/hamandcheese/status/1186314015254945799
As the public becomes more autonomous, whether due to institutional shifts or technologies like the internet, patronage networks breakdown https://twitter.com/hamandcheese/status/1186314015254945799
This helps explain why Chile, an otherwise prosperous country, has so much unrest.
The linkages between the elite party structure and the broader public broke down, creating "deficits in the political representation of subordinate sectors of society." https://twitter.com/hamandcheese/status/1186324557587763201
The linkages between the elite party structure and the broader public broke down, creating "deficits in the political representation of subordinate sectors of society." https://twitter.com/hamandcheese/status/1186324557587763201
Patronage is endemic in US law enforcement. And police violence against African Americans is nothing new. What's new is a camera in every pocket, and thus the ability to end-run systems of authority to reveal the deficits in institutional representation that were there all along.
