Abstract
In complex systems, disorder and order are interrelated, so that disorder can be an inevitable consequence of ordering. Often this disorder can be disruptive, but sometimes it can be beneficial. Different social groups will argue over what they consider to be disordered, so that naming of something as ‘disorder’ is often a political action. However, although people may not agree on what disorder is, almost everyone agrees that it is bad. This primarily theoretical sketch explores the inevitability of disorder arising from ordering systems and argues that a representative democracy has to tolerate disorder so as to function.
Highlights
Much talk in political life suggests government waste or inefficiency is bad, duplication is bad, the number of politicians should be reduced, the number of tiers of government should be slashed, bureaucracies should be reduced and so on
The 2020 conference (2020 Plenary Stream Report) called for: ‘Performance targets’ (p.5), ‘urgent action to increase economic capacity through the creation of a truly national, efficient, sustainable, innovative and inclusive economy supported by seamless regulation’ (p.8); ‘efficient regulation’ (p.9); ‘Regulation reform to reduce regulation overlaps and complexity and to incentivise timely investment in infrastructure’ (p.10); ‘An integrated, whole-of-government approach underpinned by clear targets and measurement with independent reporting’ (p.21); ‘uniform regulation’ (p.33), ‘Nationwide harmonisation of regulation, standards and enforcement’ (p.34) etc
Similarity is circular and precarious; as we only discover the situation is not similar enough when the ordering fails
Summary
Much talk in political life suggests government waste or inefficiency is bad, duplication is bad, the number of politicians should be reduced, the number of tiers of government should be slashed, bureaucracies should be reduced and so on. Conceptual schemes are inevitably skewed and disordered with respect to reality and this is increased when they become the basis of communication – as one effect of categorisation is that ‘who’ a person is classified as will affect the way that their message is interpreted, and their intentions may be completely overwritten by their listener’s sense of appropriate order.
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