The end of big bureaucracy

[zarus tathra]

The huge government bureaucracies we see today didn't get so big because they were the only way to meet economic and social needs. 

They became so powerful because of their unrivalled ability to wage total war. 

The twentieth century proved it, again and again:  Nothing could stand in the way of a bureaucratic state that fully mobilizes for total warfare except another bureaucratic state. 

Only a bureaucratic state has the capacity to:

focus an entire nation's economy on warfare (from resources to production),
force changes in the way people think and act (propaganda to rationing to promotions to laws), and
mobilize, train, equip, deploy, and maintain tens of millions of soldiers and sailors and all of their equipment for years at a time. 
Due to this, it didn't take long before all other forms of governance were extinguished, making the 20th Century "The Bureaucratic Century." 

Of course, the tale of BIG bureaucracy doesn't end with its victory at the end of the 20th Century.

The 21st Century is showing us that the same things that made it so successful will result in its undoing (as with the hero in a Greek tragedy). 

In this case, the bureaucratic state made itself obsolete with its ultimate creation, the nuclear weapon.   

Only a BIG bureaucracy has the capacity to surmount all of the hurdles required => from the mining to the cascades of centrifuges to the miniaturization of the package to the the delivery system.

A fear of nuclear war, slowly but surely, put an end to conventional warfare as it was waged prior to the first one was used. 

Since then, we have seen fewer, less intense, and less frequent conventional wars.  That, in turn, made global economic integration possible, and this integration has made bureaucratic warfare even more difficult to wage. 

We now live in a world that is enjoying an unprecedented peace, and despite what is going on in Gaza and Syria we've seen fewer deaths per capita from bloody bureaucratic warfare in the last couple of decades than in any time in recorded history.   

In today's world, there simply aren't any BIG bureaucracies left that can wage conventional war -- they are either too economically integrated or fearful of nuclear war to do it.

So, what does this mean for the BIG bureaucracies that took control of the world in the 20th Century? 

The likely answer is that we don't need them anymore.   

The reason why we don't need BIG bureaucracy anymore is due to how they were so successful at warfare.

They enforce regulations, pass laws, create incentives, and erect hierarchies in order to make it easier to wage a total war in the future.

However, by doing that, they lock in the present. 

BIG bureaucracy slows adaptation and change to a crawl, creating the stagnation we see today (when China catches up a bit more, they will stagnate too, just like Japan).

JR

PS:  WW1's intensity was a surprise to everyone.  The Black Swan that nobody anticipated was how effective BIG bureaucracies were at waging total war.

PPS:  Giving over control to BIG finance isn't the answer.  It's the handmaiden of BIG Bureaucracy -- finance funded its growth.  The rise of BIG finance created the great Depression that led to WW2. 

link

[the_antithesis]

Oh, you're back again. Still copypastaing from other websites you pick up with your tin foil hat, I see.  Well, that's nice.

[Hakurei Reimu]

As if nuclear weapons are the ultimate big project. They're not. They're not even all that big, really.

Establishing a true spacefaring civilization? That's a BIG project.

[zarus tathra]

As if nuclear weapons are the ultimate big project. They're not. They're not even all that big, really.

Establishing a true spacefaring civilization? That's a BIG project.

Sure. But big bureaucracy has its hands tied with regards to terrestrial war. You are, however, correct that space travel and big science in general are basically the last preserve of big government.

[Hakurei Reimu]

The entire premise of your copypasta article is founded upon this vague notion of a "BIG bureaucracy". You, who railed against people using terms imprecisely in a previous thread, subscribe to a notion that doesn't even bother to describe it's most frequently used term. What makes a bureaucracy a "BIG bureaucracy"? He doesn't define it. You don't define it. It's a scary term with nothing but emotional impact. Your copypasta has no content.

[the_antithesis]

"big science?"

What a chode.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Zarus, you really don't have to be a shallow twit all your life. You could actually try independent thought if you wanted to, but I'm guessing that requires to much effort on your part.
Personally I LIKE paved, regulated roads, clean, safe drinking water, police and fire protection when needed along with drugs prescribed by learned doctors that aren't filled with just any old toxic sludge. I like breathing clean, clear air not polluted by shit spewed out by the metric tons every minute of every day. I like living in a country where any old fuckwit with enough arms can't just roll across the border to impose whatever bullshit laws they chose to impose and I like it when people unable to care for themselves have a check sent from the central government so they have a roof over their heads and nutritious food to eat. I like a lot of things BIG bureaucracy provides... If you don't then it ain't crowded walking to Somalia.

[SGOS]

When you disproportionately hate something because you just hate it because you hate it, you end up manufacturing reasoning that leaves people wondering what the Hell you're ranting about.

[Solitary]

Did I miss something? 

[Hydra009]

TIL putting the word big in front of a term makes it scary.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

TIL putting the word big in front of a term makes it scary.

Especially BIG TREES, BIG MOUNTAINS, BIG NOSES, BIG DIC...well, you know..

[zarus tathra]

Big bureaucracy's pretty easy to define. Large, hierarchical organizations of people employing more than 100,000 directed towards relatively well-defined goals. Pretty much the only organizations that would count are national governments and Microsoft, which barely breaches the threshold, which is semi-arbitary but is in the right ballpark. One should also probably add the ability to requisition resources without much in the way of resistance to this.

[Solitary]

Wouldn't be more productive for people to attack what ZT is posting rather than making personal attacks?  Solitary

[zarus tathra]

You're assuming they're capable of something other than stumping for the Democratic party and simulated mob violence.

[Solitary]

Well at least they believe in Democracy.