Rules for Preventing Abuse of Power

[Tailsteak]

So there've been a lot of horrible things in the news lately, but they all have a common theme.

Allegations came to light of Bill Cosby sexually abusing multiple women during the height of his popularity.
White cops killed unarmed black civilians and are not even facing indictment, let alone trial.
The CIA has been torturing people.

Now, all of these things have something in common... no, not that we all already knew about them and are only now getting excited, it's the fact that they all involve abuse of power by an authority figure.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I have always assumed that to be a truism for all human beings, given enough power and a long enough timeline.

So I have some rules in mind - general principles, really - and I'm going to post them, but before I do, I'd like to hear yours. What rules or laws or principles do you think would help prevent power from corrupting? Ideally, each your rules should be flexible enough to apply in at least two of the three cases listed above.

[Nepene]

The general issue is as such.

The person does something horrible.

They hide it with their potent power.

Any attempt to reveal the abuse is met with use of soft and hard power to punish the abuser.

I think the biggest step we need is an information free society. We need very strong rules to protect whistleblowers, and we need organizations to commit to supporting whistleblowers.

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/30/e ... n_kiriakou

This shouldn't happen, where a whistleblower goes to jail and their imprisoner goes free. We should instead institute a forced reward system for any whistleblower- media access, cash from the organization, protection from firing. If you don't know about the crime you can't stop it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -head.html

A model, repeatedly abused by powerful figures of Hollywood, killed herself in the 1970s, blamed them in the suicide note. Police didn't investigate. You need to have some sort of requirement to investigate these sorts of crimes. This should be done in a discrete and non blaming manner that will only lead to issues for the potential abuser if they are convicted. They shouldn't get a criminal record from this till the investigation is complete. A record of this should be kept and referenced if new abuse claims are made. You shouldn't refuse to investigate someone because they are powerful or a cop. There should also be a legal requirement for people to report these things to the police, a widely advertised legal requirement to ensure more records are gathered.

http://rt.com/usa/210567-cleveland-poli ... imination/

Actual punishments are needed when someone murders someone or rapes them. Their punishments shouldn't be paid leave or a promotion. Some sort of punishment ranging from imprisonment, fines, or loss of job is necessary.

[Deepbluediver]

Made a post, then almost instantly deleted it because I didn't like it. I'm sorry for any potential confusion.


I want to focus on a simpler thought though- are we aiming to prevent abuse of power from occurring in the first place, or are we trying to stop people from getting away with it after the fact? Are the two ideas one-and-the-same?

[MysticWav]

I don't necessarily agree with that truism.

I think there are three great avenues to prevent abuse of power. The first two are common and well known. Transparency and accountability. I'm a big fan of total transparency and a big fan of "no one above the law".

The third is less common and more interesting so I'll go into that one more. The reason that we see so much corruption in power is that those that get power are often those that want power, and there is often no thumb on the scale against those that are willing to pursue it by whatever means necessary. Presidential elections in the USA are primarily run on money, which itself is obtained primarily by having money or promising favors to those that have it. Corruption is practically built into the selection process. Imagine instead if we self-selected for service. "The top 10 performers of community service by hours donated will be allowed to run for president each cycle." or some other metric of selflessness or integrity.

I imagine we have so much corruption in politics not necessarily because power is corrupting, but because the process by which one gets a seat at the table is. This isn't just a problem with our system obviously. Dictators obviously also come with built-in corruption incentives to even become dictators in the first place.

[Tem]

So there've been a lot of horrible things in the news lately, but they all have a common theme.

Allegations came to light of Bill Cosby sexually abusing multiple women during the height of his popularity.
White cops killed unarmed black civilians and are not even facing indictment, let alone trial.
The CIA has been torturing people.

Now, all of these things have something in common... no, not that we all already knew about them and are only now getting excited, it's the fact that they all involve abuse of power by an authority figure.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I have always assumed that to be a truism for all human beings, given enough power and a long enough timeline.

So I have some rules in mind - general principles, really - and I'm going to post them, but before I do, I'd like to hear yours. What rules or laws or principles do you think would help prevent power from corrupting? Ideally, each your rules should be flexible enough to apply in at least two of the three cases listed above.

Well, as two of those three examples are about sexism and racism, the obvious solution is to fight sexism and racism.

Short term solution: Change the law. Instead of the woman being required to prove that she didn't want sex, the man has to prove that she wanted sex. (The same for all other combinations. People are no longer automatically assumed to want sex). As of now, women fear rape. With the law change, everyone fears false rape accusations. More fairness!

Replace all white cops with black cops. Black cops don't get away with killing unarmed civilians.

Regarding the CIA, the torture could also have to do with -isms, but in case it hasn't ... there should be more transparency.



The long term solution would be to just avoid putting two much power into anyone's hands.

[MysticWav]

I detect someone being tongue-in-cheek.

[snowyowl]

Nah, tongue-in-cheek is when I suggest putting a benevolent AI overlord in charge of all our decisions.

I think there chould be a greater personal cost to holding power. I'm not sure exactly what form that would take... trial by media, perhaps? Making rich white men into celebrities so they can be torn down when there's a scandal involving them? That seems like a bad idea, though, the media are just as susceptible to manipulation by power as anyone else...

[Tem]

Nah, tongue-in-cheek is when I suggest putting a benevolent AI overlord in charge of all our decisions.

I think there chould be a greater personal cost to holding power. I'm not sure exactly what form that would take... trial by media, perhaps? Making rich white men into celebrities so they can be torn down when there's a scandal involving them? That seems like a bad idea, though, the media are just as susceptible to manipulation by power as anyone else...

This is a very bad idea - many of the rich white men who sexually assault women and get away with it are, in fact, celebrities. The media work for them, not against them. Although many of them are rich, too, the famousness adds another layer of protection. So, no, that does not work.

The ancient civilisations that would decapitate the king if there was a bad harvest were on the right path, but you might end up with a secret power behind the throne and a strawman on it. (On the other hand, making the death sentence a thing that only applies to the powerful would attach a hefty price to power)

Democracy is a nice thing, we get to exchange our useless politicians for different useless politicians. Maybe police should be elected, too.

[Deepbluediver]

Democracy is a nice thing, we get to exchange our useless politicians for different useless politicians. Maybe police should be elected, too.

Some small towns do in fact elect sheriffs. In some ways it happens with cities, too- you elect the person who appoints the chief of police. But on a large scale this seems like it would drag more money and influence-pandering into politics and law-enforcement, not less. What happens when the local drug dealer runs for the position of head-cop and tells all his clients "if I don't get elected, the price of your dope goes up"?

Making something against the law hasn't stopped people from committing crimes. I'm thinking that any rule or regulation will eventually buckle to the ingenuity of the human mind- what we need to do is find a way to make people with power not want to abuse it.

This kind of goes back to my original post that I deleted, but how do you instill in people a sense of empathy? Or responsibility?

[crayzz]

Maybe police should be elected, too.

In and of itself, no. There's way too many of them for that to be feasible in the first place, plus elections are only loosely tied to competency. I'm less worried about drug lords than I am about getting cops elected who have no real idea what they're doing, like what happens with judges in the states.