[wahern]

Francis Fukuyama recently wrote an opinion piece where he argues that the dividing characteristic today between successful and broken states is trust in government, not the structure of government.

Singapore is authoritarian-democratic, Switzerland hyper federalist, but both exhibit a political culture that voluntarily provides liberal permissions to the relevant government institutions. In the United States (nationally, and in most states) and many European countries, such a culture has long since eroded from its mid-20th century apex.

[bhupy]

I'd argue that in a lot of US States, the distrust is not in all government, just in the central Federal government. Consider that every State in the Union has taxpayer subsidized State university system, state police systems, fire departments, public libraries, etc.

Maybe an optimal equilibrium is one where Vermont can be authoritarian-democratic and Texas can by hyper federalist. Singapore and Switzerland seem to work because they are small polities and everyone is on the same page.

In Switzerland's hyper confederation, everyone seems to be on the same page: that nobody is on the same page :).

[wahern]

Trust means that you also trust an institution to make concessions on your behalf, without you second guessing them. That means permitting them to make decisions that you disagree with, because you trust that in the long term such flexibility will result in a better society for all, including yourself.

Even in a city like San Francisco where people are not particularly cynical about government (i.e. that it's inherently corrupt and irredeemable, hopeless about the potential for public sector interventions), people constantly battle the government over every little action, and continue to pass ballot measures that bind government decisions. So I would argue that San Franciscans don't have a high degree of trust in their government, because trust is what you do, not in what you say.

Judging by the Singaporeans I know and the news I read, they can complain about government overreach and ineptitude just as much as any American. And I would presume the Swiss do this as well. But nonetheless they've still entrusted significant powers to their respective institutions such that those institutions can act swiftly and with a high degree of confidence that the electorate will back them.

Ever since the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars and American attempts at nation building it should be undeniable that political culture--trust, compliance, etc--matters vastly more than structure. Undoubtedly structure matters, but perhaps not in the ways we think or to the degree we think.

[bhupy]

> Trust means that you also trust an institution to make concessions on your behalf, without you second guessing them. That means permitting them to make decisions that you disagree with, because you trust that in the long term such flexibility will result in a better society for all, including yourself.

This becomes less and less true the more unrepresentative the institution. This level of trust is nonexistent in large heterogenous polities, and only existent in small polities (Singapore, Sweden, France, Canada, Australia) or homogenous polities (China).

[justin66]

> I'd argue that in a lot of US States, the distrust is not in all government, just in the central Federal government.

It's not like that kind of public opinion is uniform among the entire population of a state. Plenty of people in a state you might think of as not trusting the federal government, e.g. most states in the American south, have sizable minority populations that historically have depended heavily on the federal government's power for protection of their constitutional rights.

Not to mention, the most meaningful political differences in the United States today are between rural and and urban areas.

[bhupy]

> It's not like that kind of public opinion is uniform among the entire population of a state. Plenty of people in a state you might think of as not trusting the federal government, e.g. most states in the American south, have sizable minority populations that historically have depended heavily on the federal government's power for protection of their constitutional rights.

Yes, and like most other nation-states, minorities lose out to the majority. The question is: at what level is that acceptable? At a broad enough level, a tyranny of the majority is unacceptable, because there are no alternatives. At a low enough level, a tyranny of the majority is acceptable because it's more feasible for one to shop around. This is one of the reasons large corporate monopolies are considered bad.

> Not to mention, the most meaningful political differences in the United States today are between rural and and urban areas.

If you look at Treemaps of the US election in 2016 (weighted by population to accurately capture rural counties), there are some states where rural voters are largely on the same page as urban voters[1][2][3][4], and some where most of the state embraces a rural way of life, and hence its internal policy is better suited to that culture [5][6][7][8]. For states that are internally polarized[9][10], applying subsidiarity yet another time might be the prudent solution, but that's up to them.

Also, somewhat paradoxically, in Alaska, the urban centers typically vote like rural voters in the rest of the Union, and Alaska's rural voters vote like urban voters in the rest of the Union[11].

[1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_presid...

[2] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_presid...

[3] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_presid...

[4] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_presid...

[5] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_presid...

[6] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_presid...

[7] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_presid...

[8] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_presid...

[9] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_presid...

[10] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_presid...

[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidentia...

[babesh]

It's turtles all the way down. You can sometimes vote with your feet (if you have the wherewithal)... but that applies to the city, county, state, nation level as well.