[redm]

These types of legal shenanigans, sadly, usually work; Politicians just keep attempting to pass the same provisions in different forms with slightly different language over a period of years until they slip, whatever it is, through.

[rayiner]

Our countries are too big. The only way for the public to police this stuff is with small polities like the Scandinavian countries, where there isn’t too much going on.

[JumpCrisscross]

> The only way for the public to police this stuff is with small polities like the Scandinavian countries, where there isn’t too much going on

Are you sure you aren’t proxying something else for size? Plenty of local politics in America, for example, is plenty despotic.

[armchairhacker]

I think local politics varies between incredibly moral/functional and unbelievably corrupt/incompetent, depending on location (same for startups or any other group).

Larger groups are more consistent, they all have “bureaucratic” problems. One of these problems is too much happening and not enough (moral and competent) oversight*. Hence text sneaked into government bills, funds embezzled from big companies, etc.

* Ironically as other commenters point out, this text isn’t avoiding discovery, because the bill is public and there are enough concerned citizens to provide the necessary oversight. A better example is government contracts, if they were published and voted on like bills I suspect contractors would be way better (except they’d be more political unless we solve that…)

[JumpCrisscross]

> government contracts, if they were published and voted on like bills I suspect contractors would be way better

I'd guess the opposite. As evidence I present CEO pay, which went up with more transparency.

I like the idea of making public contracts searchable. But absent controls it will just lead to the partisan poisoning and context-free excerpting that characterises our low-brow political discourse.

[rayiner]

I’d say size is a necessary but not sufficient criterion. The county Annapolis sits in has about half a million people, and it seems like it’s possible for the Karens to keep abreast of everything that’s going on. It helps we have a local paper.

[tssva]

The past attempts to enact these laws have been brought to light and defeated. The current attempt has been brought to light which is evidenced by this article. Doesn’t this undermine the idea that our countries are too large for the public to police this behavior?

[dctoedt]

> Our countries are too big. The only way for the public to police this stuff is with small polities like the Scandinavian countries, where there isn’t too much going on.

In armed conflict, having a large polity can pay off — big time — while having a small one can be fatal. To name just a few examples: Belgium 1914 and 1940; (the Scandanavian) Norway and Denmark 1940; Tibet 1950; Kuwait 1990; and Chechnya 1999-2000.