Paper ideas

I am deeply convinced that authoritarian governments also mean well and want to serve their people. It is simply a different approach they are taking. The jury is still out how it stacks up against a demorcratic society. There are a variety of forces at work, which makes the battle between these two systems interesting. The U.S. enjoys a significant geographic advantage by being separated out on a lonely continent without predatory neighbors peeping at the gate. In addition, it is blessed with a large stock of natural resources and the need for colonial styled taking is quite low at least in the past 200 years.

The interesting thing is not why democracy has worked in the U.S., but how an authoritarian government can solve the information problem. That is, given its desire to serve its people, how does an authoritarian government collect information about what its people need and want? How does it know how people react to its policies?

One cheap way of solving the information problem is a blind faith in brainwashing - employing vehicles of propoganda, you control thoughts to the extent that what people want and need is consistent with what they are told to want and need. History has shown that this doesn't work very well.

Freedom of Press might be another way of revealing vital information. Indeed, a demorcratic system gets information this way too in addition to the vote of confidence that happens once every four years. Is this enough for an authoritarian government to see ante and post what's needed and how people reacted? I think this will be a good paper topic.