The Unfinished Democracynotes toward an upgrade

The Essays

76 essays in eleven chapters. 1 published so far, the rest are forthcoming.

Part I · Diagnosis
I

The Hook1 of 5

Why the debate we are having is the wrong one.

  1. 01The Pension AbsurdityI am forty-two. The pension being debated today will not exist when I retire. And everyone in the room knows it.
  2. 02The Comfort of Cynicism – forthcoming
  3. 03The Incentive Trap – forthcoming
  4. 04The End of Manual Labour – forthcoming
  5. 05The Dignity Deficit – forthcoming
II

The System0 of 6

How the machinery of politics produces outcomes nobody wants.

  1. 06The Consultancy Tax – forthcoming
  2. 07The Hollow Centre – forthcoming
  3. 08Polarization by Design – forthcoming
  4. 09The Overton Drift – forthcoming
  5. 10The Outrage Machine – forthcoming
  6. 11The Scapegoat Economy – forthcoming
III

The Uncomfortable Truths0 of 7

What voters and citizens contribute to the problem.

  1. 12The Simplicity Premium – forthcoming
  2. 13The Entitlement Paradox – forthcoming
  3. 14The Belonging Trap – forthcoming
  4. 15The Idealism Inversion – forthcoming
  5. 16The Outsourced State – forthcoming
  6. 17The Law Firm Tax – forthcoming
  7. 18The Lesser Evil Calculus – forthcoming
IV

The Roots0 of 4

Education as the failure that enables all the others.

  1. 19The Factory Model – forthcoming
  2. 20What Schools Should Teach – forthcoming
  3. 21Teach the Trade-Off – forthcoming
  4. 22The Finnish Paradox – and What Comes Next – forthcoming
V

The Disruption0 of 5

What artificial intelligence does to work, taxes and the social contract.

  1. 23The Silent Decoupling – forthcoming
  2. 24The Political Debate Is Miles Off – forthcoming
  3. 25UBI as Logical Consequence – forthcoming
  4. 26The Tax Shift – forthcoming
  5. 27The Generational Fracture – forthcoming
VI

The Design Flaw0 of 3

Why the system rewards the wrong things.

  1. 28Visibility Beats Effectiveness – forthcoming
  2. 29The Coalition Tax – forthcoming
  3. 30The Accountability Asymmetry – forthcoming
Part II · Construction
VII

The Philosophy of the Fix0 of 6

The principles that come before any tool.

  1. 31Augmentation, Not Replacement – forthcoming
  2. 32The Democracy Paradox – forthcoming
  3. 33Friction Against Impulse – forthcoming
  4. 34Freedom From vs Freedom To – forthcoming
  5. 35The Dignity Question – forthcoming
  6. 36Can the Centre Hold? – forthcoming
VIII

The AI Democracy Toolkit0 of 12

Twelve tools, described concretely, and what could go wrong.

  1. 37POLISIM: The Mirror – forthcoming
  2. 38The Civic Copilot – forthcoming
  3. 39The Personal Impact Simulator – forthcoming
  4. 40The Legislative X-Ray – forthcoming
  5. 41The Budget Auditor – forthcoming
  6. 42The Promise Tracker – forthcoming
  7. 43The Conflict of Interest Radar – forthcoming
  8. 44The Deliberation Engine – forthcoming
  9. 45The Narrative Decoder – forthcoming
  10. 46The Long-Term Guardian – forthcoming
  11. 47The Dark Side: What Could Go Wrong – forthcoming
  12. 48The Ethics of Augmentation – forthcoming
IX

Making It Real0 of 6

Institutional reforms that already work somewhere.

  1. 49Unbundle the Ballot – forthcoming
  2. 50Skin in the Game: Participatory Budgeting – forthcoming
  3. 51Citizens' Assemblies and Future Commissioners – forthcoming
  4. 52Depersonalize the Debate – forthcoming
  5. 53Reward Engagement, Not Just Voting – forthcoming
  6. 54Lifelong Civic Learning – forthcoming
Part III · Reckoning
X

The Thinkers0 of 16

Sixteen political thinkers put to the test.

  1. 55Plato: Finally the Philosopher-King? – forthcoming
  2. 56Aristotle: Praxis, Not Theoria – forthcoming
  3. 57Machiavelli: You Are Naive – forthcoming
  4. 58Hobbes: Without Order, Nothing – forthcoming
  5. 59Locke: Consent of the Governed – forthcoming
  6. 60Rousseau: The General Will Is Not an Algorithm – forthcoming
  7. 61Montesquieu: The Separation That Eroded – forthcoming
  8. 62Kant: The Unfinished Project – forthcoming
  9. 63Tocqueville: Tyranny Amplified – forthcoming
  10. 64Mill: On Liberty, Reloaded – forthcoming
  11. 65Marx: It's the Means of Production – forthcoming
  12. 66Simone Weil: Attention as a Political Act – forthcoming
  13. 67Hannah Arendt: The Right to Have Rights – forthcoming
  14. 68Habermas: The Corrupted Public Sphere – forthcoming
  15. 69David Van Reybrouck: Against Elections – forthcoming
  16. 70Rawls and Sen: Justice Behind the Veil – forthcoming
XI

The Closing0 of 6

Bringing the argument together.

  1. 71The Augmentation Principle – forthcoming
  2. 72Belgium as the Perfect Lab – forthcoming
  3. 73What If We're Wrong? – forthcoming
  4. 74Not Because the System Is Bad – forthcoming
  5. 75The Personal Stake – forthcoming
  6. 76The Conversation That Never Ends – forthcoming