Impossible Triangle of Modern Western Democracy
Democracy means that the majority of people govern some things together. What I say by myself is definitely not a democracy.
Democracy is a very important element of modern Western ideology. If anyone dares to say that the United States is an undemocratic country, or that France is an undemocratic country, many people will definitely be annoyed.
Many people talk about learning from the West, learning from Western democracy is a very important meaning. This in turn includes a series of institutional and procedural arrangements.
The first one to praise American democracy were not even Orientals, nor South Americans, nor Africans, but the French.
From 1835 to 1840, the French thinker Tocqueville wrote the world-renowned work "Democracy in America" in two volumes. I still remembers that Tocqueville said in the book that it is the unique geographical environment of the United States that has created the unique democracy of the United States. Thus, American democracy was born only in America and not in the rest of the world.
It seems that Tocqueville's thesis also implies the irreproducibility of American democracy.
Private property rights mean that the ownership is determined, and the owner alone has the final say, which is sacred and inviolable. The wind can enter, the rain can enter, but the king cannot enter.
Private property rights are a very important element of modern Western ideology. If anyone dares to say that the United States is a public economy, or that France is a public economy, many people will definitely be annoyed.
Economists tell us that if one thing cannot be resolved, it must be a problem of unclear property rights. As long as the property rights are clarified, the owner will be clarified, and the owner will automatically have the motivation to solve the problem and try his best to solve the problem.
Privatization is the panacea for economists to solve problems. Why is the factory difficult to operate? Because it is public ownership. Therefore, the reform is to privatize state-owned enterprises. Sell it to private individuals, and the benefits will come up.
I always feel that according to these economists, feudal China should be the most profitable and the strongest economy? Everywhere in the whole world, is it the king's land; everyone on the land, is it the king's servant. This is close to the extreme of privatization, right?
Freedom means free from coercion. Activism means doing whatever you want, and negativity means doing nothing if you don't want to do it.
Freedom is a very important element of modern Western ideology. If anyone dares to say that there is no freedom in the United States, or that there is no freedom in France, many people will definitely be annoyed.
Many people yearn for the West, and an important aspect of their yearning is the freedom of the West. The moon is much rounder because of the free air.
The exercise of positive liberty requires the destruction of private property rights. The limitation of total physical energy and the second law of thermodynamics determine that your actions will definitely cause damage to the rights of others/other things. It seems that there is no violation of the rights of others, but because private property rights are not maximized, those things that are damaged are not included in the scope of a certain person's rights.
An extreme expression of positive liberty is the liberty to take the life of another. The king wants his ministers to die, and the ministers have to die.
But even if all restrictions on positive freedom by the rights of others are removed, people still cannot achieve full positive freedom. Birth, old age, sickness and death, and gravity, First King of Qin Dynasty still couldn't overcome it. Even if he is not bound by the laws of the world, he has to be bound by the laws of the universe.
King of Qin could not overcome gravity, but scientists and engineers could. Breaking through the constraints of the laws of the universe and expanding people's positive freedom requires the power of science and technology.
Technology has expanded people's freedom, but it may also be destroying people's private rights.
Negative liberty is the interpretation favored by jurists. Jurists are not scientists, and they chose to obey the law, not break.
However, the tree wants to be quiet but the wind doesn't stop. Democracy destroys negative liberty.
As long as there are multiple people in charge of making decisions where you want to exercise freedom, freedom is likely to be a luxury. Although you want to be negative, you can't get it.
When I was young, I didn’t want to do my homework, and when I grew up, I didn’t want to go to work. Think about when the negative freedom you had in your quiet years came true?
Freedom, democracy, and private property rights are the three important elements of modern Western democracy, and they also constitute the impossible triangle of modern Western democracy.
The expansion of democratic space depends on the expansion of public space and public affairs. The expansion of private property rights should maximize private space and minimize public space. The contradiction between the two cannot be reconciled.
On the Internet, we can also get a glimpse of the primary form of this conflict. You think that posting is your freedom, and free discussion is the democracy that netizens should enjoy, but the platform is the private property of the operating company, and it legally has the right to delete posts and ban accounts.
On this issue, Bitcoin has given some inspiration.
The ledger is public and therefore democratic (computing power democracy). However, the boundaries of democratic behavior are strictly restricted by cryptography and must not exceed the boundaries of private property rights.
The private key is the property certificate of owning bitcoins, so it is private (cryptographic private ownership). But the basis of private property rights is that public ledgers can be secure, sustainable, and not privatized, and that the fruits of democracy will not be stolen (guaranteed by the strongest computing power on the earth).
The safe and stable operation of democracy and public ownership is the cornerstone and institutional guarantee of private ownership and individual rights.
Positive freedom is strictly guided and can only be exercised to the world outside the system, not to the world inside the system. You have the freedom to actively improve the mining machine and achieve technological breakthroughs. You do not have the freedom to destroy the ledger or hack other people's private keys.
Negative freedom is fully granted. This is called "permissionless". Bitcoin, you can hold it if you want to hold it, and don’t hold it if you don’t want to hold it. If you want to participate in mining, you can participate, and if you don’t want to participate, no one will force you to participate. Buy and sell at will, come and go freely.
This is the solution and design of Bitcoin.
Extra: The full book of "History of Bitcoin" has been released on leanpub https://leanpub.com/history-of-bitcoin
(Disclaimer: The content of this article does not constitute any investment advice. Cryptocurrency is a very high-risk product, and there is a risk of zeroing at any time. Please participate carefully and be responsible for yourself.)