But, in government there is a third term, ability to operate.
How's this different from ordinary prisoner's dilemma?
Assuming there isn't a clear majority in all sections of government:
If both parties cooperate, operation is the highest. If one defects and one cooperates, it's lower, but still there. If both parties decide to defect, the government loses almost all effectiveness.
This is true at most in the short term. In the medium-to-long term the prisoner's dilemma is an epistemic prisoner's dilemma, and effectiveness is determined by the extent to which the people winning the short term prisoner's dilemmas are pushing the "right" policies. If they aren't, the level of "operation" is simply a measure of how fast the car is racing towards the edge of a cliff.
Or as Sir Humphrey from "Yes, Minister" put it:
Well, almost all government policy is wrong, but… frightfully well carried out.
On reddit today I read 'the-Gandhi-quote' on a post about the Wall Street Occupation Protest:
"First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you.."
I'm transitioning, possibly, from the laughing stage and am beginning to feel the tiniest bit excited that perhaps some actual change is in order. On the one hand, I feel sufficiently skeptical about the probability of a 'revolution'. On the other hand, given how fast the world has been changing (the internet, gloablization), maybe change is inevitable and this is the way it happens now.
I know this is a rationality site, not a current affairs site, but when something tweaks my interest I like to know what "Less Wrong" thinks...waiting for a spontaneous post could take forever and finding a 'rationality-spin' would be disingenuous so I'll just ask:
What is possible and what is likely?
What factors are important?