One big hole in my set of frames and models of the world is that I don't understand how government works. I don't understand how the government of my native country (France) works, I don't understand how the government of the country I live in (UK) works, I don't understand how the governments of countries that matter for international coordination (US, China, Russia, Europe (not a country, but relevant player)) work.
I would like to fix this, both for my own understanding and because that sounds quite relevant to my own decisions about prioritizing various kind of works on preventing AI risks.
So I'm looking for resources that actually explain and distill:
- How various government works in details
- How the laws are conceived, passed, discussed
- How international treaties are negotiated and applied
- What are the influences of the general opinion, the press, lobbying, all these different actors.
I'm aware that these technically fall into very different fields of studies, and jobs, and topics, but I'm hoping that there might be, somewhere, a synthesis.
To give a vibe of the ideal resource, it would be something like what Steve Byrnes would write if he was distilling political science and law making and international treaties instead of neuroscience.
I don't expect to get that sadly, but still curious to see if there are obvious resources that I couldn't find on quick google and asking around.
(Note: I'm really, really not interested in resources that try to make a point about some people being bad, some form of government being worse, all that stuff. Not saying it's not potentially important in general, just not useful for the kind of model I want to build. I'm much more interested in good descriptive compressions than in normative arguments)
Bucannan & Tullock The Caclulus of Consent
Sam Peltzmans Towards a more General Theory of Regulation
There was also an old political economy paper published lin the late 19th century I think, in a French journal. The English title is "The Chairman's Problem", IIRC -- I never read it but it was mentioned by one of my professors. Basically discussing the challenges of voting cycles and agenda setting. It might be something you can find and was written by someone that was actually living with and dealing with a real political/governance problem hands on.
Gordon Tullock and Anne Krugueger are probably the correct starting point to get some insights to the concept of rent-seeking in political economy systems -- govenrments.
And of course just reading the rule books for the various governments or parts of the government -- for the US that would be looking at the Constitution and the rules governing internal processes for both the House and Senate. Parlimentary systems will have similar rules of governance.
Looking at the organizational charts likely also help -- what are the committee structures and how does legislation flow through.
I think a lot of the above hits on the idea of gears-level models (and you can likely find good references to alternative perspectives if any of the above seem to slip into the area you hope to avoid). That said I'm not sure I would view political governance as truely having any gears. I think all the rules tend to become more like the Pirate's Code in Piarates of the Caribbean: more like guidelines than hard and fast rule.
Thanks!
After checking them, it feels like most of your links are focused on an economic lens to politics and governance, or at least an economic bent. Does that seem correct?
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