= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
Lumifer comments on What did governments get right? Gotta list them all! - Less Wrong Discussion
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (46)
The topic is complicated.
First, governments are not monolithic but are diverse collections of people and organizations. The variation in competency between them is considerable.
Second, what do you mean by "competence"? Efficiency (measured in what? money?) in pursuing goals? Any goals?
Third, I don't think "future policy responses" have much to do with competence. I would think they will be determined by the goals and interests of politically powerful groups. Governments are mechanisms through which political power is wielded.
Fourth, reading the media is remarkably poor way of estimating pretty much anything. What's wrong with estimating the government's competence by looking at real-life results, long-term data?
Do you have good sources for that?
Statistics published by large organizations such as UN, WHO, IMF, etc. They shouldn't be taken as gospel, but should be sufficient for looking at broad outlines -- e.g. infant mortality, education, public infrastructure...