David Sloan Wilson — Why Groups Fail (Hint: For the Same Reasons that Nations Fail)

To solve the problem of abuse by power-hungry leaders, the first step must be the adoption of a worldview that makes it obvious.

When leadership fails, the whole group is dragged down. An elite may not constitute the operational leadership but rather is the dominant subgroup that selects or controls the leadership of a group.

To solve the problem of abuse by power-hungry leaders, the first step must be the adoption of a worldview that makes it obvious.

One such worldview is evolutionary theory, in particular Multilevel Selection (MLS) theory, which has an extraordinary range of applications in the biological sciences and is only beginning to appear on the radar screen of the human social and behavioral sciences². Evolution is relentlessly relative. It doesn’t matter how well an organism survives and reproduces in absolute terms, only relative to others in its vicinity. Against this background, individuals who strive to maximize their relative standing in a group, even at the expense of the whole group, aren’t surprising. They are at the core of the theory. The main puzzle is to explain how individuals evolve to behave for the good of their group in ways that might decrease their relative advantage within the group.

The solution to that puzzle is a process of selection among groups in a multi-group population. Once again, the logic is relentlessly relative, which means that a group can sabotage a multi-group organization as easily as an individual can sabotage a group. MLS theory doesn’t make everything nice, but it does specify the conditions required for any group to function as a corporate unit (reminder: the word “corporate” is derived from the Latin word for “body”). If the group isn’t organized to prevent disruptive self-serving behaviors from within, then fuggedaboutit.…

The current institutional structure breeds toxic leaders, not by genetic evolution of course, but by the selection of social strategies in behaviorally flexible individuals. The only solution to this problem is a change in the institutional social environment.…

Our psychological immune system evolved in the context of small groups with a relatively even balance of power and did not prepare us for the larger societies that emerged with the advent of agriculture. These societies therefore became despotic, ironically more like chimp societies than small-scale human societies. Fortunately, cultural evolution is a multi-level process, no less than genetic evolution, and the largely cooperative mega-societies of today a product of ten thousand years of cultural group selection, largely but not entirely in the form of warfare4. Once again, MLS theory doesn’t make everything nice. It specifies the conditions under which groups of any size evolve—or fail to evolve—into corporate units. It is up to us as policy selection agents to make things nice with the insights provided by MLS theory.…

A final point is that the relentlessly relative logic of MLS theory is scale-independent. It applies to nations, multinational corporations, and global commons issues such as the climate and world economy, no less than a single business or imaginary groups of four people working on a verbal problem-solving task. Compare Case and Maner’s elegant experiments on why groups fail with Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson’s big history book on why nations fail. You will see that when it comes to Multilevel Selection, all the world’s a stage.

Must-read. I've just hit the highlights.

Evonomics
Why Groups Fail (Hint: For the Same Reasons that Nations Fail)
David Sloan Wilson | SUNY Distinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University and Arne Næss Chair in Global Justice and the Environment at the University of Oslo

See also

The iron law of oligarchy is a political theory, first developed by the German sociologist Robert Michels in his 1911 book, Political Parties.[1] It claims that rule by an elite, or oligarchy, is inevitable as an "iron law" within any democratic organization as part of the "tactical and technical necessities" of organization.[1]
Michels theory states that all complex organizations, regardless of how democratic they are when started, eventually develop into oligarchies. Michels observed that since no sufficiently large and complex organization can function purely as a direct democracy, power within an organization will always get delegated to individuals within that group, elected or otherwise.

Wikipedia

Iron Law of Oligarchy

The Power Elite is a 1956 book by sociologist C. Wright Mills, in which Mills calls attention to the interwoven interests of the leaders of the military, corporate, and political elements of society and suggests that the ordinary citizen is a relatively powerless subject of manipulation by those entities.

Wikipedia
The Power Elite

The Iron Law of What Again?

Darcy K. Leach

Consortium News (April 2014)

The Iron Law of Oligarchy Returns

Danny Schechter

Evading The Iron Law: Culture And Ritual In Social Movement Organizations

P. Osterman

Diane Coyle — Inequality and the seeds of destruction

The alliance of capitalism and democracy is breaking down owing to inequality as the middle abandons the elites's agendas. The traditional political theory of republicanism that elites know best how to manage both business and the country is on shaky ground.

The Enlightened Economist
Inequality and the seeds of destruction
Diane Coyle | freelance economist and a former advisor to the UK Treasury. She is a member of the UK Competition Commission and is acting Chairman of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation

Maybe more creative destruction or creative disruption than just destruction. Or maybe disruptive innovation. This is being reflected in the rise of populism in the US.

Scott Adams

The Second American Revolution - What Then?

Trump, FOX News, and Megyn Kelly Explained (Master Persuader Series)

The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa)
Iowa Youth Straw Poll: Iowa students say it's Trump and Sanders —More than 280 schools in 80 counties participate in Iowa  Straw Poll

Rob Boshart and Vanessa Miller

In 1964 Bob dylan and Mario Savio were announcing an impending revolution. Now it is populist presidential candidates. The time scertainly are a-chanin'.

Isolating "Economics" From Politics? Get Real!

(commentary posted by Roger Erickson)

Seen this?

Chinese & US Navies Play Wargames in Sea Corner Between China, Japan & Phillipines

Seems like someone's angling to either:

1) protect something (but what? oil in South China sea?) or

2) cut a competitor off, before it gets any more competitive?

Tom Hickey astutely says:

China is pushing against the US "pivot to Asia" and the US [& Japan & Phillipines & Vietnam] is signaling it's not budging. This has been going on in the South China Sea for many decades but now China is trying to push out its territory of influence and the US is saying to forget about it.

Yet why "debate," now? Our elites have sold most of OUR entire manufacturing base to China's elites. Why not sell OUR access to other people's commodities and trade routes too? :(

Is this a sign that our elites want to own everyone else too, not just the US Middle Class?  And of course, EVERYONE else's little commodities too?

Orthodox economics IS national policy, of course. That's true, regardless of team regime or paradigm. The goal is to discriminate between wargames and economic policy games.

The real problem for the US Middle Class is that orthodox economics, by definition, developed as a way for a ruling class to "manage" it's assets, including the subservient classes. That's why people like Paul Krugman will suck up to anyone, and avoid any topic, in order to win a brownie button. Then, if the Middle Class ever lets itself out of it's own constricted-knowledge bag, the frauds - of all types - will claim that they "knew it all along" of course.

Parasites come in a whole palette of flavors. From venal Control Frauds (Rubinites?), to intellectually dishonest ones (Krugmans), and on to the truly Ignorant Frauds. Those last ones usually constitute the bulk of the electorate ... until they decide to set their own alarm clock, and to wake up early enough to see what's going on outside their old perspective.

Instead of our elites using us as cannon fodder against China's subservient classes, acting as proxies FOR China's elites ... why doesn't the US Middle Class and the Chinese Middle Class cut their own deal. Send our elites to shoot it out with their elites? Put it in a gladiatorial ring, make a SURREALITY TV show, and sell popcorn?

It could go viral.

U.K. Cameron says Britain should impose permanent austerity

Removing Elite Snouts From Public Troughs

Commentary by Roger Erickson

What part of the word failure don’t the Euro elite understand?

Bill Mitchell needs help inventing new descriptors appropriate for defining the confluence of financial elites and cultural assassins. Shall we sponsor a competition? With no entry fees?