/lit/ - Literature

>>23161495
He was awesome as a natty.

Just read your country Constitution

>>23161518
what if i live in the UK?

>>23161577
I'm so sorry anon

>>23161577
Toodle pip God save the king's prostate and House of Cards

>>23161577
Your betters will concern themselves with that then

picrel does a pretty good job of explaining the nature of realistic government. there's even an 18-minute YouTube video that covers the basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs

>>23161495
>Ronnie Coleman before taking steroids
no he's on steroids in that pic too

>>23161495
I think most of how governments actually work are not covered in civics class. Like in america most of the power is in the federal agencies which are technically under the executive branch but in practice no president can actually fire everyone in them. They're an unelected ruling elite that have basically no accountability. But what you get in civics is three branches, checks and balances, blah blah

>>23163201
So what's a good introduction on this?
The more i think about it, the more it's actually baffling that this isn't covered more extensively in high school.

>>23162566
He gained like 100 lbs of pure muscle after that pic. That's impossible to do if he's already well on the gear in that pic

>>23161586
If you're an American it's not like it's any better over here.

>>23163201
Most of the government people deal with on a day to day basis is state and local. If you remove retiree benefits, which are just transfer payments, state/local is larger than the Feds. Most of what the Feds do is just providing aid to state/local anyhow. Schools, roads, police, fire, most enviornmental protection, building permits, etc. are all local.

This makes it a very complex topic and I'm afraid that the focus on the Feds largely has to do with people looking for simplifying narratives.

The leadership of federal agencies, like most local positions, is appointed by elected officials, and many positions are also approved by the relevant legislature and can be removed by them. This is true for the Feds but also most state and local.

It's the lower level positions the POTUS can't fire, the career civil service. This isn't all a bad thing. It ensures expertise carries on. The reason the entire country doesn't radically change and life become totally different when one party takes over from another is because the day to day work is done by careerists. Replacing all these with appointees is unlikely to improve performance. An independent professional civil service is widely agreed upon by political scientists as essential to a high functioning state.

This group becoming self serving is a real risk, as is state capture due to the government to private sector pipeline whereby officials get offered much higher paying jobs to interact with their old agency. This is actually illegal in many states though, and the Feds could pass a law on it.

I think the "deep state" more often than not is just an excuse for poor management and performance.

T. Have worked in federal, state and local.

>>23163588
BTW, state and local has far more acute corruption problems as well because investigative media is far more sparse and because a very large number of states have a single dominant party. In many places, winning the Democratic or Republican nomination basically assured victory. This leads to low preforming governance because being a party insider is more important than having competence or broad appeal.

I live in Kentucky and we have a two term Democratic governor because the Republican party here has become corrupt and degraded by having such a large advantage. He's also one of the most popular governors or politicians in general.

Likewise, when I worked in Massachusetts we had a Republican governor, and he was the most popular politician in the US. The only reason Massachusetts has a Democratic governor now is because Baker didn't want to go through a Republican primary where the focus would be on 2020 election claims he dismissed as ridiculous. It's an example of radicals kneecapping their own party, which is common.

>>23163607
this is very interesting my brother thank you for posting!

OP here, i appreciate your discussion, but i havent gotten a lot of literary recommendations yet

>>23163588
>I think the "deep state" more often than not is just an excuse for poor management and performance.
Anon, I...
https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/
https://www.amazon.com/American-Resistance-Inside-Story-Nation/dp/1541700635
Are you sure you're not just a disinfo spook?

>>23161495
What's that plastic tag on his undies? It looks like he didn't know how to remove the anti-tampering device.

>>23161495
"The Origins Of Political Order" by Francis Fuckyourmama

>>23163588
>This group becoming self serving is a real risk, as is state capture due to the government to private sector pipeline whereby officials get offered much higher paying jobs to interact with their old agency. This is actually illegal in many states though, and the Feds could pass a law on it.
I don't think that a productive relationship between government and business is necessarily a bad thing. When done right, shit gets done, and it gets done well. It simply needs accountability to avoid the needless grift that occurs in the shadows. Lobbying positions should be an elected office with oversight.

>>23161577
study the history of Parliament

>>23162566
Ronnie was one of those few genetic freaks who had a massive physique even back when he was still natty. After he started juicing, he got even huge-er. He makes no secret of it nowadays

>>23166196
that's his number (11)

>>23166689
>yeah bro, he just had really good genes

>>23161577
UK has a constitution

>>23167744
The UK has an uncodified mess that can be squinted at and charitable called a constitution in the same way that citizens of the UK can be squinted at and charitably called human beings.

>>23166247
>Fukuyama
>in 1995+29 years

>>23163588
Good post, anon.

>t. high level local government careerist

>>23168590
Are you proud of that?

>>23168592
By and large yes; I work to make sure my region can effectively implement projects and programs that folks think are important, and to explain the workings of the local government to the public so that they understand (1) how things work/are structured, and (2) how they can be involved/effectively give input into those programs and projects. That feels mote meaningful to me than many other careers would. Dealing with the egos of certain electeds, and the lack of intellectual curiosity of many mid/lower level (and some higher level too) folks just in it for a regular paycheck is sometimes a drag, but any career is going to have similar issues.

>>23166263
A productive relationship is good and both public and private sectors benefit; the government exists to provide services and ultimately the betterment of its people, and people run and benefit from private enterprise, business, etc.

The danger isn't a productive relationship, but an unproductive one (where [1] private firms engage in rent-seeking/excluding competitors from emerging through use of legislation and regulatory requirements that they are able to get effected through the promise [overt or not] of rewarding the folks in the public sector who implement them; and/or [2] private interests fraudulently enrich themselves at public expense by using bribes/contacts to get contracts or above-market payments or etc).

>>23168627
yeah that makes sense, i've got an allergic reaction when i heard 'careerist' because i associate it with ruthless psychopaths.
What books would you recommend for OP?

>>23167744
No it doesn't. It's a vibes based system and we're waiting for a party to write one. It's why the last 2 prime ministers weren't even elected