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de1ba6d
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Plato argued that good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will always find a way around law. By pretending that procedure will get rid of corruption, we have succeeded only in humiliating honest people and provided a cover of darkness and complexity for the bad people. There is a scandal here, but it's not the result of venal bureaucrats. (1994) p. 99
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politics
policy
bureaucrats
plato
conservative
corruption
politics-of-the-united-states
government
process
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Philip K. Howard |
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dd9c59e
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Uniformity in the common law, consisting of broad principles like the "reasonable person" standard, generally permits adjustment for the circumstances. This type of uniform principle is almost synonymous with fairness. Uniform application of a detailed rule, on the other hand, will almost always favor one group over another. p. 34"
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politics
common-law
red-tape
law
government
fairness
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Philip K. Howard |
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1a5f351
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By exiling human judgment in the last few decades, modern law changed role from useful tool to brainless tyrant. This legal regime will never be up to the job, any more than the Soviet system of central planning was, because ti can't think. The comedy of law's sterile logic--large POISON signs warning against common sand, spending twenty-two years on pesticide review and deciding next to nothing, allowing fifty-year-old white men to sue for..
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responsibility
human-judgment
bureaucrats
law
regulation
tyranny
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Philip K. Howard |
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a92257d
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We must abandon our belief that human choice denigrates the Rule of Law.
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Philip K. Howard |
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5d18265
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Overthrow the bureaucracy, and return to a system based on human responsibility.
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Philip K. Howard |
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60d32f0
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Human nature turns out to be more complicated than the idea that people will get along if only the rules are clear enough. Uncertainty, the ultimate evil that modern law seeks to eradicate, generally fosters cooperation, not the opposite.
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law
uncertainty
government
rules
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Philip K. Howard |
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d6a2820
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The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas," John Maynard Keynes famously observed, "but in escaping from the old ones."
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Philip K. Howard |
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2c369c1
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Mindless rules, not accountable officials, are the enemy of freedom.
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Philip K. Howard |
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5c4004b
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Automatic law corrodes our freedom
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Philip K. Howard |
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d0d386f
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In 2010, 70 percent of federal tax revenue was consumed by three entitlement programs (Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security)
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Philip K. Howard |
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5fab838
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America has succumbed to its own intermediate goal. Purging official discretion, not advancing the public good, has become the goal of the Rule of Law. Better to prevent a bad choice, even at the cost of banning all good choices. Unquestioned assumptions are the most powerful forces in human affairs. If people assume something is right or wrong, they'll act on it even to the point of self-destruction. Just as the inhabitants of Easter Islan..
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Philip K. Howard |