From: rishab@dxm.ernet.in
Date: Sun, 21 Aug 94 13:56:28 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Governing an information society - 2/4
Message-ID: <gate.7s4FRc1w165w@dxm.ernet.in>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Another thing that governments do that is not quite the same 'social 
upliftment' as welfare - build roads, bridges and so on - is already done
in many countries by private, profitable ventures with little loss to society.

Law enforcement: there are instances where you break your contract, that
form the basis of most crimes from non-payment to larceny to even theft, 
which can be seen as a violation of a social contract to 'pay for what you 
take'; then there are things which even the most radical would consider 
plain wrong, such as murder or rape. This distinction is partially 
acknowledged in the difference between civil and criminal cases.

The former, 'civil' cases are best sorted out by an independent and trusted
judiciary; a 'government' doesn't, or shouldn't, interfere.

In the latter, 'criminal' cases, there may be a need for some sort of 
'authorised violence' such as a police force. This is the only part of
government that might necessarily require a universally accepted power. The
alternative is the utopian, where people are (or are conditioned to be?) too 
'good' to become murderers; or the dystopian (as in cyberpunk fiction, or the
Wild West for that matter) ruled by the law of the jungle - might is right.
Note that this differs from the present situation where while it is true that
the power of authority rests in its right to violence, this is in theory
approved of by the people - a sort of 'right is might'.

Continued...

Rishab

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Rishab Aiyer Ghosh             "Clean the air! clean the sky! wash the wind!
rishab@dxm.ernet.in                   take stone from stone and wash them..."
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