The Left's Identity Filter | 2min snip from COMPLEXITY

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Steven Teles & Rajiv Sethi on Jailbreaking The Captured Economy (EPE 04)

COMPLEXITY

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CHAPTER

The Left's Identity Filter

Those who have a lot of faith in government to do good are the least inclined to sort of take action and express concerns when it does not. I would have thought that those who have faith in government would be most concerned about incident when one sees evidence of poor functioning. But that doesn't seem to be the case, because people feel they'r playing into the hands of those who tend to make those kinds of argument. People on the further left have always been muh more sceptical of wondering whether the state is just an instrument of private power.

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As the old nut goes, “To the victor goes the spoils.” But if each round of play consolidates the spoils into fewer hands, eventually it comes to pass that wealthy special interests twist the rules so much it undermines the game itself. When economic power overtakes the processes of democratic governance, growth stagnates, and the rift between the rich and poor becomes abyssal. Desperate times and desperate measures jeopardize the fabric of society. How might nonpartisan approaches to this wicked problem help us walk the system back into a healthy balance?

Welcome to COMPLEXITY, the official podcast of the Santa Fe Institute. I’m your host, Michael Garfield, and every other week we’ll bring you with us for far-ranging conversations with our worldwide network of rigorous researchers developing new frameworks to explain the deepest mysteries of the universe.

This week on Complexity we speak with Steven Teles, political scientist at Johns Hopkins University and SFI External Professor Rajiv Sethi, Professor of Economics at Barnard College, Columbia University about how self-serving economic actors intervene in regulation to stifle innovation, increase inequality, and contribute to the conditions in which violence can flourish. Referencing Teles’ aisle-crossing book The Captured Economy with co-author Brink Lindsey, we link the problem of regulatory capture in its myriad forms to Sethi’s work on race, inequality, and crime, which we discussed in Episode 7 (Rajiv Sethi on Crime, Stereotypes, and The Pursuit of Justice). At the interface between the left and right, public and private, our guests shed light on the forces that divide — and may help reunite — the USA and other modern nations.

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Podcast theme music by Mitch Mignano.

More on the Emergent Political Economies SFI Research Theme:

SFI launches new research theme on emergent political economies

Complexity 82 - David Krakauer on Emergent Political Economies and A Science of Possibility (EPE 01)

Complexity 83 - Eric Beinhocker & Diane Coyle on Rethinking Economics for A Sustainable & Prosperous World (EPE 02)

Complexity 84 - Ricardo Hausmann & J. Doyne Farmer on Evolving Technologies & Market Ecologies (EPE 03)

Referenced in (or related to) this episode:

The Captured Economy: How The Powerful Enrich Themselves, Slow Down Growth, and Increase Inequality
by Brink Lindsey and Steven Teles

Shadows of Doubt: Stereotypes, Crime, and the Pursuit of Justice
by Brendan O’Flaherty and Rajiv Sethi

Complexity 19 - David B. Kinney on the Philosophy of Science