First Principles Redux

The knock on centrists (by extremist conservatives and liberals alike) is that they are "moderates" - really a "mushy middle." Mainstream media generally presents two sides of any question, when the third side - a 360-degree view from the middle - might actually lead to solutions rather than nightly bickering by talking heads.

I believe credible principles backed by a coherent world view are essential for a Muscular Middle to emerge. The following is a more coherent assemblage of what I somewhat randomly posted in the past.

From looking at what others call political principles, I’ve concluded that several distinct concepts sometimes are conflated.

Values are abstract ideas that underlie the operating principles and world views: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, fairness, effectiveness, private property, the common good, the environment, health... the list is pretty long.

World Views describe a summary analysis of the way the world works, and has worked. Do you think government is largely successful, or unsuccessful?

Operating Principles are the methods, the modus operandi to be followed if at all possible.

So what follows is a list of centrist Values, World Views and Operating Principles. Where appropriate these are compared or contrasted with conservative and liberal principles.

VALUES

One of the most important differences between centrists and those further to the right and left is that we embrace values on both sides of the aisle, so to speak, but recognize that there are often tradeoffs (see “Balance” below). Here are just a few: fairness versus effectiveness, progress versus equality, taxpayer rights versus human decency, economic growth versus the environment, right to life versus women’t rights. Centrists struggle to balance all of these when they come into conflict – which is often. It sometimes makes centrists seem indecisive, but every good judge knows it’s not always easy to figure out the right thing to do.

Contextualism, Not Relativism
Centrists believe in the importance of core values like liberty, personal responsibility, supporting the needy, protecting the innocent. They are not relativists who believe that all values are relative and judging one higher than another is pointless. However, in the real world core values can collide, and context is the key to assessing balance – which means that no value is permanently dominant.

Doing The Right Thing
While we may not all agree on what the right thing is to do, centrists agree with principled conservatives and liberals that it's important to do the right thing.

Results
Typically politicians declare victory when a bill is passed. Businesses know that new product launches mark the beginning of the work, not the end. Centrists understand that balanced results aren't guaranteed by mere compromises; victory can't be declared until inevitable unintended consequences surface and are addressed.

Freedom From, Freedom To
Liberals emphasize freedom "from" poverty, prejudice, injustice. Conservatives emphasize freedom "to" live their lives without government interference. Both are important to centrists.

Informed Loyalty
Centrists love our country. But friends don't let friends... and citizens don't let their government...

WORLD VIEWS

Genetic Similarity
There’s no reason to think humans who choose business careers have a nature or nurture substantially different from public servants. The litany of human weaknesses and quirks that can lead to untoward business results also plague those on government payrolls, and vice versa. So while liberals give government benefit of the doubt and conservatives cut business a break, centrists give the public and private sectors equal measures of support and skepticism.

What Does Government/The Market Do Well?
Typical conservative/liberal spitball fights are full of generalizations and often low on specifics when it comes to the relative competencies of government and markets. Centrists want the facts – inquiring minds want to know. The track record of both the private and public sector is mixed.

Policy Dials (aka The World Is Not Black or White)
Extremists hyperbolize about capitalism suddenly switching to socialism, or popular safety nets disappearing with a click of a voting booth for the "other" party. Centrists see a rainbow of options, a broad spectrum of policy choices that can be adjusted between values (fairness versus effectiveness, freedom versus security) on a policy dial.

Enlightened Self-Interest
Conservatives have faith that self-interest, guided by Adam Smith's "invisible hand," will lead to optimal social outcomes. Centrists tend to think that only when we myopic humans look long-term (see “Short-termism”) with 360-degree vision do we develop enlightened self-interest that truly can lead to great social outcomes alongside great private outcomes.

Bill of Responsibilities
In a world of conflicting rights, individuals must exercise responsibility, the first of which is to respect others’ rights.

Equal Opportunity, Not Equal Results
Exceptionally capable people happen, and we all benefit when their abilities are amply rewarded. Progress and growth are highly dependent on outliers. At the same time, we all benefit when human capital is fully developed across the board. Equal opportunity is in all of our enlightened self-interest as well as being the right thing to do.

Financial Incentives Matter A Lot
If you want to figure out whether markets, businesses, and even government agencies are working as they should, follow the money.

Watch the Watchdogs
Government isn’t the only important commerce referee. Accounting firms, boards of directors, bond rating companies, stock analysts, buy-side investors, banks and the press all play important roles. If watchdog financial incentives are misaligned, trouble follows.

Elite Hubris
Smart people often over-rate their own abilities. Too often elite policy prescriptions project their over-rated abilities onto their favorite organizations – government, business, religion, non-profits. Average competence is in fact alarmingly low, and it is average public servants, business people and ministers who implement these prescriptions to continual disappointment.

Mistakes Happen
In a complex universe filled with uncertainty, mistakes happen all the time. To err is human, to recognize and correct them quickly is divine. To cover them up and blame someone else happens all to often. Government and businesses need to plan for mistakes without blame.

Unintended Consequences Happen
In a complex universe filled with uncertainty, many choices produce unwanted, unintended results alongside the desirable. Hubris-fired elite myopia compounds the problem with denial. Humble centrists plan for the unexpected and adjust at the line of scrimmage.

Not So Simple
Democracy is more than voting. Capitalism is more than private ownership. Actually, they are much more. The failure of neoconservatives stems from their overly simplified understanding of democracy and capitalism.

The Rules of the Game
Democracy and capitalism have extensive rules that dramatically affect outcomes. It’s often easier to rig the rules in your favor than win on merit, so rule rigging is frequent and attempted rule rigging never ends. Never.

Watch the Bigs
Big government, big business, big religion, big unions, big non-profits, big military… when power and money amass under one roof, it’s an irresistible honey pot for those who crave power and money, and a heady brew for all who try to lead. Large organizations are uniquely capable of massive projects (think lunar landings) but create Sisyphean imperatives for corruption watchdogs.

Short Termism
One of our most debilitating human flaws is our propensity to embrace short-term rewards over long-term success. Encouraging long-termism is both important and difficult.

It's Our Money
Centrists would align with conservatives in asserting that the money we earn, the wealth we accumulate, belongs first to we the people. Government of the people only earns the right to use some of it in the form of taxes by spending it wisely, with the consent of the people. Obviously we the people don't agree on everything, so not all expenditures will be made with the consent of all the people. That does not, however, give elected officials carte blanche to spend wildly, which is the perennial danger of those who deal with Other People's Money (OPM can be as addicting as opium).

OPERATING PRINCIPLES

Balance (aka The Goldilocks Principle)
The primary mantra of centrism is this: pursue balance. When values or principles conflict, centrists seek creative balance such that opposing values can both be honored while unintended consequences of extremist adherence are minimized.

360-Degree View
The right and the left have their blind spots, people or constituencies or values they largely ignore. Centrists have to work harder, striving to understand policy implications for everyone.

Transparency
In government and commerce, transparency is essential to proper functioning. It’s often battled, occasionally for good reasons but more often to hide socially undesirable behavior.

Accountability
Democracy and capitalism don’t work without accountability. Incumbents will forever attempt to escape or soften or delay or defer their judgment days. Widespread bailouts and 95% re-election rates are not a good sign.

Reason Rules
Going back to Plato, centrists have advocated that reason should rule over passion, both in government and individual behavior (see http://theglitteringeye.com/?p=2926 for a thoughtful advocacy of moderation).

Open Minds
AKA "The Truth Is My Friend." Nobody has a monopoly on the truth, and centrists are unafraid to embrace good ideas as well as harsh realities wherever they appear.

What Works
Centrists value what works – which is not to be confused with “the ends justify the means.” With a 360-degree, long-term view, centrists don’t advocate expediency for short-term results or horrific means to achieve them.

Humility With Confidence
In a complex universe centrists eschew blinding personal hubris. That does not preclude optimism and confidence that collectively we can overcome any obstacles the universe might throw at us.

Mutual Respect
We believe that all men are created equal. Combine that with open minds and confident humility, you get a prescription for mutual respect as a centrist modus operandi that stands in stark contrast to shrill put-downs from Extremist Talking Heads. Centrists don't make for great television, they make for great governance.

Distributed Honeypots
Part of the genius and success of American democratic capitalism is that power and money are widely distributed among competing government branches and industry giants, which helps mitigate (but does not eliminate) self-dealing by Big Leaders.

80/20 Government
Far too often government policies inadequately focus on the 20% that’s causing 80% of the problem. For example, if the current financial crisis had focused early on fixing the housing problems in California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida they might actually have fixed something by now. But that wouldn't have been "fair."

Value for Tax Dollars
It’s not unreasonable to ask the government what we’re getting for our tax dollars, and to see annual measures of the overhead in the services provided. Americans don’t mind getting value for their tax dollars – it’s bridges to nowhere, $50 toilet seats, bloated bureaucracies, corporate welfare and cushy government retirement benefits that raise centrist citizen dander. The federal government has started the process of evaluating program efficiency, which is a good beginning.

Policy Prescriptions

I've tried to avoid slipping into policy wonk land. Not that I have anything against that - I love a good discussion about the devil in the details (there's another centrist "world view"). But this isn't the place for a close-up; rather, here are two related issue prescription bullet.s

Democracy 2.0
The US led the world in creating modern democracy, but as other countries have created their constitutions, some of America’s “legacy systems” have not been emulated. It’s time to upgrade. In particular, the 150+ year reign of the Democratic and Republican parties has run its course.

In a country with a plethora of consumer choice, why are we still stuck with the same two political duopolists?

Votes and Purchases: Crude Tools
In our multi-polar, multi-issue, two-party democracy, a vote provides insufficient information. Is it supporting economic policy? Social? Foreign? Or just good teeth? Similarly, purchasing multi-featured products in crowded markets is insufficient to guide product planning. Democracy and capitalism need more information-rich transactions.