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Your guide to what the American elections mean 2024 for Washington and the world

Civilized societies depend on institutions. The more complicated by society, the greater these institutions. Institutions provide stability, prediction and security. Companies, schools, universities and courts are all institutions. But the most important institutions are those in the state. This is why Donald Trump’s assault on what his supporters call the “deep state” call very dangerous. Some of them believe that the state should be subject to the whims of the great leader. Others believe that it should be in the service of the wealthy. Both sides agree that its ability to meet the needs of the broader audience is of little importance. These opinions are dangerous. They are Harbitsers of tyranny, bluetia and functional imbalance.

In an important series of articles, Deep case evaluationStanford is studying the reason for proving the state’s evacuation very devastating. Fukuyama has devoted many of the past two decades to explain that “a high -capacity, professional, and non -personal country is very important to the success of any society”, including modern liberal democracies. This view is the opinion that destroys many Americans: they see the state – or simply “the government” – as an enemy. But anyone who worked on economic development, as I did, knows that without a specialized public service, professional and neutral, nothing in society is not really working. The more sophisticated and more sophisticated society and economy, the more honest. As Fukuyama is really noticed, the exceptional success of East Asian economies is largely due to the fact that they understood how this country has long been operated from the West. More importantly, he argues that “a successful democracy. It needs a strong modern state, but it must be a country bound by the rule of law and democratic accountability.”

In the United States, the establishment of such a country began in 1883, with the Bandalton Law, which established the Civil Service Committee and set standards based on merit for employment and promotion in federal service. This is what the Trump administration – or, as the historian Timothy Snyder, describes the “garbage system”, and gives credit in the unique role of Eileon Musk – to turn.

As Fukuyama explains, the American bureaucratic system is far from perfection. But the problem is not, as the right -wing critics argue the fact that decisions delegate. Does anyone imagine that technical decisions related to the safety of aircraft or medicines, or should control over dangerous pollutants, or nuclear waste management, must be determined in detail by legislators? It is clear that decisions of this type must be delegated to qualified experts. The idea that it should be decided by the people whose main qualification is the reinforced president of the great president is ridiculous.

The truth is that these “reforms” have nothing to do with making the government more efficient. The goal is instead to make the “mumps” strong. The game was given by JD Vance himself who said that if Trump wins the presidency again in 2024, he must “launch every medium level bureaucracy, and every civilian employee in the administrative state, replaces it with our people. When the courts prevent you, Stand in front of the country as Andrew Jackson did and says, “The chief of judges issued his ruling. Now let him impose this. “This is a coup.

This effort will not transfer public financial resources as well. In the fiscal year 2025 so far, 78 percent of federal spending on social security, health, defense, income security, the advantages of old warriors and pure benefits. Says musk It can provide Doug 2 Treen annually. With spending on 6.8 trillion last year, this looks ridiculous.

In short, one does not make a more complex system “effective” by randomly hacking it. But one can frighten its employees. Thus, real goals, such as Ann Balabom notesIt is the intimidation and the replacement of real public officials with Acolytes. The benefits of this are clear: You will allow those responsible for the use of government powers to sue “enemies”, intimidate journalists, spread lies, ignore science and perform fake and municipal governments, if necessary by force. What about the rule of law? Vance has already said what he is thinking about this idea. The goal, then, is to turn the United States into a commercial dictatorship, where the power holder is king. Will this revolution be compatible with the fair elections in the future? One must doubt it.

After all, a lot of this will be irreversible. Once loyalty replaces integrity and replaced real lies, that will be far away. Thus, as soon as you are dismissed to public and honest public employees, how easy it is to find similar people in the future? American intelligence services, data and scientific analysis were global beacons. How many of that will survive? One Tests For employment is whether one of them embraces the lie that Trump won in 2020. Maga and fanatical professionals are likely to agree.

If this type of condition that Fukuyama praises with what is intended now, then a toxic mixture of inefficiency, predation and corruption is inevitable. Among the destructive features that Daniel Kaufman will be a great colleague in non -profit results, calls.The arrest of the state– Exploiting power by those who cannot bend, but to create, rules for their own benefit. For a country with a high income, the United States has already been captured relatively. But it is about to get worse now that the rules that protect the independence of civil service employees must End.

What happens is destruction, not reform. Whatever they are told, the ordinary Americans will not benefit from chaos. But we know who will do.

Martin.wolf@ft.com

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