America: Broken as Designed

The most significant test of any system is how it handles unanticipated situations. A well-designed and implemented system is one which can continue to operate correctly (i.e. one which continues to embody its design principles and function according to its specifications) in a situation which was not considered in its creation. A system which does not must be considered flawed, either in design or implementation.

While those of here who are scientists and engineers use this principle of evaluation daily in our work, it's likely that few of us (and probably even fewer in the general population) have applied this principle to the State(s) in which we live. Since the United States, in its current form, is over two hundred years old (and one of its designers, Thomas Jefferson himself, advocated such a review every twenty years), a public review of how well it has proceeded is long overdue.





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A well-formed project will have three things, not because they are necessary for its success, but because they are necessary for deciding whether it has succeeded. These are: 1) a statement of goals, 2) a specification and 3) the implementation. Without these, it is impossible to look at a finished system and reasonably decide to what degree it is (or is not) what was intended and to what degree it actually performs the functions it's intended to perform.

The United States is a rarity among States, in that it possesses all three of these things:

1) statement of goals: The Declaration of Independence and The Federalist Papers
2) design specification: The Constitution
3) implementation: the State as it exists
(Most modern States possess a written Constitution, though as I understand it the United Kingdom does not, and obviously all States, in that they exist, possess an implementation. Few, however, have a written statement of the founders intentions; the United States, the Soviet Union and Maoist China are quite a rare collection in that respect.)

Since the U.S. has all three attributes, it is possible to evaluate it as we would any other project. This involves answering three questions;

1) How closely does the specification follow the stated goals?
2) How well does the implementation follow the specification?
3) How accurately does the implementation embody the stated design goals?