Game theory’s cure for corruption • Hacker News Board

Re: Game theory’s cure for corruption

#11

Post by gabriel34 » Mon, May 11, 2015, 5:08 PM UTC

matt4077 wrote: post #7

hammeringtime wrote: post #4

" Imagine a city where police commit blatant traffic violations and never ticket one another. The authorities could decrease power inequalities by developing an online system in which all citizens are able to anonymously report dangerous drivers. Anyone who received too many independent reports would be investigated – police included. " This makes sense to me. It infuriates me as a biker and pedestrian when police da…

http://bribespot.com/en/ tried/is trying to do something like that: crowdsourcing info on corruption. I saw their pitch and thought it's an awesome idea, but I don't think they got the traction that would be needed.

India has one with quite a lot of reports: http://www.ipaidabribe.com/

Re: Game theory’s cure for corruption

#12

Post by _lce0 » Mon, May 11, 2015, 5:10 PM UTC

> The results were startling. By making a few alterations to the composition of the justice system, corrupt societies could be made to transition to a state called ‘righteousness’. In righteous societies, police were not a separate, elite order. They were everybody. When virtually all of society stood ready to defend the common good, corruption didn’t pay.

Is this saying that the justice system is the problem, not law-enforcement?

Re: Game theory’s cure for corruption

#13

Post by kps » Mon, May 11, 2015, 5:12 PM UTC

baddox wrote: post #9

hammeringtime wrote: post #4

" Imagine a city where police commit blatant traffic violations and never ticket one another. The authorities could decrease power inequalities by developing an online system in which all citizens are able to anonymously report dangerous drivers. Anyone who received too many independent reports would be investigated – police included. " This makes sense to me. It infuriates me as a biker and pedestrian when police da…

The trick is still: who does the investigation?

A past idea of mine is: everyone. Every vehicle registration accumulates points at the rate of one per week. Fingering another vehicle deducts 5 points from their total and (to deter false reports) one from yours. If your total is negative, you can't drive/ride.

There's probably a great deal wrong with this.

Re: Game theory’s cure for corruption

#14

Post by [deleted] » Mon, May 11, 2015, 5:14 PM UTC

javajosh wrote: post #3

Can someone tl;dr this? I skimmed it but the florid prose and the lack of any, you know, concrete suggestion (that I could find) really, really put me off (and I'm normally a huge fan of aeon).

[deleted]

Re: Game theory’s cure for corruption

#15

Post by fchollet » Mon, May 11, 2015, 5:17 PM UTC

kps wrote: post #13

baddox wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trick is still: who does the investigation?

A past idea of mine is: everyone. Every vehicle registration accumulates points at the rate of one per week. Fingering another vehicle deducts 5 points from their total and (to deter false reports) one from yours. If your total is negative, you can't drive/ride. There's probably a great deal wrong with this.

This would de-incentivize the reporting of infractions, which is the opposite of what you want.

You want to incentivize the reporting of verified infractions, while de-incentivize false reports. A consensus system could be used to "verify" a report.

Re: Game theory’s cure for corruption

#16

Post by gabriel34 » Mon, May 11, 2015, 5:18 PM UTC

baddox wrote: post #9

hammeringtime wrote: post #4

" Imagine a city where police commit blatant traffic violations and never ticket one another. The authorities could decrease power inequalities by developing an online system in which all citizens are able to anonymously report dangerous drivers. Anyone who received too many independent reports would be investigated – police included. " This makes sense to me. It infuriates me as a biker and pedestrian when police da…

The trick is still: who does the investigation?

Robert Klitgaard posits that accountability/transparency reduces corruption

Re: Game theory’s cure for corruption

#17

Post by Spooky23 » Mon, May 11, 2015, 5:18 PM UTC

_lce0 wrote: post #12

> The results were startling. By making a few alterations to the composition of the justice system, corrupt societies could be made to transition to a state called ‘righteousness’ . In righteous societies, police were not a separate, elite order. They were everybody. When virtually all of society stood ready to defend the common good, corruption didn’t pay. Is this saying that the justice system is the problem, not l…

Righteousness is a problem in of itself at times, and the vision of "common good" enforced by the citizens in general will not necessarily be good.

Re: Game theory’s cure for corruption

#18

Post by kps » Mon, May 11, 2015, 5:18 PM UTC

  > In righteous societies, police were not a separate, elite order.
  > They were everybody.

Attributed to John Peel in his establishment of London Metropolitan Police: “To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.”¹

¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_Principles

Re: Game theory’s cure for corruption

#19

Post by higherpurpose » Mon, May 11, 2015, 5:22 PM UTC

_lce0 wrote: post #12

> The results were startling. By making a few alterations to the composition of the justice system, corrupt societies could be made to transition to a state called ‘righteousness’ . In righteous societies, police were not a separate, elite order. They were everybody. When virtually all of society stood ready to defend the common good, corruption didn’t pay. Is this saying that the justice system is the problem, not l…

In other words:

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Re: Game theory’s cure for corruption

#20

Post by jobu » Mon, May 11, 2015, 5:22 PM UTC

It seems like the ubiquity of small recording devices that nearly anyone could own and use (like a cellphone) will have a larger impact on corruption than anything else we could do.

You may not have any direct power over the cop that just shook you down for a few hundred, but discretely recording that interaction and posting it on YouTube is likely to end his career in any society.