Blitzing the Hollow State

Networked governance has arrived in Washington and it's targeting the rotten assumptions that have hollowed out the US government.

Since the turn of the century, the US has become a hollow state, and traditional methods of governance have proven incapable of stopping it. Now, networked governance is giving it a try. Let’s dig in.

Hollow State

Hollow states look like the modern nation-state — elections, a bureaucracy, membership in international bodies, a legal system, etc. — but lack any of their historical counterpart's legitimacy, competence, and control (borders, narrative, etc.). They have been gutted by;

• Globalization (economic, financial, and people flows) and a global permacrisis (from the financial crisis to COVID).

• Rapid technological change (a loss of narrative control, global tech companies that rival states, etc.)

• The misorientation of elites (in this case, a globalist orientation that labels any form of nationalism as dangerous).

Despite this loss and the confusion it generates, the hollow state is adept at one thing: misdirecting the economic spoils of governance to connected insiders. However, this capability isn’t due to anything the hollow state does.

It is due to what they can’t do. They can’t or won’t fix rotten assumptions that have hollowed it out.

Rotten Assumptions

Rotten assumptions are assumptions that;

• were initially used to justify policies (programs, laws, or regulations), allocate funding, and hire people/companies to accomplish them.

• are either false at the start, proven false when tested by experience, or become false as conditions change.

• are never fixed, measured for effectiveness (measurements are ignored), discussed in public (discussions are shut down or shunned), and nobody responsible for them is held accountable.

Hollow states are filled to the brim with rotten assumptions. The programs and policies they were used to justify;

• provide an endless supply of cash and protections (legal and regulatory) to those who benefit from them. Think: nation-building in Afghanistan.

• can be co-opted by insiders and redirected to other uses. Think: USAID. The assumptions that justified USAID died with the Cold War, yet the deca-billion-dollar money spigot wasn’t shut off. It was redirected.

• are fiercely protected by insiders who benefit from them. This establishment (bureaucrats, politicians, NGOs, government contractors, traditional media, etc.) sees any attempt to fix any rotten assumption as an existential threat.

Eliminating Rotten Assumptions

Removing rotten assumptions has been nearly impossible since the end of the Cold War. Worse, the fixed few became examples of the dangers of fixing them, as bureaucratic and political incompetence turned the effort into disasters (think: leaving Afghanistan became an embarrassing evacuation). That’s changed. With the red tribe in power, networked governance has arrived. Here’s what is happening.