"The well-being of a society is enhanced when many of its people question authority."

1. "The well-being of a society is enhanced when many of its people question authority."

We live in a world where Nazi Germany is still fresh in our memories, and yet the required pace of reform demands urgency from leaders. The vesting of authority can best be described as a necessary evil for the wisdom of crowds has great benefits.

In an era where kingdoms and dictatorial rules are rare or dying and democratic ideals have enjoyed much success, it would be hard to argue for authoritarian regimes. Yet, capitalism is an example of just that. With communist countries like China embracing it, the success of capitalism in the last few decades can just not be ignored. The CEO is empowered with decision making authority and in situations where action is more valuable than inaction, this is much more effective than a grid-locked congress for example. Indeed, the very idea of the President of the US with large executive powers is just such a system. Societies, be they the people of a country or the employees and shareholders of a company, need effective and timely action and effective and timely action seems to be best served by leaders enabled to make swift and informed decisions.

At the same time, the tragic examples of a Hitler, a Mussolini or a Pinochet should in contrast serve to remind us of the obvious perils of authoritarian regimes. Foreseeing such misuse of powers, the founding fathers of the american constitution, counterbalanced executive power with powers vested in the congress, senate and the judiciary.

We are in an era of the internet, where the wisdom of crowds, governs everything from our information sources to our opinions. Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia is based on a system where peers edit peers and no one person is assumed to be an authority. The ironical outcome however is that Wikipedia as a whole has evolved into an authority in itself. Such is the wisdom of the masses acting in unison. Indeed the search results of the popular search engine Google is based on a weighting based on popularity. The wisdom of the crowds repeatedly has shown its merits.

In summary, the well-being of a society seems to be determined largely by the nature of the organiztion and its effectiveness . In many systems this means more people questioning authority and in some, where swift informed action is paramount, this could mean more powers and autonomy of decision making vested with the decision makers.