I'd like a Good Government guidebook for citizens. List some general principles, some case studies, cites for further research.
I tried to read some books on auditing and financial accounting. Way over my head. I need the ELI5 layperson versions.
Am a recovering activist. So much (wasted) effort. I did learn two heuristics.
#1
Talk About Quality
"Fraud" is a convo full stop. Don't talk about fraud, theft, grift.
Mistakes are indistinguishable from fraud. And combatting both has the same remedies.
So only talk about quality, confidence, reducing errors, etc. Nice safe blame-free neutral 90/10 language that gets everyone on board and is less likely to trigger overt opposition. (Covert sabotage will continue, because the grifters won't be fooled by your Aw Schucks demeanor.)
#2
Follow The Money
Per quote from The Wire upthread. I learned from Bev Harris (Black Box Voting) that (mis)appropriations is a huge threat to election integrity. And in many places, that's the sheriff's office. They don't care about machines, voting, elections. For them it's just about the grift.
Twenty years later, I still don't have a clue how to mitigate this. One half-baked notion was to advocate for solutions that both more in line with the public interest and had more potential for grift. Another is, since scandal is evergreen topic, is feed info to opposition. That didn't work at all against Bob Moses (The Power Broker), so probably not a great plan.
"recovering activist" ... I wish you peace, and healing.
Getting people to do something towards better governance requires they have some faith that such a thing is possible in the first place. Met a non-cynical Civics teacher lately?
I liked to read people the preamble to the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these Truths to be Self Evident..." but many disagreed with those words and never heard the rest.
I tried to read some books on auditing and financial accounting. Way over my head. I need the ELI5 layperson versions.
Am a recovering activist. So much (wasted) effort. I did learn two heuristics.
#1
Talk About Quality
"Fraud" is a convo full stop. Don't talk about fraud, theft, grift.
Mistakes are indistinguishable from fraud. And combatting both has the same remedies.
So only talk about quality, confidence, reducing errors, etc. Nice safe blame-free neutral 90/10 language that gets everyone on board and is less likely to trigger overt opposition. (Covert sabotage will continue, because the grifters won't be fooled by your Aw Schucks demeanor.)
#2
Follow The Money
Per quote from The Wire upthread. I learned from Bev Harris (Black Box Voting) that (mis)appropriations is a huge threat to election integrity. And in many places, that's the sheriff's office. They don't care about machines, voting, elections. For them it's just about the grift.
Twenty years later, I still don't have a clue how to mitigate this. One half-baked notion was to advocate for solutions that both more in line with the public interest and had more potential for grift. Another is, since scandal is evergreen topic, is feed info to opposition. That didn't work at all against Bob Moses (The Power Broker), so probably not a great plan.