Inactionable

What does this say about our society that this is necessary?  It brings to light the fact that we are a rule-based, not a principle-based society.

You’re right. We are absolutely a rule-based society. The question is why, and are we better off for it?

I think that it’s a natural human tendency to create rules, even if strong principles exist. There are some actions that are so clearly unacceptable to a society that there’s no reason not to codify them. Don’t kill people, for example. It certainly fits under my common sense umbrella, but common sense varies and we don’t want ambiguity on this issue. So we make a rule.

The US absolutely started off principle-based (The Bill of Rights) and, over the course of two centuries, we’ve built an enormous set of rules on top of that foundation of principle. I think this is simply inevitable – when enough people think a certain behavior is intolerable, and that behavior is potentially defensible under the principles, we make a rule. Luke, I bet you anything that IFRS (the international, principle-based accounting standard) eventually becomes rule-based as people manipulate or misbehave within the principles.

Now, are we better off with rules? At heart, this is a principal/agent problem (principal vs. principle … this could get confusing!) For a government, or a business, or any organization to function properly, the principal needs confidence that the agent will act in his or her best interest. If principles are sufficient to create that confidence, I’m on board. I think the story of human history indicates that principles are not sufficient – you need rules and enforcement, and the right rules can build confidence. Even though I think most people are fundamentally good, it doesn’t take too many bad ones to destroy our collective confidence in agency arrangements.  Without trusted agency arrangements, we’re limited to very small organizations. Your Rule of 150 post illuminated this well.

I acknowledge the possibility that we can build the wrong set of rules, even if we get the principles right. Revolution also appears to be a recurring human tendency. With every revolution, we wipe out the rules and reassess the principles, and the cycle starts again. It’s not a bad thing. Ultimately, rules are not perfect but principles are not sufficient.