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  The Complex Factors That Make Intractable Conflict So Difficult >
  The Additional (and Even Bigger) Challenge of Societal Complexity
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Democratic and Authoritarian Strategies for Handling Complexity

BI Article
Mapping the Continuum between Democracy and Authoritarianism
This post explains the nature and importance of the continuum that stretches from ideal democracy to authoritarian dystopia.

BI Article
Mapping the Authoritarian Populism "Conflict Complex," an Overview
An overview of six upcoming Frontiers Seminar posts that apply conflict mapping techniques to the authoritarian populism problem.

News and Opinion
Free-market economics is working surprisingly well
A defense of the often maligned free-market and the power of Adam Smith's "invisible hand "-- something we need to protect even as we work to limit capitalism's "invisible fist."

News and Opinion
Capitalism needs honor and ethics
For the "invisible hand" of capitalism to function effectively, it must embody strong prohibitions on the kind of unethical behavior that can turn the "invisible hand" into an "invisible fist."

News and Opinion
The Invisible Hand Strikes Back
The "invisible hand" creates opportunities for anyone who can figure out better ways of dealing with any problem (including conflict problems). This is how complex social systems learn.

News and Opinion
The U.S. Economy Reaches Superstar Status
Surprising news about how spectacularly well the US economy is doing despite its destructive politics and widespread sense of pessimism. The invisible hand actually works!

Colleague Activities
Democracy is good for the economy. Can business defend it?
Democracies thrive because they are better at ensuring the provision of public goods. Democratic decline is associated with a panoply of economic "bads," including instability, brain drain, stagnation, and kleptocracy.

News and Opinion
China's Techno-Authoritarianism Has Gone Global

News and Opinion
Putin Proves There Are Worse Things Than American Power
A reminder that, despite its many serious problems and egregious mistakes, US power is still preferable to the aggressive authoritarianism on display in Ukraine.

News and Opinion
What's New About the New Authoritarianism?

News and Opinion
Solicitous dictatorship. The political economy of authoritarianism - Aly v. Tooze revisited.

News and Opinion
Putin Has Assembled an Axis of Autocrats Against Ukraine
A reminder that, even in a multi-polar world, coalition building dynamics can lead to dangerous polarization and, conceivably, a major confrontation between the authoritarianism and democracy.

News and Opinion
How Democracy Can Defeat Autocracy

News and Opinion
For all its faults, democracy is still better than autocracy

News and Opinion
The Tale of the Rent-Seeking Saw
The invisible hand adds value to the economy while the invisible fist of "rent seeking" attempts to claim value produced by others -- an example of what this looks like in practice.