(De)Centralization as Morality Play

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(De)Centralization as Morality Play

• John Leslie King
• School of Information
• University of Michigan
• jlking_at_umich.edu

2
Why Bother With Centralization?

• Centralization issues are fundamental to human
  experience
• They show up in nearly every instance of social
  organization
• There is no permanent equilibrium position
  centralization an decentralization usually go in
  cycles
• Centralization is an ideological as well as a
  technical issue
• Historic eras tend to prefer one ideology over
  another
• Centralization issues seem fairly
  straight-forward but they are actually quite
  confusing if you dont know the details
• As with all important things, a little bit of
  knowledge can be dangerous.

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Some Practical Clarifications

• Many issues attract discussion of centralization
  (e.g., physical configuration of networks,
  location of services)
• Technically, the concept is strictly limited to
  governance in social systems
• Who governs, and how does governance occur?
• Focus on decision authority or decision
  rights
• The heart of the issue is the exercise of power
  -- thats why centralization is nearly always a
  highly political issue
• Put simply
• A centralized decision structure concentrates
  decisions
• A decentralized decision structure disperses
  decisions
• However, note that that concentration or
  dispersion is relevant only in a condition of
  regulated decision authority

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Regulated Decision Authority

• Centralization is relevant only to the decision
  rights contained within a given social system of
  action
• A bunch of autonomous agents are not
  decentralized decision makers -- they are simply
  autonomous
• Decentralization is the relative dispersion of
  decision authority within a larger governance
  structure
• Anarchy is not decentralization -- its the
  absence of governance, altogether
• Centralization is tied intimately to hierarchy,
  but not exactly as most people think
• A decentralized decision structure can also be
  completely hierarchical, and in fact, most are

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Exemplary Icons Organization Charts
Which of these represents a decentralized
organizational structure?
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Why Centralize or Decentralize?

• Size
• Large organizations tend to be decentralized due
  to bounded rationality (Simon) and the
  local-distant knowledge problem (Hayek)
• Smaller organizations are much easier to operate
  in a centralized manner, and often are operated
  that way
• Technical constraints
• Some technical functions require very tight
  coupling (e.g., control of dangerous technologies
  and materials, communications addressing
  allocation)
• Design principles
• There are often good reasons to concentrate or
  distribute power (cf. constitutional government)

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The Oldest Known Instance of a Decentralized
Decision Hierarchy
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And it came to pass on the morrow that Moses sat
to judge the people, and the people stood by
Moses from the morning unto the evening. And
when Moses' father in law saw all that he did to
the people, he said, What is this thing that thou
doest to the people? Why sittest thou thyself
alone, and all the people stand by thee from
morning unto even? And Moses said unto his father
in law, Because the people come unto me to
inquire of God When they have a matter, they
come unto me and I judge between one and
another, and I do make them know the statues of
God, and his laws. And Moses' father in law said
unto him, the thing that thou doest is not good.
Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou and this
people that is with thee for this thing is too
heavy for thee thou art not able to perform it
thyself alone. Hearken now unto my voice, I will
give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee Be
thou for the people to Godward, that thou mayest
bring the causes unto God And thou shalt teach
them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the
way wherein they must walk, and the work they
must do. Moreover, thou shalt provide them out of
all the people able men, such as fear God, men of
truth, hating covetousness and place such over
them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of
hundreds, and rulers of fifties, and rulers of
tens and let them judge the people at all
seasons and it shall be that every great matter
they shall bring unto thee, but every small
matter they shall judge so shall it be easier
for thyself and they shall bear the burden with
the. If thou shalt do this thing, and God
command the so, then thou shalt be able to
endure, and all this people shall go to their
place in peace. So Moses hearkened to the voice
of his father in law, and did all that he had
said.
Exodus 1813-24
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Some Cautionary Observations Under the Present
Circumstances

• Information technology invokes discussion of
  centralization, but often in muddle-headed ways
• IT leads to (de)centralization
• With IT you can achieve centralization and
  decentralization simultaneously
• IT causes the centralization issue to disappear
• A general shift from the Mainframe Era to the
  present
• Mainframe Era IT as centralizing and enslaving
• Internet Era IT as decentralizing and liberating
• Empirical evidence shows both to be dead wrong...

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Who Do You Believe?

• The biases of expertise
• Technical specialists (e.g., CS people,
  engineers, most natural scientists) know next to
  nothing about how social systems work, but they
  tend to think their technical knowledge extends
  to social systems.
• Social specialists know a lot about how social
  systems work, and not much about technical
  things, and they tend not to pretend they do know
  about technical things
• Persistent inclinations among technical
  specialists
• Technological determinism
• Libertarian utopianism
• In the marketplace of ideas, caveat emptor

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(De)Centralization as Morality Play

• Medieval morality plays of the late 14th century
• Entertainments on a commonly understood theme
• Everyman facing the moral choice between virtue
  and sin, assisted by God or Satan, facing death
  and judgment
• Supporting characters fellowship, good deeds,
  penitence, the sacraments
• Co-optation by authority in the late 15th century
• Propaganda, both ecclesiastical and secular
• Moral choice as a reflective, central feature of
  daily life is supplanted by moral choice as a
  constant duty
• Failure as entertainment and propaganda

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The Current Situation

• Napster, Metallica and the MP-3 wars
• The DNS and ICANN
• Encryption, PGP, the V-Chip
• The Communications Decency Act
• Taxation of Internet-based sales
• Open source
• The scope and limits of the IETF
• Various standards wars
• Industry consolidation (e.g., AOL and Time-Warner)

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Objective De-moralize

• To centralize or decentralize should be seen as a
  choice made in course of routine living, not as
  an opportunity (or duty) for moral action
• The choice is often cloaked in disguise (e.g., as
  a strictly economic question), but it is always
  about governance
• Highly desirable results can be had by either
  centralization or decentralization -- it all
  depends on the circumstances and the objectives
• No structure, centralized or decentralized, is
  permanent
• The dangers of over-wrought structure are well
  documented, but beware the tyranny of
  sturcturelessness