Trump’s reactive autocracy is autocratic and not bureaucratic, socially networked rather than hierarchically networked, and integrated with global social networks rather than apart from them, John Robb notes. It uses social networking to “suss out” and shape the underlying desires of a governing majority of Americans. This form of governance operates very differently than the legacy cold war bureaucracy:
Incremental change vs. Rapid change. Bureaucrats make changes slowly and incrementally. Autocrats can make wholesale changes. Social networking makes it possible to route around bureaucratic roadblocks to create de facto change before the bureaucracy can catch up.
Adherence to Ideology vs. Adherence to Common Sense. US bureaucratic governance is based on neoliberal ideology and the sciences of social complexity (economics, etc.). Social networking has made people increasingly aware to the gap between results/common sense and ideology/models (a similar gap toppled the USSR). Trump exploits that gap.
Serial vs. Parallel focus. Bureaucratic governance mass media coverage focuses on one problem at a time (serially), or as closely to that as possible. In contrast, networked governance can focus on many in parallel. This makes it very difficult for gatekeepers to exercise control.
“US bureaucratic governance is based on neoliberal ideology”
Really? Did he even read Milton Friedman?