Dependence on anonymous producers drives demand for formal legal control

Evidence

As individuals, we have little control over these vital strangers. We open a can of soup and eat it. How can we be sure that the ingredients are safe and wholesome, that the soup won’t make us sick? Wholesomeness is beyond our control, and certainly beyond our knowledge. Nor can we rely on informal norms or public pressure to guarantee that the soup is not poi­ sonous, that it is nourishing and good. We want something stronger and more reliable than custom, something with independent force. In short, we want law. Hence com­ plex, interdependent societies, like ours, develop enormous appetites for formal controls. But these controls can only come from some kind of organized government, working through rules of law. — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 180

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘want law because we cannot trust strangers’ mechanism connects directly to the polyad’s trust/cooperation literature (law merchant, reputation systems) as the formal-state counterpart. — connects to: Governance governs through anonymous processes rather than identifiable agents — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 237; Opacity erodes informal enforcement mechanisms as external legal pressure reshapes insider norms. — Lisa Bernestein, Opting out of the Legal System, 280; Large anonymous groups cannot sustain collective action without some enforcing mechanism — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 412 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Governance governs through anonymous processes rather than identifiable agents #qualifies (0.85) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 237
• Social monitoring alone cannot sustain cooperation in large anonymous groups #corroborates (0.82) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 94
• Fragmented production processes weaken individual accountability for harmful content #expands (0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 849
• Large anonymous groups cannot sustain collective action without some enforcing mechanism #corroborates (0.78) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 412
• Anonymous distant superiors diffuse the perceived authorship of harmful directives #qualifies (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 847
• Fractionated authorization lets producers deflect responsibility up an endless chain of command #qualifies (0.75)
• Opacity erodes informal enforcement mechanisms as external legal pressure reshapes insider norms. #qualifies (0.72) — Lisa Bernestein, Opting out of the Legal System, 280
• Formal law substitutes for the informal norms of homogeneous societies #qualifies (0.72) — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 1433