(De)Centralization as Morality Play

1. (De)Centralization as Morality Play John Leslie King School of Information University of Michigan jlking@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 don’t know the details • As with all important things, a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous.

3. 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 -- that’s 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

4. 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 -- it’s 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

5. Exemplary Icons: Organization Charts Which of these represents a decentralized organizational structure?

6. 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)

7. The Oldest Known Instance of a Decentralized Decision Hierarchy

8. 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 18:13-24

9. 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...

10. 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

11. (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

12. 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)

13. 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