1	Diagnosing the Health of the Global Political System Updated Version, Sep 2005 Dr. William deB. Mills wmills@erols.com http://users.erols.com/wmills/
2	Question: How healthy is our political world?
3	Criteria for Diagnosing Health of Any System Functionality Percentage of the world’s population that enjoys physical security from the threat of criminals, terrorists, rebels, or oppressive regimes; economic well-being; a share of political power; access to justice Budget Connotes the day-to-day balance of input and output of resources (economic, psychological, educational, etc.) Reserves Budgetary quantities stored for emergencies Defense System’s ability to continue functioning Growth Growth per se or growth in a healthy direction and at a healthy rate Feedback Acquisition of information Learning Modification of behavior as the result of the new information Leadership cohesiveness A system under severe attack may function better if highly networked and dispersed with no cohesive leadership; leadership that is cohesive but lacks vision may be dysfunctional Mass solidarity May be a disadvantage when the changing nature of external threats calls for originality or when the people march together in the wrong direction—exhibiting a sort of mass groupthink Vision Is it better to have a concept of where one would like to go or simply to react? depends on the accuracy of the vision Strategy How the vision is implemented
4	Operationalizing Generic Indicators for Analyzing Global Political System Functionality Moral Political Budget Economic Patriotism Participation Legitimacy Reserves Physical Psychological Defense Internal External Growth Degree Quality Consistency Feedback Coverage Accuracy Learning
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