The Peter A. Allard School of Law Allard Research Commons Faculty Publications Allard Faculty Publications 11-1-2019 Seeing Like an Authoritarian State Cristie Ford Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.allard.ubc.ca/fac_pubs Part of the Law Commons Citation Details Cristie Ford, "Seeing Like an Authoritarian State" in Liav Orgad & Wessel Reijers, eds, A Dystopian Future? The Rise of Social Credit Systems (2019) Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Global Citizenship Governance, European University Institute Working Papers RSCAS 2019/94, 15-17. This Working Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Allard Faculty Publications at Allard Research Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Allard Research Commons. RSCAS 2019/94 Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Global Citizenship Governance A Dystopian Future? The Rise of Social Credit Systems Edited by Liav Orgad and Wessel Reijers European University Institute Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Global Citizenship Governance A Dystopian Future? The Rise of Social Credit Systems Edited by Liav Orgad and Wessel Reijers EUI Working Paper RSCAS 2019/94 This text may be downloaded only for personal research purposes. Additional reproduction for other purposes, whether in hard copies or electronically, requires the consent of the author(s), editor(s). If cited or quoted, reference should be made to the full name of the author(s), editor(s), the title, the working paper, or other series, the year and the publisher. ISSN 1028-3625 Editorial matter and selection © Liav Orgad and Wessel Reijers, 2019 Chapters © authors individually 2019 Printed in Italy, November 2019 European University Institute Badia Fiesolana I – 50014 San Domenico di Fiesole (FI) Italy www.eui.eu/RSCAS/Publications/ www.eui.eu cadmus.eui.eu Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies The Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, created in 1992 and currently directed by Professor Brigid Laffan, aims to develop inter-disciplinary and comparative research on the major issues facing the process of European integration, European societies and Europe’s place in 21st century global politics. The Centre is home to a large post-doctoral programme and hosts major research programmes, projects and data sets, in addition to a range of working groups and ad hoc initiatives. The research agenda is organised around a set of core themes and is continuously evolving, reflecting the changing agenda of European integration, the expanding membership of the European Union, developments in Europe’s neighbourhood and the wider world. For more information: http://eui.eu/rscas The EUI and the RSCAS are not responsible for the opinion expressed by the author(s). Global Citizenship Governance The project explores the international norms and structures for granting citizenship. It has six objectives: [1] to investigate the history of naturalisation and what it can teach us about 21st century challenges; [2] to identify the recent legal developments and establish the most up-to-date legal standards in the field of naturalisation law that, taken together, may form the basis for ICIL; [3] to set out the theoretical foundations and the justifications for the establishment of ICIL; [4] to analyse the normative and structural implications derived from an-ICIL approach for future citizenship policy development; [5] to examine the future of citizenship – how technology can and should remodel the way citizenship is governed; and [6] to explore the interrelationship between ICIL, global migration, and constitutional identity. In essence, the project seeks to formulate international standards by which states can admit migrants without fundamentally changing their cultural heritage and slipping into extreme nationalism. The outcome can serve as a basis for a future reform in international law, EU law, and national legal systems. For more information: http://global-citizenship.eui.eu. This project is supported by the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant (# 716350) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The views expressed in this publication cannot in any circumstance be regarded as the official position of the European Union, the European University Institute, or the GCG’s Advisory Board. Advisory board Alexander Aleinikoff Dora Kostakopoulou Ayelet Shachar The New School Warwick University Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity Rainer Bauböck Kalypso Nicolaïdis Peter Spiro European University Institute University of Oxford Temple University Michael Doyle Peter Schuck Yael (Yuli) Tamir Columbia University Yale Law School Shenkar College Christian Joppke University of Bern Abstract Is China's Social Credit System leading the way to a dystopian future? ‘Yes’, claims Wessel Reijers, who identifies dangerous dictatorial tendencies that do not live up to the promise of cultivating civic virtue. ‘No’, argues Jens van 't Klooster, who sees it as a promising way to enhance distributive justice and an alternative for price mechanisms in market economies. In an online symposium, we have asked several eminent scholars to take sides in this timely controversy concerning an unparalleled effort of social engineering that will soon influence the lives of over a billion citizens. Is the Social Credit System a ‘digital dictatorship’ or a ‘digital republic’? How unique it is in a comparative and historical perspective? Is a social credit system good for women? And what are the implications of the system on the institution of citizenship? Kickoffs by Wessel Reijers and Jens van ‘t Klooster; contributions by Yongxi Chen, Jiahong Chen, John Cheney-Lippold, Jeremy Daum, Costica Dumbrava, Jelena Dzankic, Joshua Fairfield, Primavera de Filippi, Cristie Ford, Francesca Lagioia, Miriam Müller, Liav Orgad, Alberto Romele, Giovanni Sartor, Mathias Siems, Mac Sithigh. Keywords Social Credit System – China – Digital Dictatorship – Digital Republic – Civic Virtue – Digital Citizenship – Justice. TABLE OF CONTENTS How to Make ‘The Perfect’ Citizen? Wessel Reijers ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Rewarding Virtuous Citizens Jens van ‘t Klooster ............................................................................................................................. 4 Treating China as a ‘Normal’ Country Mathias Siems and Mac Sithigh .......................................................................................................... 7 Social Reproduction and Social Credit Apparatuses John Cheney-Lippold ........................................................................................................................ 10 The Docile Minds of Perfect Societies Jelena Džankić ................................................................................................................................... 13 Seeing Like an Authoritarian State Cristie Ford ........................................................................................................................................ 15 An Illusion of Western Democracies Alberto Romele ................................................................................................................................. 18 The Citizen, the Tyrant, and the Tyranny of Patterns Costica Dumbrava ............................................................................................................................. 20 Putting ‘Good Citizens’ in ‘The Good Place’? Jiahong Chen ..................................................................................................................................... 22 The Social Credit System as a New Regulatory Approach: From ‘Code-Based’ to ‘Market- Based’ Regulation Primavera de Filippi .......................................................................................................................... 25 Is a Social Credit System Good for Women? Mirjam Müller ................................................................................................................................... 29 Data Diets and Democracy: The Chinese Social Credit System. From a Machine Learning Perspective Joshua Fairfield ................................................................................................................................. 32 Scoring Systems: Levels of Abstraction Francesca Lagioia and Giovanni Sartor ............................................................................................ 36 Untrustworthy: Social Credit Isn’t What You Think It Is Jeremy Daum ..................................................................................................................................... 39 Social Credit Systems: China and the West Liav Orgad ......................................................................................................................................... 42 How to Make ‘The Perfect’ Citizen? Wessel Reijers* ‘How to make the perfect citizen’? This question might have crossed the minds of the Chinese government officials who, in 2014, formulated the idea of a Social Credit System1. China is a vast country, with thousands of local units of government, innumerable businesses, and far over a billion inhabitants. Governing such a giant, while taking care of rampant corruption,