Even in small groups with safeguards, trustees can still form cliques and develop biases over time. These social dynamics can quietly shape decisions in ways that aren’t obvious at first.
This idea echoes themes from Jo Freeman’s seminal essay the Tyranny of Structurelessness, which argues that even in supposedly structureless groups, informal hierarchies and cliques inevitably form.
Similarly, in a reputation network that emphasizes human judgment, the absence of explicit hierarchies doesn’t prevent the emergence of influential in-groups. Over time, these in-groups can shape the network’s decisions in ways that reflect their own social dynamics rather than the original values of the system.
# Parties and Cliques
The U.S. Founding Fathers didn’t design the Constitution with modern political parties in mind. While they understood that “factions” could form and worried about them, they largely hoped organized, permanent parties wouldn’t become the central machinery of government.
As a result, the Constitution never spells out how parties should operate or be constrained, even though parties now shape elections, lawmaking, appointments, and accountability in ways the original framework didn’t directly anticipate.
# See - Trustee Model and the Conspiracy Protocol