Eight Ways to Create a Broken Democracy

1. Ignore exposures and focus on injuries — Rather than emphasize the process of finding and eliminating exposure to hazards, use injuries as the focus of attention, measure of success and trigger for change. As much as possible, ignore exposure to hazards that you know exist in your society. Above all, allow periods of low or no injuries to lull you into a false sense of security.
2. Encourage leaders to say things they know are either contradictory or impossible to achieve — Manage crime through platitudes that don't match organizational reality. Frequent reference to improved security while ignoring obvious safety issues is perfect for this. Don't notice if your actions fail to be consistent with your words.
3. Make all bonus compensation contingent on recordable incident rates — success and opportunity are related, but not on a 1:1 basis. So economic success, especially in small demographic groups, is not necessarily a good indication of actual performance. One of the best ways to dishearten voters at all levels is to design award systems such that voters feel a disconnect. Incorrectly designed incentives will assure that some people get rewarded for minor infractions, and some get punished for real major crimes.
4. Ask for input, then don't respond — A broken culture depends on creating as much distance as possible between the goveremnt and its citizens. Make it clear that people's input doesn't matter and that while you want them to provide information, they shouldn't expect you to act on it. Surveys are highly recommended for this.
5. Block upward communication about societal issues, especially when the news is bad — As the saying goes, no news is good news. Dysfunctional cultures thrive on secrets and incomplete information. As much as possible, discourage information sharing that might give the people any real sense of societies' problems, especially if it might make you look bad.
6. Ignore societal issues until a serious injury happens, then discipline those involved — Addressing societal issues in a timely way might give people the impression that keeping society functioning is a priority. It also misses a valuable opportunity to erode trust through blaming lower level leaders for systems issues they can't control when things do go wrong.
7. Use creative classification strategies as an intervention method — Dysfunctional government functioning thrives on moving targets. Reworking facts that don't match the desired state is an imperative. Ideally, you would manage the numbers, then brag about how successful you've been dealing with the issue even though the problem is worse than even, see point 2.
8. Put broken governmental policies on the agenda as a number one item, but limit discussion to trivialities — Effectively broken cultures give effective government a place of honor while minimizing its importance in the process. As a general rule, the longer you can spend on trivialized effectiveness issues, the better.