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Watch Out, Donald Trump: Society's 'Increasing Complexity' Too Much for One Man

© REUTERS / Jonathan ErnstRepublican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump arrives to address supporters at his election night rally in Manhattan, New York, U.S., November 9, 2016
Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump arrives to address supporters at his election night rally in Manhattan, New York, U.S., November 9, 2016 - Sputnik International
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With the US election finally now behind us, and Donald Trump confirmed as the next US President, there are some serious concerns being raised about whether a single person can actually fill the complex role of being US President.

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In an interview with Sputnik, Yaneer Bar-Yam, Founding President of the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI), specifically pointed to the collapsing hierarchical organizations, including those in the United States, which he said are powerless to resolve present-day challenges.

The interview came after the release of a new analysis conducted by researchers from the NECSI.

The report claimed, in particular, that the United States should not have a president at all due to the complex nature of human society, and the inability of one person – in this case a president — to be able to handle it.

"The traditional structures of governance and organizational processes are failing…to create a system that is really capable of dealing with much more complex challenges," Bar-Yam said.

Yaneer Bar-Yam's interview was preceded by Donald Trump's speech at his New York headquarters on Wednesday to announce his victory in the November 8 elections.

Speaking to Sputnik, Bar-Yam explained that the NECSI studies "the increasing complexity in society as we've actually known for thirty years that hierarchical organizations are failing."

"What we anticipated and what we are now seeing is the great difficulty of identifying leadership that can address the challenges of the world," according to him.

He goes on to explain that today's citizens expect that a president must know how to respond to the challenges of the world, but that the idea is wrong.

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According to Mr. Bar-Yam, it would be more effective to have a networked system of governance. This means that small teams specialized in certain policies should work together to make decisions regarding any issues of concern.

He added that the key issue is whether you have a dictator or whether you have a democratic process.

"When you put one person in charge of a system, the system has to be simple enough for one person to understand the consequences of policy decisions. When things are highly complex there are all kinds of indirect effects that you did not anticipate," he pointed out.

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