The solution....to what?

i have been thinking about my usual stupid questions and I think they boil down to

What is..(x) ..the solution to?

For instance in asking the question Why tax? I am surmising that once a society gets to a certain size it grows a state and then the problem that tax aims to solve is how to fund in a fair and equitable way the activities that are best done collectively.

Take another example - what are courts the solution to? Off the cuff i would say that are there to dispense justice. But they presume a legal code not just a moral code. As in the legislature of a parliamentary democracy we expect the judiciary to be representative.Juries do that.Magistrates do that in the UK too. But what about the role of 'the expert' - should judging cases and arguing cases be left to the legal profession? If the problem is - understanding the legislation and the precedents in case law then we will have more experts. If we see courts as representing the community in the process of delivering justice we will fight to at least keep what there is that reflects accountability.


I like to think of society in the way that Heraclitus does - namely that flux is the root of material existence of which human societies are one of the more complex forms Then if a form - eg courts - are unchanging it is worth going back to the basic questions  - what need is being addressed /what problem is it an attempted solution - to free us up to consider alternatives that reflect the present context.

Please share your thoughts about institutions that are ripe for reform?

Best wishes

Andrew