Institutional Relays

Institutional relays are the mechanisms through which individual observations of abuse, individual acts of denunciation, and individual assessments of governance failure are converted into collective democratic accountability. Without relays, denunciation remains private complaint—visible to the denouncer, perhaps to immediate colleagues, but incapable of generating the democratic pressure that produces institutional response. Rosanvallon identifies several forms: whistleblower protections creating legal pathways through which individual denunciation can reach public attention without destroying the denouncer; mandatory reporting requirements institutionalizing the obligation to disclose information the market would otherwise suppress; congressional hearings, public inquiries, and independent investigations converting individual knowledge of abuse into collective scrutiny; and free press serving as the primary relay between individual sources and mass publics. For AI, these relays are either absent or inadequate. Whistleblower protections in technology industry are notoriously weak. Mandatory reporting for AI safety incidents does not exist in most jurisdictions. Congressional hearings reveal questioners' incomprehension more than companies' behavior.