A
kapo or
prisoner functionary (
German:
Funktionshäftling, see
§ Etymology) was a prisoner in a
Nazi concentration camp who was assigned by the
SS guards to supervise
forced labor or carry out administrative tasks. Also called "prisoner self-administration", the prisoner functionary system minimized costs by allowing camps to function with fewer SS personnel. The system was designed to turn victim against victim, as the prisoner functionaries were pitted against their fellow prisoners in order to maintain the favor of their SS overseers. If they were derelict, they would be returned to the status of ordinary prisoners and be subject to other kapos. Many prisoner functionaries were recruited from the ranks of violent criminal gangs rather than from the more numerous political, religious, and racial prisoners; such criminal convicts were known for their brutality toward other prisoners. This brutality was tolerated by the SS and was an integral part of the camp system...from Wikipedia.
In my opinion, there are features of the Kapo system that may be admired by CASA and may inform some of its current or proposed self administration policies for general and sport aviation. Unless robust protections of procedural fairness and natural justice are in place, together with safeguards against undue CASA influence, self regulation as practiced by CASA may just create a group of "Mini Me CASA's" with, if anything, more dictatorial powers and unfairness than the current system.
For such a system to work there need to be strong checks and balances, not only in the relationship between CASA and associations but between the association and its members. Without these in place, self regulation is jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.