Imperatives of an Economic Focus
The interacting-for-benefit framework allows us to consider a government interacting with the economic activities of its citizens. Using the adjusted TET Framework, we can then consider some imperatives for government .
Remember the Mentalities
People use distinct mind-sets (or approaches) in their interactions. These reflect a deep inescapable human reality. As a result, the analysis has been applied usefully in diverse settings, including: ► employees progressing with and within their organizations; ► persons or firms seeking to cooperate; ► Firms marketing effectively, and more.
The New Frame of Reference
We now move from focusing on a person interacting so as to generally benefit in social life i.e. a person-society focus, to a government interacting with the population in regard to economic activity i.e. a government-economic activity focus. 
The essence of the approaches remains unchanged, the axes needs re-labelling to reflect the new perspective as above.
Societal Development: Y-Axis. Self-development still applies, but the essential «self» of a government has a character whose mandate is given by the citizenry. The citizenry as a whole are concerned for the prosperity of their society.
Contribution to Economic Activities of Individuals: X-Axis. A government contributes to the prosperity of its society through interventions that affect individuals (i.e. people or organizations) in ways that aid (or obstruct) their wealth-generating activities.
Government Imperatives
One diagonal has a direct focus on productivity. It contains the Market-centred mode, which is the source of all wealth-creating drives.
Governments cannot create wealth. So, if society is to be prosperous, governments must allow wealth creation by individuals.
A common problem for many governments is that the politicians and bureaucrats are far more interested in their power and control and susceptible to bribes and lobbying, than in society's prosperity broadly understood.
The TET diagram and boxes below suggest the necessary imperatives.
Productivity Set
deals directly with economic issues.
From the Market-centred viewpoint, the minimal focus is to generally value commerce and to desire that everyone should work. This entails affirming the importance of ●enterprise, ●the business sector, ●private sector employment, ●investment, ●trade. The maximal focus is to value entrepreneurs and encourage entrepreneurial activities of all sorts via ●capital markets, ●innovation, ●new technology, ●new markets.
From the Cause-centred viewpoint, governments must believe in commercial principles in a way that suits their society. The fundamental economic requirement is promotion of capitalism (more or less as conceived by Adam Smith) but adapted appropriately to the culture to ensure acceptability.
From the Perspective-centred viewpoint, governments must collect and release relevant society-wide information to permit independent analyses and evaluations of economic performance, and the social impacts of events and policies of all sorts.
Well-being Set
deals with the context of economic activity.
From the Power-centred viewpoint markets are a common social good and need protection. Governments alone have the coercive power to confront powerful people and businesses that can damage a market or defraud individuals using the market. So the requirement here is to compel i.e. it is simply not enough to make laws and introduce regulators, there must be fair, consistent, and effective enforcement.
From the Community-centred viewpoint, governments must adhere to their primary duties and accept their limited powers in regard to maintaining standards of living. Insofar as the populace demands action, governments must strive to intervene in a way that causes the least harm and the most good to most people. The requirement here is strategic intervention. Note: no other mode intervenes—the other modes guide or shape or support intervention that occurs here.
From the Kinship-centred viewpoint, governments recognize that their interests flow from society’s interests, and that every society (nation) looks to its own before it cares about others. The requirement here is to be attentive and demonstrate care for society as a whole, and for every single one of its members, especially their work opportunities and activities. (Deciding that protection is required is an L4-intervention issue.)
From the Reality-centred viewpoint, governments become aware of their inability to control individuals en masse or economic forces. If they are wise, they will become aware of the effects of past decisions, and the flow of local and global changes affecting economic well-being.The requirement here is recognizing and facing economic realities. This helps ensure that interventions can be indeed strategic and not knee-jerk.
Originally posted: Q3-2009