Paradox of Control
Of course, politicians like to think of themselves as in control. That is part of the power-centred thinking that led them to that role in society. However, the «economy» includes millions of people in thousands of different types of work going their own ways and making a living. So, making things worse is about the only form of control that can engender certainty and confidence.
Hierarchies derived from Spirals in THEE show oscillations that appear to involve control/determination v adaptation/acceptance: cf. commercial endeavours. In the case of government and economic intervention, this shows up as aspects of communication i.e. expression (or proclamation) versus attention (or receptivity or taking notice).
THEE Note:
Compare this dilemma with the more general conflict in politics between control and acceptance.
Odd-number levels require active expression and proclamation, and in that sense alone can be said to be under government control.
■ L1 Basic: Valuing commerce
Government must make public statements that it values business and recognizes the importance of private sector development, enterprise and productivity—However, it can speak mostly about services the state provides and put business in an unfavourable light.
■ L3: Promoting capitalism
Government can promote capitalist principles—However, officials may condemn businessmen as profiteers and denigrate capitalism by associating it with terms like exploitation, environmental destruction and greed.
■ L5: Attending to citizen concerns
Government shows that it cares about its society by politicians and officials discovering how people think and feel, actually knowing about what is happening, and visiting and speaking in zones of hardship—However, politicians can symbolize their dismissive attitude by (for example) travelling overseas with large entourages incurring massive expense for little societal gain, just when people are suffering.
■ L7: Facing up to economic realities
Government should value clarification of economic forces and the provision of information and expert analyses—However, politicians can reject facts, tell blatant lies, falsify statistics and project artificial confidence.
Note: So what government can control comes down to what politicians and officials can communicate, directly and indirectly, not any specific L4-intervention.
THEE Note: This links to the view of political work developed independently.
Even-number levels are about matters which government necessarily must accept and respond to—if only the urge for control would allow that. In communication terms, these levels require attention and noticing.
■ L2: Enforcing laws and regulations
Enforcement of the law and market regulation by the government does not prevent new dishonest or unfair practices or the emergence of surprising outcomes. Both market activities and the outcomes of market forces must be given attention. When governments have the inclination to «fix the fight», it usually makes matters worse.
■ L4: Strategic interventions
Any intervention is an adaptation and therefore attention must be given to the many factors in the situation. Certainly, nothing sensible can be done without attention to the systemic nature of society and economic interactions. Rights to liberty, privacy, property, fairness, association and movement all support business. If notice is not taken, legislation will interfere with individual productivity and commerce due to its impact on these rights.
■ L6: Statistics and evaluations
The facts are the facts and the analyses are the analyses—they exist to be noticed by governments. However, the government may not want to accept the findings. So it alters methods of collection, changes assumptions, moth-balls unwanted reports, and commissions special reports whose outcomes are determined in advanced.
■ L1 Advanced: Value entrepreneurship
Being an entrepreneur is about individual people applying a certain mentality; and it is also affected by cultural values. There is rather little that a government can do about either of these factors other than notice them, and refer issues to L4.
Originally posted: Q3-2009