Art of the possible

Apr 26, 2013 Editorial

We have arrived at the end of another bruising battle over the budget. There were quite a number of firsts: an extra week for the Opposition to study the estimates, larger cuts ($31+billion) than last year’s, errors by the Opposition that made them cut programmes they actually support and even more pointed charges of nepotism, self-interest and cronyism that are now quite de rigeur. We believe it is past time that the politicians take a deep breath and engage in some soul-searching as to whether the type of politics they have chosen to engage in, is in the best interest of the country.
In the Westminster system of governance – not just “government” – that we purport to practice, the adversarial posture of the competing parties in parliament is supposed to produce programmes and policies that are ‘best’ for the country. But like the workings of the judicial system that utilizes the same premise, there has to be a common understanding of what the system is supposed to deliver. In the case of the judiciary, it is justice for the wronged parties, and for the legislature, it is for the progress of the country.
But unlike the judicial system, where the interpretation of the laws that define justice are constantly being refined through ‘stare decisis’ i.e. authoritative judicial decisions that must be followed, in the political realm, we have to depend on the politicians’ determination as to what is “best for the country”. This opens up a whole new can of worms as to the factors that influence the conclusions of the politicians.
Even in the ‘model’ democracies of the US and Britain that we emulate, there are professional lobbyists who use a whole range of tactics, including money, to persuade lawmakers that the interests of their clients are the interests of the country. Even in the absence of professional lobbyists, campaign contributors invariably have the ears of the politicians they support. In the recent budget debate, there were persistent charges from both sides of the aisle that budget proposals or excisions were being made on behalf of friends and supporters.
But even in the absence of external inducements, there is the more fundamental problem of politicians so convinced in the ‘rightness’ of their position that they refuse to budge, even if it can be shown that the action might not be in the best interest of the country. We believe that this was the case during the budget debate. What is the way out of his dilemma?
Back in the nineteenth century, Bismarck, the man who unified Germany – no mean task in view of the hundreds of principalities with religious, linguistic, social, and cultural differences that he had to bring together – defined politics as the ‘art of the possible’.
A half century later, with the experience of all the other changes necessary to create an effective modern state, the German sociologist Max Weber expanded on the concept. In his seminal “Politics as a Vocation”, he defined politics as the art of compromise. He emphasized that politicians must make decisions after weighing the social benefits versus the costs. Because of this, ‘political action cannot be rooted only in conviction, since one’s conviction can be another’s social anathema.’
But what we want to emphasize is that compromise does not mean only the expedient or the opportunistic but rather, a pragmatic acceptance of what is possible under the circumstances. In our specific circumstance in Guyana, there should be an acceptance by the Executive that the views of the Opposition must be taken into consideration when the budget is being formulated.
While we accept that formulation of the budget falls in the bailiwick of the Executive, surely the latter can find items from the Opposition’s programmes to incorporate into the budget without doing irreparable damage to its own programme. With this in mind we welcome the formation of a Tripartite Committee to formulate the budget from next year. This mechanism should facilitate the search for principled compromise for the country’s progress.

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