Policy Barriers

There are a couple of reasons for this. First, it is not an easy task to determine the correct policy in any given situation. This is the case whether the persons in charge are deciding on economic strategies, education reforms, social assistance measures, cultural support, or political ideologies. Social engineering is far more complex than rocket science. A government, no matter how well-run, can never be quite certain that a particular policy would lead to the desired outcome.

Yet it is also the case that much progress has been made in all areas of social policy. History and research have taught much about what works and what doesn’t, and many of these lessons apply across cultures. In economics, for example, the Marxist or socialist approach to fiscal policy brings neither prosperity nor egalitarianism. In education, pedagogy has developed many techniques for imparting knowledge to young persons that are far more effective than the “chalk and talk” approach of bygone days.

Additionally, the importance of a trained populace for national development is now inarguable. And we also know, though many have not learnt, that attempts by ideologues to inject baseless beliefs into pedagogy and cultural expression have often proven both harmful to education and culture, and politically destructive to the society.

In similar fashion, social assistance to disadvantaged groups — whether the poor, a particular ethnic group, or women — has proven to be a double-edged sword.

While necessary to improve the lot of the less fortunate, social assistance measures in practice have too often been used as devices to garner political support. The long-term result too often has been the persistence of the same disadvantaged groups, while others who started off in the same position have within two or three generations advanced their own economic and social stature. The fundamental lesson, in many different societies, is that the best social assistance any government can offer is investment in health and education. Given such help, ordinary people have usually proved both willing and able to lift themselves up.

This brings us to the second barrier to effective policy: politics. We do not mean politics in its truest sense, as the activity by which different groups negotiate their needs within the same society.

We mean “politics” as commonly used, in the sense of whoever occupies office attempting to get advantage for themselves and their supporters.

Realistically, it is almost inevitable that politicians will factor in such calculations into their policy decisions. It is why the PNM in the 1970s spent so much money on building secondary schools and so little on teacher training. It is why the UNC brought party financiers who were not part of their ethnic support base into Government in the 1990s. And it is why the PNM in the 21st century is spending huge sums on construction projects. The difference between good politicians and bad ones is that the former attain a balance between political self-interest and the national good.

We have not reached any of these stages yet. Our policies are hardly ever based on good research, but instead are implemented according to folk wisdom or outdated ideologies. Nor have our leading politicians matured sufficiently to put country before self. But all these things take time, and we just have to hope that we persist as a society long enough to create a nation.