BackAbraham Lincoln and the art of policy
His blending of high principle and pragmatic compromise is a lesson for contemporary politicians
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Bill Clinton gave a Hollywood audience an insight into the gist of successful policy making, when he appeared at the Golden Globe awards ceremony on Monday morning, India time, to introduce Lincoln, Steven Spielberg’s cinematic retelling of the struggle against slavery in 1865, during the US Civil War. The movie recreates the deal-making that precedes the 13th amendment to the US constitution to abolish slavery.
“President Lincoln’s struggle to abolish slavery reminds us that enduring progress is forged in a cauldron of both principle and compromise. This brilliant film shows us how he did it, and gives us hope that we can do it again," said Clinton. Lincoln combined both abilities: a compassionate desire to destroy slavery as well as the pragmatic sense to make deals to further that goal.
Clinton was a master practitioner of politics as the art of the possible. His ability to get different groups on board was evident in the 1997 budget deal he crafted with Republican opponents, something that Barack Obama has been unable to do as yet during the ongoing fiscal cliff crisis. In India, the Manmohan Singh government has shown neither strong commitment to principle nor the ability to build a broader consensus on important issues with the opposition. The policy paralysis has dissipated in recent weeks at least as far as the finance ministry is concerned, but the weight of several years of inaction continues to weigh on India.
All this comes at a time when the world lost one of its finest economic theoreticians. James Buchanan died last week at the age of 93. As with others who studied public choice, or how political systems decide on policies, Buchanan said that the private interests of the participants drive change. He believed that exchange is as central to politics as it is in economics, a far cry from the innocent belief that political systems pursue an identifiable “public interest".
The policy process is dependent on reciprocal deals between various interest groups, rather than on ideas alone. Director Spielberg has, perhaps unknowingly, captured this Buchananite essence of legislative politics in Lincoln.
Buchanan won the Nobel Prize for economics in 1986. In its press release, the prize committee noted: “The political process … becomes a means of cooperation aimed at achieving reciprocal advantages. But the result of this process depends on “rules of the game", i.e., the constitution in a broad sense. This, in turn, emphasizes the vital importance of the formulation of constitutional rules and the possibility of constitutional reforms. According to Buchanan, it is often futile to advise politicians or influence the outcome of specific issues. In a given system of rules, the outcome is to a large extent determined by established political constellations. A relevant example is that those who would like to correct individual tariffs should concentrate instead on the fundamental rules of international trade, such as GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) regulations."
Political gridlock is becoming a growing feature in many countries at a time of economic stress. The US and India are two examples. Both commitment to principle and the ability to compromise are called for.
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