The current international political scene is extremely rich in events and developments. Some of these seem to come out of a Shakespearean tragedya, among the blackest as Re Lear o Macbeth. For others, comedy seems more appropriate, like the Merry Wives of Windsor o The comedy of errors.
With the first one could make a modern adaptation of the competition for the leadership of the English Conservative Party which is taking place at the end accompanied by the notes of the Symphony of Farewells by Haydin. Now there are two left for a challenge at the Ok Corall which will take place at 5 in the evening on 5 September.
The comedy of errors was represented during the session of the Italian Parliament which has taken away Mario Draghi's trust, the politician that everyone in Europe would like to have and that they can now aspire to have.
A serious problem
Precisely these two cases have stimulated Janan Ganesh, one of the most insightful political commentators of the "Financial Times”, to offer us a reflection on a very serious problem: the quality of the political class who holds the fate of the West in his hands.
Are there really the best brains at the helm of Western democracies? Answer: there are none. Why aren't they there? Answer: why politics is no longer the most attractive profession in the worldindeed it is not at all.
However, let us follow the witty reasoning of the young Janan Ganesh.
Enjoy the reading!
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It happens in Rome and London
For the second time in a decade, Italy has had a globocrat named Mario called upon to hold off one national political class without stature. In recent days the second Mario has fallen victim to a populist "coup" which has been joined by an over octogenarian. It may be that we are still there even after new elections, that is, there is a need to a third “SuperMario” to put together the pieces of an inept political class.
In the United Kingdom Rishi sunak (one of two candidates on the September ballot for the leadership of the British Conservative Party) goes into politics as if he had just come from an after-school program on how to do politics. There is something memorized in hand gestures and speech. There is something stereotypical about the tactics he uses: now he courts the right, now he pivots to the centre. In a thriving democracy, he would make a good Downing Street chief of staff with an eagle eye for a vacant parliamentary seat.
As things stand, the former Chancellor of the UK [i.e. Rishi Sunak] clearly is the best candidate for prime minister in a conservative field in dire conditions. Either way, it's staggering the lack of talent we see on the benches at Westminster.
Elsewhere they are no better
It's not that they're better off elsewhere. Over United States, the two most prominent Democrats are a shaky retiree [Joe Biden] and his inexperienced right-hand man [Kamala Harris].
The last German elections contrasted Olaf Scholz to Armin Laschet in a thrilling contest of mediocrity. None of Australia's last six prime ministers has impressed voters enough to hold office for a full term.
La Western democracy has a personnel problem. It is a problem that has arisen throughout the new century. With a good mind and plausible demeanor, it was absurdly easy for David Cameron to become Tory leader just five years after entering Parliament in 2001.
When, a decade later, Dominique Strauss-Kahn left the scene due to a scandal, the French socialists entrusted themselves to François Hollande, a mid-table middle-distance runner who traveled by moped to visit his lover.
let's look around, who is good in major democracies of today? There is Emmanuel Macron, it is true, but he would have shone in any white-collar profession. But who else? I don't know.
A supply problem
If the voters of the world were to refuse qualified politicians to choose middle stockings, we could say that all of this hides a demand problem. But the biggest problem, really, is supply. People capable of liberal or moderate orientation they don't choose politics. The reasons are quite intuitive. The pay gap with finance, corporate law and other careers in the liberal professions has grown enormously over the last generation.
Think of the speed and effort Cameron put into recovering the earnings he lost when he was at Downing Street. Moreover, it is to keep true talents at arm's length from politics personal exposure and scrutiny that elected offices bring with them.
In other times the press was able to be discreet about the secrets of the private life of a John F. Kennedy or a François Mitterrand. Today even if it did and it doesn't anymore, there would always be someone with a smartphone and a Twitter account to reveal them to the world.
The personnel crisis of democracies
The turbulence of the last decade is best explained if seen in this perspective of political personnel not up to par. Intellectually, it is de rigueur attributing the crisis of democracy to structural forces: to the loss of manufacturing jobs, the rise of new media and technology.
In telling history, if not economics, my craft has become Marxian to the core. For all its outward philistinism, however, the "great man theory," that is, the emphasis on the individual agent of history, has some merit.
[And there is even a foundation in Hegel's philosophy of history which tells us that a great role is played by those individuals who manage to embody the spirit of the time to keep the barrack going. Then the Hegelian Marx replaced the individual with the proletarian collective, but it didn't work. NDT]
Ergo, maybe liberalism is just short of great men and great women. And even the simply good ones.
It's hard to emphasize the individual's role in the story without sounding snobbish. We know there is no automatic equation between a person's academic-professional curriculum and his ability in public life. Harry Truman was a failed cloth merchant. With NATO and the Marshall Plan he became the architect of the second half of the XNUMXth century. Robert McNamara, had perhaps the best resume in America. He could hardly have been a more disastrous secretary of defense.
Existential question
The question is whether a country can prosper after shipping his best men in the private sector. In a sense, democratic capitalism is eroding itself. With personal careers so well paid and privacy protected, politics becomes child's play. The second choices are exhibited there.
The fact is, however, that the consequent decline of institutions and political life in turn threatens the economy. If the Tory or post-Draghi circus worries you, consider that, in the UK, the most experienced person on Labour's shadow team is a lady who spent a quarter of a century in parliament without leaving any trace. (Yvette Cooper ) and a gentleman who is a former leader defeated in the election (Ed Miliband). Italy is no better: there is an over eighty year old competing, a leader who makes mistakes after mistakes and a lady who gets excited at Vox rallies.
In the autocracies at least there is some tolerance for some cheating or indulgence towards some little sin, so as not to send away the talents that are stained by it.
Amarcord
I Chris Patten diaries, the last governor of Hong Kong, are an elegy of that city. They end up leaving the reader melancholy, yes, but for a certain kind of politician. Intelligent, adminstrative, not doctrinaire, E Patten wasn't even the leading member of a Tory line-up that included a good lawyer turned minister at 40 (Ken Clarke) and a hard-working entrepreneur (Michael Heseltine).
By comparison, Britain may soon be ruled by a person who has tried to insert the word "fuck" into parliamentary speech as many times as he could. Or Italy from someone who always says "absolutely yes" to the most obvious questions and counts on his fingers the impossible things he wants done.
In reality, the crisis of democracy is like the crisis of the restaurant and airport sectors. Can't find the staff. That's all.
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By Janan Ganesh, Western democracies have a talent problem, “The Financial Times”, July 20, 2022
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Janan Ganesha he is a columnist and political commentator for the “Financial Times”. He also writes on international politics and culture for the newspaper's Weekend spine. Previously, for five years, he was a political correspondent of the "Economist". Ganesh wrote George Osborne: The Austerity Chancellor (2012), a biography of former British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.
