Creating Hope

Eduardo del Buey
Photo: Ap
La Jornada Maya

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Philosopher Henry David Thoreau once wrote that, “the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation”.

[img]w1577b17o3zb[/img]

This appears to be true for many sectors of global society. While a number of countries have lifted millions out of poverty during the past few years, we can ask if this has had an impact on the confidence people everywhere have in a better future and their satisfaction with the different institutions of governance in power around the world.

Thirty years ago, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the eradication of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the world found a renewed sense of hope that life would be different. This was predicated on positive political changes that many hoped would translate into economic and social improvements to life around the globe.

For some, this indeed has been the case.

For others, however, change has not been positive and has, in many cases, resulted in feelings of hopelessness.

Hope is the quality that leads one to believe that life will get better over time.

Hopelessness is the condition that leaves one concluding that this is as good as it gets, and that things may well be worse for the generations that follow.

Both hope and hopelessness can be easily spread and shared through social media and our 24/7 news cycle.

The question is, how can a society create the conditions to move from the sense of hopelessness that affects many to a point that they feel hope for the future?

I believe that the answer lies in leadership, both political and personal.

Political leaders must think outside of the box of political and economic orthodoxy. To develop new means to measure and evaluate the human condition and use these measures to create the policies and programs that address society’s problems and contribute to a renewed sense of hope among citizens.

Currently, four national governments are developing new ideas on governance that might lead to new ways of addressing and resolving problems.

Recently Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his new Cabinet – a Cabinet of ministers whose responsibilities cut across the traditional structure of government and try to address the challenges of the 21st century from a whole of government viewpoint.

[img]i1577b173zou[/img]
Photo: Facebook @JustinPJTrudeau

Ministers have been appointed to manage such portfolios as Middle-Class Prosperity, Diversity and Inclusion and Youth, Families, Children, and Social Development, Infrastructure and Communities, Women and Gender equality, Seniors, and others.

Ministers will work to dismantle traditional ministerial silos.

Bureaucrats will work in crosscutting ways to address the needs of the many constituencies that conform the Canadian reality using all available data and resources and not allowing themselves to be bound by organizational boundaries or rivalries.

This reengineering of the government could well create a results-based organization that can address the myriad complex issues that face Canadians from a holistic point of view rather than to simply pursue traditional bureaucratic models of piecemeal governance that may have worked in the 19th century but that are woefully inadequate for today’s highly integrated and connected global infrastructure.

Today’s challenges require creative thinking and an integrated approach capable of achieving micro-economic results to the problems faced by citizens in addition to the macro-economic results required by global and national economic realities. Replacing per capita GDP with methods of measuring how the economy is impacting on individuals and affecting socio-economic inequities has long been necessary since neoliberalism replaced liberal democracy in the late seventies and early eighties.

For the next few years, Canada could be a laboratory to develop a model that, if successful, could well be emulated by other governments committed to strengthening liberal democratic institutions.

Another government at the forefront of creative governance is that of New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Her government’s “wellbeing budget” focuses on five main themes: mental health, family violence, clean energy, connectivity and digital innovation, and supporting indigenous peoples. Instead of focusing solely on financial growth using traditional models for measuring economic performance, her government prioritizes the happiness of its citizens and is developing programs and policies aimed at individuals and their needs.

Some may ask if this is a new way of looking at things. In my view, it is not. These concepts existed in different forms in the past. The New Deal and the Great Society in the United States, the creation of the welfare state in countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom, and the growth of social democracy in Nordic countries have all contributed to governance models that address the needs of the individual.

But much of this was lost with the rise of neo-liberalism in the 1980’s and its philosophy that a rising tide raises all boats. This has been disproven through the resulting rise in economic and social inequities since the early eighties.

A third model is being developed by the government of Iceland’s Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir. According to her office, the Prime Minister‘s Committee on measurements for wellbeing in Iceland has proposed a framework of thirty-nine indicators that cover social, economic and environmental dimensions of quality of life. These indicators are intended to complement traditional economic measures, such as GDP, and monitor trends in people’s wellbeing.

[img]jistt8it86sf[/img]
Photo: Facebook @VGKatrinJakobsdottir

A fourth model is Finland, whose government has reinvented the education system for the 21st century, changing not only curricula, but also the role of teachers in the classroom and in society, where they are highly respected by all as the crafters of future Finnish leaders who come from all social and economic strata.

[img]g1577b1boabo[/img]
Photo: Taken from TripAdvisor

A 2018 World Bank report revealed that children in Finland have a much better chance of escaping the economic class of their parents and pursuing their own success than do children in the United States. Universal health care and access to tuition free education are seen by Nordics as being basic human rights and as the basic minimum for any business-oriented country to compete in the 21st century.

Education, taxation, civics, and people’s wellbeing must be the leitmotif of all governments aiming to sustain and strengthen democratic institutions and national economies while addressing the needs of individuals.

This calls on governments to create the conditions that ensure sustainable economic growth that addresses inequities. It calls for education to be perceived by all as an investment in the future and not simply another cost to be reduced during budget cutting exercises. It calls for generated wealth be better managed to flow to all sectors of society and not only to the one percent where wealth has tended to flow.

Connecting with citizens and educating them are at the foundation of effective governance. Providing quality and equitable services in health, education, housing, and wealth distribution can improve the lives of citizens and give them a stake in the system bringing them closer to the institutions meant to support them.

Government and the private sector have an important role to play to ensure that economic growth and opportunities are available to all.

But another element is necessary.

Personal leadership is required. Individuals must invest the time and energy to improve their lot in life as well as contribute to local or global progress by obtaining the required education and skills. This also requires the personal commitment to assume responsibility for their own wellbeing and that of their family and not expect government or the private sector to be responsible for their future.

Young leaders like Nobel Laureate Malala Yusufzai and Time Magazine’s Person of the Year Greta Thunberg have motivated millions to march for the rights of girls and women to access education and achieve gender equality and millions more to march for responsible environmental stewardship. And they were in their mid-teens when they achieved this.

[img]z1577b1bzzos[/img]
Photo: Afp

Personal leadership with vision, critical judgment, and modern communications technology can make it possible for anyone with a good idea to make it known and attract support.

Young political leaders like the Prime Ministers of Finland, Iceland, and New Zealand are demonstrating new ways of doing politics.

Governments must create new environments in which they can work together with business and citizens to help provide the tools required for equitable economic development.

This is what I find intriguing about all three national approaches described above. The Canadian cabinet structure, if implemented effectively, could go a long way in demonstrating how governments can be more holistic in their approach, efficient in the delivery of policies and services, and responsive to the needs of individual citizens.

The New Zealand and Icelandic models also recast the raison d’être of government in a democratic society and define the objectives that leaders should seek to implement.

And the Finnish model can show how governments must move from simply trimming away educational funding for models that aren´t fit for purpose in the 21st century to replacing them completely with models that respond to our interconnected and rapidly changing world.

We live in a new millennium with new challenges, and must be willing and able to eliminate what no longer works and develop what can work.

Do we have the vision and courage to do it, or are we more comfortable living in the past?

[b][email protected][/b]