Politics

Is Social Democracy the Necessary Prescription That Clueless Nations, Diagnosed with Stochasticity During This Pandemic, Looking For?

Remedies to the chaotic state of affairs neither lie with ideologues nor with populists. But instead lie with pragmatists, who come up with solutions that are realistic, functional, and based on evidence. In addition to the governments and markets, which when working in tandem, result in progress, we also have to understand the contribution of citizens in the same, as they are equally accountable and morally obligated to optimize what’s best for them. Citizens do come with rights, which in turn come with obligations, and that requires them to respond and reciprocate responsibly to the actions of government and rules of the market.

All regimes, systems, procedures, and mechanisms are prone to corrosion, except that some are more susceptible to malfunction than the others, especially if they aren’t mended regularly. A rethinking of social policy beyond basic survival is the pressing priority to reach out to those who are at higher risk due to disruptions caused by this crisis. These policies need to be practical and must be ingrained in setting ordinary citizens free of their common apprehensions. Be it about their occupations, which are jeopardized as a consequence of technological advancements which they couldn’t catch up to, or their health, which is compromised as a result of having inadequate medical facilities. Having primary healthcare for all is as important as giving political rights to all, for, without healthy citizens, we cannot even dream of a healthy democracy. To be able to restore people’s dignity, we need a makeover in the design of the majority of democratic regimes in the world.

We do not have to adopt a segregated approach between capitalism and democracy to arrive at a fully functioning social democracy.

There seems like a clash between democracy and capitalism, both of which are ever-evolving. They need to be consistently altered, revised and configured into their newer versions, versions with more inclusiveness in their apparatus as compared to before, as time, periodically, necessitates these revisions, but by no means is capitalism a hurdle in achieving mass well-being, as against that, it is rather a catalyst. Market competition ensures that firms are following procedures and harnessing their capacity to the fullest using economies of scale and specialization.

There is no one universal recipe that fits all, as in quantifying how much of each, that would work best, no. The degree and extent of each, as well as the percentage proportion of the mix of the two, have to be chosen by each country, given its population, level of economic development as well as inequalities prevalent in a particular society.

There are anger and anxiety in the population, of being left behind, of no longer being represented, in terms of their choices, wills and wants, in policies that are being designed in the name of democracy, of which they formally are a part, but practically aren’t consulted on the same. In reality, what they get is a candy of ballot rights, these are generally used as a tool to give a fake illusion of democracy. This breaks an important bond that’s needed between any two partnerships. Trust. Governments that can garner people’s trust are better off than ones who eat away their confidence due to their inability to provide them the necessary help, in the form of social support, in their hardest times.

Capitalism, in principle, is not wicked. What makes it monstrous is how its conducted. Achieving a balance between government and markets doesn’t complete our mission. It’s accomplished when markets are accessible to all and not just to a few privileged ones. Governments providing enabling environment to corporations and them returning complementing favors is mutually advantageous but far from being “good for the most disadvantageous,” which is how a moral society be judged and which is precisely where lies the roots of social democracy. It requires a change to be universal, since, if only a few are advancing, and others feel either frozen or digressing, it’s a dud, not development. We need to prepare our people for capitalism. We need pragmatic competitive and pluralistic democracies as much as we need market competitiveness to keep capitalism in check.

What are the most important factors of our times that aid capitalism to flourish resolutely? Are they normally distributed in the population?

1. Education: It’s the new capital of our times. Whereas the chances of the educated have escalated, in terms of better opportunities and higher incomes, the less educated are in crisis and suffering as never before, even as the overall effect on our GDP owing to the dense rise in such incomes is increasing, it is only delusional of well-working market democracy. The cost of less-educated people being part of our citizenry has to be paid by the whole society in the form of their political choices at the ballots. Examples range from America to India; less educated populace displayed that their voting preferences aren’t informed enough. They elected incompetent leaders, like Trump and Modi, respectively. Investment in primary education is also needed to even out the inequalities existing in the society, at least, as much as one requires to be able to move around in settings where one needs to take necessary business decisions or perhaps learn a new skill.

2. Technology: is another crucial determinant that ought to penetrate down to the last human in the society, so everyone gets equal exposure and, therefore, equal opportunity to enhance their skills and grow with times.

Capitalism while prospering resulted in many disparities that left many behind and so did governments, while making ‘public policies’. They left the “public” in “public policy” at the bottom and served just a handful of powerful people. We need both capitalism and governments rooted in an ethical framework, for social democracy to work. We need “creative capitalists” who realize their true potential by attaining profits with a purpose without leaving workers out of their agenda. This combined with problem-solving politics, as opposed to, one based either on populism without the intent to benefit people or based on ideology can be a powerful association and a hallmark of success. Last but not the least, citizens need to drop their “paternalistic expectations” from the state and attain this transformation by addressing their issues from a “communitarian perspective” and not just from “individualistic”.