By William Corden
Although it’s an excellent book by Rory Stewart, it’s the last book you should read if you’re at all cynical about the operation of democracy.
The only day democracy works is on voting day which, in democracies we have today, just means re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Newly elected representatives are just so much litter in the running of things
Rory points out that the entire system is a stacked deck against any meaningful change. Ministers of State or
Cabinet Secretaries are mere figureheads in the running of a government, with almost all of the power remaining with the permanent higher echelons of the public service or the political party backroom boys.
Cabinet Secretaries are mere figureheads in the running of a government, with almost all of the power remaining with the permanent higher echelons of the public service or the political party backroom boys.So many of the instances he highlights had me shaking my head in disbelief as he tries to withhold billions in foreign aid funds to governments he knows are corrupt, he shows that trying to amend a social policy or a management policy is next to impossible
In one instance he points out a huge donation of billions (yes that’s billions) to an Afghanistan police department that he tried to stop because the organization was the most corrupt he had seen.
Trying to stop it was a mission to nowhere, as everything had been decided before it was brought to him, if he stamped his feet and threw a tantrum they just got it approved by a different compliant minister.
Not one single individual in the government was able to convince those holding the reins of power that the massive amount of money could be diverted to improve the situation in homeland downtown city centers, where businesses were failing and people were sleeping in tents on the street.
It never occurred to anyone to say “”whoa!, let’s take a look at the alternatives here.”
Just a re-prioritizing of the allocation of funds could solve most of our own inner city core problems but no… we give it to Afghanistan or Ukraine where it makes no difference whatsoever to the lives of the afflicted.
Only once in a couple of generations does a real leader emerge from the democratic process and we’re certainly due for one.
Rory wasn’t the guy to do it, as he admits in the book, he’s very much an intellectual but intellectuals ain’t necessarily good governors. You have to have a lot of craftiness, guile and ruthlessness in the final product … and I think I know who’s got those qualities.
I was a cynic at the start of Rory’s book but now I’m ten times worse and I’m a little bit sorry that I did read it … it’s not good for your mental health.😊
Rory Stewart’s book was published in the UK as Politics on the Edge
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3 Responses
Sounds like a good read.
As a multipurpose hope-restorer, try the YouTube vignettes of Senator John Kennedy, Statesman, eviscerating charlatan bureaucraps.
Yes I watched him, he’s a rare bird indeed and I really enjoyed him putting people like Jennifer Sung on the rack.
It’s people like Sung who we should be most worried about because they’re the ones who sneak into supposedly apolitical power positions and then lay their political stripe on issues that further their own or their party’s cause.
That Sung wouldn’t answer a question as to her birthday!
Trouble is, even a firebrand like Kennedy can’t get much done in the present party system. Even if he stood on top of the Statue of Liberty with a megaphone to make his speeches he wouldn’t change a damn thing.
I live in Canada but I’ve had some nasty experiences with the judicial system in New York and it is riddled with appointees and lefty employees. You have virtually no chance of winning a case if you don’t have money or a heavy on your side.
The entire structure has to be revamped