Political scientists, trained to think in buckets and building intellectual scaffoldings, lose their compass when political processes do not fit perfectly in the buckets that have been useful in the creation of theories that explain the past.
I remember when sets with paint brushes, water colors and drawings with numbered grids became popular. It was suddenly possible to paint by numbers. I received a colorful and splendorous macaw as a gift. I spent days coloring it carefully, making sure to stay within the lines. The result was no work of art, but the process was fun and the toy continues to sell well. None of them is a Picasso, but many could resemble one.
Something similar to painting by numbers occurs when we try to grid the political processes and their dynamics under the rubric of democracy, dictatorship, capitalism, socialism, communism or mercantilism. The labels lose significance when we do not understand how governments and societies combine the primary colors of political organization. In order to understand if a political system is participatory and progressive or repressive and destructive, and other permutations of these four factors in the political spectrum of a society, it is useful to indentify the “primary colors” with which the social reality of a country is painted. Societies and processes that are constructive, participatory and dynamic produce “works of art” that inspire and uplift the citizenry, even if not everyone likes them. When the primary colors do not combine, the end result is a destructive dynamic.
The “primary colors” of constructive political processes are: Freedom of expression (speech and conscience); connectedness, or the opportunity to connect with leaders and everyone else; and constructive recognition and feedback. Freedom of expression is achieved through training and specialization. Social connectivity with my co-citizens and leaders is developed through the growth of mutual respect. Constructive recognition and feedback is achieved through evaluation and reporting systems that we understand and to which we can respond in order to get “good grades.” Freedom, connectivity and recognition are the yellow, blue and red of political growth.
If a government is able to utilize at least two of the three primary colors, the political system will last, even if the economy fails. If a government uses only one or less of the “primary colors” to paint society, the political system will collapse even if the economy is relatively stable. Of course a growing economy allows us to forget the colors for a while, but not indefinitely. Two examples are helpful in the analysis. Cuba has grown poorer over the last 50 years and the political system has lived on. Beside military repression, the Cuban regime has used two primary colors to satisfy the political needs of its inhabitants: connectivity and constructive recognition and feedback. It has not allowed freedom of expression. Those Cubans unhappy with the lack of liberties exiled themselves. Venezuela has gone through extreme economic cycles and there are many more in the future, considering the dependence on the State and oil, and the regime of President Chavéz has survived the economic highs and lows, because the system has used two primary colors: freedom of expression (open to more than 50% of the population and closed to the vocal opposition) and connectivity. It has not given its citizens constructive recognition and feedback. To the contrary, it entices its citizens to behave destructively, critical of one another and loaded with mistrust in all. The Soviet Union fell because it stopped painting with any of the three colors. It survived for many years, just like Cuba, thanks to connectivity and constructive recognition and feedback, but those two colors were lost when the leaders aged and stopped expressing empathy and constructive recognition to their citizens. If freedom of expression disappears in Venezuela and is not replaced by constructive recognition, the only way of maintaining the regime will be through military repression, particularly in the face of an economic crisis.
In order to organize the political systems of countries it is more important to recognize and utilize the primary colors than political and economic memos.
0 comments:
Post a Comment