There are a number of reasons for trying to keep the discussion focused on implementation. In the first place, there are many policies that are so-called “valence” issues where there is not much argument over their rightness. There was a well-known study by the Indian economist and activist Jean Drèze in the late 1990s that showed that in a group of poor Indian states, some fifty percent of elementary school teachers failed to show up for work on a day-to-day basis. This led to a big political outcry and provoked a host of reform efforts, but several years later follow-up studies showed that the percentage had decreased only marginally. No one in India disputes the fact that state governments should be providing basic education, or that teachers who are paid to teach should appear in their classrooms. The fact that they didn’t was purely an implementation issue. There are a host of services and public goods that governments provide, from education to public health to infrastructure to security whose ends are not terribly controversial. We may debate whether the military should intervene in a conflict, but if it does, we want it to win its wars. - See more at: blogs.the-american-interest/fukuyama/2013/07/26/good-government-bad-government/#sthash.E54Eo8zY.dpuf
Posted on: Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:22:12 +0000
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