Dr. Glen Newey from some obscure British university has recently published a report that suggests lying by politicians is a natural consequence of democracy. No, no, this isn't yet another case of social scientists discovering truths that we all hold to be self-evident; he actually has an interesting take on the issue.
Basically he claims that
Demands for openness and accountability create a culture of suspicion which makes it even more likely that politicians will resort to evasion and misrepresentation. These demands often arise because of increasing alienation by voters from the political process that they democratically control. Yet the greater the demands for truthfulness, the less autonomy we give to our democratic institutions and the harder it is for democracy to function effectively.
He goes on to argue that there are times and circumstances when, in order to achieve a particular public benefit, deception must occur in order to bring about the public good. It boils down to a tightening noose of sorts, where we demand more openess but that openess makes it more difficult for the government to do its job.
Now I don't know if this analysis is really all that accurate. Politicians are self-serving as well, which is a fine motivator for mendacity (that's a new word I learned from that article!). But I actually didn't want to talk about this article per se (his final conclusion is basically we are damned if we do, damned if we don't, so its really not that valuable of a finding).
I was stricken by the economic language employed to describe the lying and deception of politicians. Case in point:
But the more the electorate expects from the politicians they elect, the more likely it is that politicians will be economical with the truth [this means lie about stuff --Nute]," says Dr Newey. "Such deception where it is in the public interest may be the price of a healthy democracy.
For some reason, when I first read the press release, this language of economics with regard to truth, deception, and democracy just struck me as odd and a bit sickening. I'm not breaking new ground by pointing out how money and economics has radically changed our world and how everything we think and do is aligned with economics (to a detrimental and entirely undesirable degree, in my opinion), but now we are using economic lingo to discuss dishonesty in democracy? It just didn't sit right.
But I admit that as I wrote this up, it didn't seem to have quite the impact that I originally thought. Maybe I was just in an emotionally tender state after having been scarred after watching that lame American Beauty knock-off Monster's Ball. What a joke that movie was.
Posted by Nutrimentia at May 22, 2003 12:10 AM | TrackBack