{"id":22365,"date":"2019-07-12T12:02:38","date_gmt":"2019-07-12T07:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/jwt2015\/?p=22365"},"modified":"2019-11-22T16:24:15","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T11:24:15","slug":"22365","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/pakistan-affairs\/22365\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Technocracy is the Only Way Out?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Conceptual<\/a><\/p>\n

Why Technocracy is the Only Way Out?<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Amjed Jaaved<\/span><\/p>\n

With change of guards at the SBP, and with removal of a bureaucrat from the post of FBR Chairman, and appointment of a technocrat to take his place, a surreptitious technocratic coup d’\u00e9tat seems to be underway in Pakistan. This development also suggests that the current setup of the country is in stagnant waters, and it is not an easy task to make it delivery-oriented in a short time. So, the government has decided to implement change by installing experts and professionals from various fields as heads of important public sector institutions and government bodies.<\/p>\n

Democracy is synonymous with \u2018participation\u2019 of the common man in governing process. But, in reality, it has never been so. Prof. Noam Chomsky rightly points out that even the American masses are like a \u201cbewildered herd\u201d that has stopped thinking (Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda). He then asserts that there is a \u201csmall percentage of the people,\u201d a \u201cspecialized class\u201d who \u2026 analyse, execute, make decisions and run things in the political, economic and ideological systems\u201d \u2026 and their biggest objective is to tame the \u2018bewildered herd\u2019.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Inherent flaws in democracy lead to the rise of technocratic elites. Technocrats did successfully help Ayub Khan in rapid industrialization of the country. But, they uncannily accentuated concentration of wealth and economic power. Disparities in incomes and assets of poor and rich households led to the rise of 22 industrial barons. Ayub\u2019s economic wizard, Dr Mahbubul Haq, later published \u2018Seven Sins of Economic Planners in Pakistan\u2019 to identify his planning mistakes. Thank God, we now have no plan, at all. We are on auto pilot.<\/p>\n

\"20170510112903183001\"<\/a>In a sharp contrast, Gen Ziaul Haq annulled the second phase of \u201cfeudal\u201d Bhutto\u2019s land reforms to gain political support of big land-owners against the country\u2019s elected and deposed populist prime minister.<\/p>\n

Is technocracy inevitable?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In his 1911 book \u2018Political Parties\u2019, a noted German sociologist Robert Michels postulated the \u2018Iron Law of Oligarchy\u2019. He stated that the raison d’\u00eatre of a representative democracy is eliminating the elite rule. It is an impossible goal because representative democracy is a fa\u00e7ade legitimizing the rule of a particular elite, and that elite rule, which he refers to as oligarchy, is inevitable.<\/p>\n

According to the \u2018iron law theory\u2019, democracy and large-scale organizations are incompatible. The rule by an elite, or oligarchy, is inevitable upshot of \u2018tactical and technical necessities\u2019 of democratic organizations. All organizations eventually come to be run by a \u201cleadership class,\u201d that often functions as paid administrators, executives, spokespersons or political strategists for the organization. Far from being \u201cservants of the masses,\u201d the \u201cleadership class,\u201d will inevitably dominate the organization’s power structure. They control access to information, with little accountability. They manage to centralise their power as masses (rank and file) are apathetic, and indifferent to the organization’s decision-making processes.<\/p>\n

\"57678281_497338627469330_4037715632669793628_n\"<\/a>No large and complex organizations can function purely as a direct democracy. Power within an organization will always get delegated to individuals within that group, elected or otherwise. Democratic attempts to hold those on leadership positions accountable are bound to fail. The oligarchy has power to reward loyalty, gag dissent and influence members (masses).<\/p>\n

Mafias<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

William A. Welsh says, \u201cThe rise of democracy has signalled the decline of elites (Leaders and Elites, p.1). Not true of Pakistan? Here talent rusts and mafias prevail. We see mafias all around, in media, in politics, in justice system, in education and healthcare sectors; in fine, everywhere.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Iron Law of Oligarchy\u2019 smacks of ideas in \u201cThe Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism,\u201d a fictional book in the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell. Throughout the recorded time, and probably since the end of the Neolithic Age, there have been three kinds of people in the world: the High, the Middle, and the Low. The examples of Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore, Mahathir Mohammed in Malaysia, Deng Xiaoping and Xi Jinping in China, Park Chung-hee in South Korea illustrate how visionary leaders backed by a strong central government can rapidly transform nations.<\/p>\n

Why are technocrats necessary?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Since politicians lack \u2018foresight\u2019 of scientific advances in agriculture, engineering, artificial intelligence, automated industrial manufacturing, medical biotechnology, and so on, therefore, only technocrats could correct socioeconomic injustices through accelerated economic development.<\/p>\n

Aristotelian democracy and Pakistan<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In his study of political systems (oligarchy, monarchy, etc.), Aristotle concluded that \u2018demokratia\u2019<\/em> was the best system. The problem that bothered him was that the majority of free people (excluding women and slaves) would use their brute voting power to introduce pro-poor legislation like taking away property from the rich.<\/p>\n

Aristotle suggested that we reduce income inequalities so that the have-not representatives of the poor are not tempted to prowl upon haves\u2019 property. James Madison (fourth president of the United States of America) harboured similar concerns. He feared \u2018if freemen had democracy, then the poor farmers would insist on taking property from the rich\u2019 via land reforms (Noam Chomsky, Power Systems, p 84). The fear was addressed by creating a senate (US) or a house of lords (Britain) to forestall legislative vulgarities of the House of Representative or the House of Commons.<\/p>\n

Aristotle would rejoice in the grave to see both Pakistan\u2019s National Assembly and the Senate being populated by the rich. One leader, the three-time prime minister of the country, wears Louis Moinet \u2018Meteoris\u2019 wristwatch having a worth about Rs. 460 million. Another, a vocal proponent of Medina State, lives in a 300-kanal house. These prime ministers never took any legislative steps to equalize citizens in access to education, medicare, housing and jobs; in short, in all realms of life. No government looked into the origin of landed aristocracy, chiefs and chieftains in the subcontinent during the Mughal and British periods. Doubtless, our democracy is Aristotle\u2019s dream as it is stable, rich and pro-rich.<\/p>\n

Aristotelian remedy: Golden Mean<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In his foundational work on human ethics \u2018Nicomachean ethics\u2019, Aristotle postulates: (a) justice exists only between men whose relations are regulated by law, and (b) law exists for men whose relation is defined by injustice. So, law was the bludgeon to correct injustice. Aristotle admitted that societies are flawed as the relation between individuals is based on caprice, avarice and injustice. He was optimistic that societies would balance personal desires (gain-loss, cost-benefit) by evolving a \u2018Golden Mean\u2019, a set of rules treating all individuals equally before law. The maxim was: \u2018treat others as you would like to treat yourself\u201d. If we perceive the \u201cGolden Mean\u201d as a weighted average, then masses in Pakistan carry the least weight vis-\u00e0-vis classes (elites, mafias, etc.).<\/p>\n

Inference<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"14-1-696x464\"<\/a>In Pakistan, technocracy has become synonymous with subjugation to accommodation of IMF and World-Bank\u2019s throwaways. The society remains unruffled when a Moeen Qureshi or a Shaukat Aziz drops from heavens to become the country\u2019s prime minister. Why not lease out the country to IMF? Or, still better, to the highest bidder. We used to have a National Talent Pool?<\/p>\n

To correct multifaceted social injustice, all stakeholders should try to evolve Aristotelian \u2018Golden Mean\u2019. Or else, continue on auto-pilot until divine retribution strikes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why Technocracy is the Only Way Out? Amjed Jaaved With change of guards at the SBP, and with removal of a bureaucrat from the post of FBR Chairman, and appointment of a technocrat to take his place, a surreptitious technocratic coup d’\u00e9tat seems to be underway in Pakistan. This development also suggests that the current …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10390,10760,2],"tags":[574,257,1000,1226,1161,13,537,10802,8467],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22365"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22365"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22657,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22365\/revisions\/22657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}