[governance] The danger of blindly trusting the technocrats

[Nick Ashton-Hart]

There are plenty of people - from all social groups - working in a policy
environment who will do anything to win because it is to their financial or
other interest (and in my view, there are such people throughout all
communities in IG policy just as they exist in every other policy area.

In the end, self-justificatory righteousness by civil society can be just
as harmful as industry advocacy that is designed only to benefit a company
or a sector without regard for broader impacts.

My 0.02
On 27 May 2013 08:12, "Suresh Ramasubramanian" <suresh at hserus.net> wrote:

> Nick, there is absolutely no way to "understand" bigotry and prejudice.
>  It's characteristics and symptoms are known, one of which is to attempt to
> segregate and exclude, as a class, the targets of their prejudice,from
> being part of be same community.
>
> Now, coming back to the repeated attempts to deny the legitimacy of and/or
> marginalize industry and the technical community, your email helps me see
> them in a wholly new light rather than mere petty politicking and
> ideological cant, par for the course and so on.  It makes me absolutely not
> regret registering my complete rejection of such behavior.
>
> thanks
> --srs (iPad)
>
> On 27-May-2013, at 11:15, Nick Ashton-Hart <nashton at consensus.pro> wrote:
>
> +1. As one of those people with a practical and a policy background, I can
> tell you how infrequent it is to come across anyone (from companies,
> governments or civil society) who has commercial or practical expertise in
> the areas they are a policy advocate for. It is a great shame and a direct
> consequence is bad policy or spreading of misinformation.
>
> And yes, I've experience plenty of the prejudices of the latter part of
> your message. I understand people wanting to 'trust, but verify' as it
> were. I don't understand the unvarnished bigotry and prejudice (which some
> of you may remember directed at me by some a few months ago). Prejudice
> applied to groups is a generalisation - not good, but understandable to
> some extent. Prejudice applied to individuals is just wrong - and harmful
> to all involved.
> On 26 May 2013 12:00, "Suresh Ramasubramanian" <suresh at hserus.net> wrote:
>
>> Equally, people with purely a policy or political background are going to
>> be just as poor in predicting consequences.  Either due to a lack of
>> awareness of operational reality, or a skewed perspective, or both.
>>
>> There are comparatively very few people with both technical AND policy
>> knowledge, and while the cross fertilization between these two streams
>> happens, it doesn't happen as often as I would wish .. and at least in some
>> sections of civil society's eyes such cross fertilization produces
>> "tainted" people.
>>
>> You know .. suspect corporations of mens rea, suspect people who
>> associate with or work for those corporations as being evil corporate
>> stooges who are only working for their employer's selfish interests etc
>> etc, one false premise built on another till a very shaky pyramid of pure
>> hostility takes shape.
>>
>> --srs (iPad)
>>
>> On 26-May-2013, at 14:02, Roland Perry <roland at internetpolicyagency.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > In message <018b01ce59e0$e04fde00$a0ef9a00$@gmail.com>, at 10:15:31 on
>> Sun, 26 May 2013, michael gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com> writes
>> >>
>> http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/the-danger-of-blin
>> >> dly-trusting-the-technocrats/article12106081/#dashboard/follows/
>> >>
>> >> Worth taking a look at (and thinking through the relevance of) the
>> >> underlying paper http://www.nber.org/papers/w18921.pdf?new_window=1whose
>> >> central argument is that successful policy (both in terms of social
>> equity
>> >> but also in terms of economic benefit) is ultimately about finding
>> political
>> >> solutions rather than relying on technical ones.
>> >>
>> >> Perhaps of equal relevance in IG as in economic policy.
>> >
>> > Technocrats are very poor at predicting unintended consequences. That
>> may sound like a truism, but it's often possible for a fresh pair of less
>> rosy-spectacled eyes to spot a drawback that the original team didn't. And
>> the "team" can be quite a big one.
>> > --
>> > Roland Perry
>> >
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