[governance] The danger of blindly trusting the technocrats

[Riaz K Tayob]

On 2013/05/27 09:23 AM, Nick Ashton-Hart wrote:
> 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. 

Nick this is simply a truism. We face a collective action trap here. And 
it is the AGE OLD problem with democratic organisation, benefits that 
are small and widespread have trouble competing with small organised 
groups that glean large benefits.

That should simply make public interest receive more space in the field 
than petulance from corporates (who anyway use the revolving door to 
good effect) BECAUSE finding people knowledgeable and committed to the 
public interest is difficult, as is managing conflicts of interests. One 
could go the WHO way and ignore ANY meaningful management of conflicts 
of interests, and get a Swine Flu pandemic that was not a pandemic, or 
one could encourage the MStakeholder crew to take these matters seriously.

The imbalance is neglect of public interest AND the ability of 
corporates to "collude" (legitimately or not so) for their interests, 
which can be at odds with the public interest. The strawman created by 
repetition does not become more true because of its frequency nor the 
marginalisation that corporates feel.

It will not do to be self-righteous for civil society, nor will it do 
for corporates or their representatives to push for self interest that 
is not contingent.

This is just politics... and the terrain must be equitable and fair... 
that is all.. all the rest we can work out...

Riaz


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