The lack of democracy in the West today is good politics, so it is suffering from excessive individualism, populism, and short -termism.Democracy is valuable, but if democratic politics cannot produce good politics and good governments, everything is embarrassed.
On August 28, Xu Fangda, Minister of Transport and Second Minister of Finance, spoke at the Singapore Economic Society's perennial dinner and talked about two seminars after a lapse of 35 years.The former was held in Washington in 1989, resulting in the so -called "Washington Consensus"; the latter was held in Berlin, Germany in May this year, and then issued a Berlin declaration.
All the two seminars are experts and scholars in the field of government, but the conclusions caused by the relationship between the relationship between the government and the market are very different.The Washington Seminar led by the Institute of International Economics of the United States attended the Latin American country from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the United States Development Bank, the US Treasury and Latin American countries.The "prescription" proposed by the "Washington Consensus" includes austerity policy to inhibit inflation, reduce public welfare expenditures, implement financial and trade liberalization, private enterprise privatization, and cancel the government's many regulations on enterprises.Simply put, the market is dominated by the market.
The Berlin seminar in May was sponsored by an institution called Forum New Economy.Lost confidence and lead to the rise of populism?The declaration issued after the meeting believes that the root cause is that the people generally feel helpless and unable to deal with the impact of globalization, technological innovation, climate change, artificial intelligence, and global inflation.At the same time, for decades, countries have overwhelmed the self -regulating ability of the market and the negligence of globalization, which has also led the government to lose its ability to have the ability to have the effect on such crises.Simply put, this is equivalent to negating the "Washington Consensus" that mainly relies on the market to solve problems.
After the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the implementation of China's reform and opening up, the theory of historical end in the West has emerged. For a long time, the central plan economy has become a world consensus.Conversely, the market is sacred and almost universal.But now we know that whether it is a planned economy or a market economy, it is impossible to move towards extremes.
Xu Fangda pointed out that the facts have proved that "Trickle-Down Economics" has failed.This is the economic theory from the United States. It is thought that as long as it reduces taxes for the rich and enterprises, it can drive the entire economic development and benefit everyone. This is an economic policy implemented in the Reagan era, so it is also called "Reagan Economics".Everything depends on the market, the less the government controls it.This so -called economy is not a problem, the government is the problem.Needless to say, this is the economic abacus of a conservative vested interest group. As a result, the disparity between the rich and the poor has expanded and social differentiation.This is not only the United States, but also a problem faced by western society.Traditionally, the mainstream parties that take turns governing are helpless. This is the main reason why the people have lost confidence in the government.
The "Washington Consensus" prescription, which is a private "Washington Consensus", is superstitious about the market, and is in the market. For developing countries, it is actually a dose of poison.Latin American countries did not heal because of taking medicine. Instead, they became worse and worse. Therefore, they lost many countries' resources and fatally got various consortia in the West.The United States and Britain and other countries themselves have fallen into economic dilemma because of this so -called new liberal economics.In fact, privatization only benefits capital and rich, and wealth is becoming more and more concentrated in the hands of a few people who only account for 1%of society.The laissez -faire market does not bring the benefits of "lower seepage".The free market is out of order, and the small government is unable to control.When the market has developed to the extreme, various social contradictions have been exposed one after another.
The government is a need for governance in any country. It is considered that the invisible hands of the market can solve all economic problems. That is delusion.The market has functions that cannot be replaced, but it is by no means all.When the government should take a shot, especially when the market operation fails or serious problems, such as malignant competition, monopoly or Cartel.Singapore's experience also proves that some important public services such as infrastructure, medical care, education, and public transportation must have the government's prudent planning, control and investment, and cannot be completely handed over to the market.
The main function of the free market is competition, but competition may not bring expected results. At this time, the government has to intervene.In the United States, many large groups have a strong wealth, capable of affecting policies, and controlling politicians, making the necessary reforms almost impossible.For example, reducing emission reduction and greening, encountering a huge oil industry, the blocking Land Rover, it is difficult to do it immediately.
For electric vehicles that have started to sell around the world, sales in the United States are abnormal stagnation.The surface reason is that the infrastructure is insufficient. If the charging pile is not common, the main resistance is actually from the oil industry.The Biden government announced a plan of $ 7.5 billion (about S $ 9.8 billion) two years ago, and it will set up 500,000 charging piles across the country by 2050.However, according to reports, eight federal charging piles were built as of May this year.It is not clear that the states have the calculations of various states, especially those oil -producing states, how can there be enthusiastic promotion of charging piles.As a result, we can understand why the US government is desperately trying to target Chinese electric vehicles.To put it bluntly, in order to safeguard its own interests, the oil industry must resolutely oppose electric vehicles.Of course, they must also oppose other new energy.It can be seen that why the United States has said a lot in reducing emission and greening.Oral benefits are not true, how can we get trust in the people?
This is reminiscent of a paragraph in the Analects.Zigong asked politics.Zi said: "Full of food. Foot soldiers. The people believe in the people." Zigong said: "There must be a last resort, why is the three of the three?" Said: "Go to the soldiers." Zi Gong said: ""Yu Si Er" said: "Go to eat.Confucius said: "Make sure that we can eat and eat, strong military, and trust in the people." Zigong said: "If you can't do it at the same time, which of the above three items can be removed?" Military."If not, which one can be removed in two items?" Food and clothing.Since ancient times, there have been death, and the country's trust is lacking, and the country has been hopeless."
The government of Western democratic countries today cannot obtain trust in the people. Even if they have opened a discussion, what can the result?The country's fiscal left branch, right and right, the government has limited ability to govern, politics has finished playing, and the people are tired of watching, so they feel frustrated and hopeless, and instead seek redemption from populism.The emergence of flow.Politicians know how to take advantage of the people's dissatisfaction with the system, but they do not have a comprehensive strategy of governing the country. To put it, they do not have that ability, so they cannot be detached to the system of the system.
Xu Fangda thus concluded that a good economy must have good politics to achieve the expected results.What the Western democracy is lacking today is good politics, so it is troubled by excessive individualism, populist, and short -termism.Political parties have further differentiation of voters and tearing society. Traditional middle political parties can no longer play a role. Politics has lost its mainstream forces and naturally splits.Therefore, it is impossible to form the government for a long time after many places.The dreams of small government and large society are resting, and the people's trust in the government and politicians also take a break.
Singapore has always believed that we need a strong good government. Do n’t say anything else. One of the population structures of the diverse race alone is enough to make us realize that no strong government does not work.One of the contradictions faced by Western democracy today is racial contradictions.For example, in the UK, a fake news is enough to get a riot. The stability of the traditional unit society has alreadyThe scriptures are gone.Democracy is valuable, but if democratic politics cannot produce good politics and good governments, everything is embarrassed.Democracy is a good thing, but democracy does not necessarily produce a good government.There are almost the same problems in Western countries today, and there is no good government and good politics. Therefore, it is not surprising to lose the trust of the people.
