by cam

Very insightful article by John Quiggin.

I had not made the connection between the loss of faith in long term policy through the political mechanism of 'core promises' and the modern throwing of dollars around election time.

The great majority of the economic commentariat cheered the repudiation of promises they regarded as obstructing the process of economic reform. Many of them simultaneously deplored the deterioration of the policy process in the later years of the Howard government. However, most failed to make the link between the two.

By the end of the Howard years, it was impossible to take any long-run policy commitment seriously. So the only credible promises Howard could make were those that involved lump-sum handouts (like the baby bonus) or immediate interventions to subvert long-term policy (like the Mersey hospital takeover).

I think there is an element of Schmittian governance that has crept into modern liberal democracy and contributes to this, however, Quiggin's is a good reading of the emergent properties of never admitting error in election buying policies and the negative effect they have on long term policy and democratism.

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