File photo
Supporters of the Jamaica Labour Party in a celebratory mood at a meeting in the National Arena.Robert Buddan, Contributor
The PNP Government has been working over the years to ensure that many of its policies begin to bear fruit in time for the next elections. As this happens, the JLP opposition accuses the Government of using these policies as election ploys.
Ideally, democratic Governments are supposed to be run by men of noble intentions who want, most of all, to do good for the people. Elections are used to hold Governments accountable, that is, to pressure them to do good and to punish them by removal, when they don't.
Democratic philosophy makes two kinds of assumptions about human nature. One assumption is that human nature has a noble and good side and provided with the right and enlightened values and effective system of Government, leaders will do what is good for society. However, since there may be different views on what is good, and since some persons might do better than others, then elections provide a means of testing which group appears to have a better view of what is good for the society and can do better in carrying out the right policies.
But there is a cynical philosophy behind democracy too. It is that leaders cannot be trusted to do good but will act to serve their own interests in getting and maintaining power. Elections are necessary to force individuals competing for power to do enough good for the people, if only as a by-product of the competitive struggle for power. In order to win votes, leaders will pretend to be noble and elections will force them to do some good for the society, even if their motives are more selfish.
While there have always been those who hold to one or the other of these positions, it appears that the former position prevailed for much of the last 120 years since mass democracy (adult suffrage and mass parties) came into being. Parties had more support, more people voted, leaders were more esteemed, Governments were more trusted and the ideological distinction between capitalist and socialist society gave more dramatic pictures to the voters about what the good society might look like.
In the last 30 years, however, the cynical view of democracy and elections have come to the fore in the major democracies. In Jamaica, this more cynical position has become dominant in the last 10 to 15 years. Today, it is more common to hear people say that politicians, whether in Government or opposition, are bent mainly on winning power to serve their own interests, and there is little difference between them in this regard. What they say or do are only aimed at getting votes.
Both PNP and JLP supporters will each feel that only their party really has the interest of the country at heart, that their leaders can be trusted, and that their party's policies are right for the country. But non-voters and uncommitted voters might mainly feel that politicians are only interested in power and it makes little sense to vote for either set.
Regardless of how people feel about politicians, and regardless of what philosophy of democracy and elections one holds, a few things are certain.
Governments do try to time the fruits of their policies to match the election season. This is good for democracy because the idea behind periodic elections is to force Governments to perform with urgency and to produce satisfactory results within each electoral cycle. Studies of the major democracies show that there is a political cycle in which democracies in North America, Europe and elsewhere pursue electorally popular policies coming up to elections and undertake painful policies right after elections when the next elections are furthest away. This makes complete sense in accord with the electoral logic of democracy.
It makes as much sense as when business companies undertake special marketing efforts to realise annual profits to report to their shareholders. Out of this comes a business cycle. To accuse a Government or business of redoubling efforts to meet performance tests is as useless as if one were to accuse a student of studying harder precisely at exam time.
At the same time, it is not true to say that every policy that a Government pursues in an election season, is motivated purely by electoral considerations. In Jamaica, there is actually more constraint on Government's discretionary room for manoeuvre than one finds in the major democracies.
International economic organisations impose discipline on budgets and monitor spending on projects as well as the time-phases of the development of these projects. The disbursement of funds by these organisations, the role of their technocrats in the development and implementation of projects, arrangements with contractors, the pace and procedures of Government bureaucracies, all involve complex, sometimes unpredictable and often independent input that cannot be controlled by Governments and cannot be timed for elections.
The Government could not time the holding of the World Youth Games. It is, in fact, behind its schedule in the construction of Highway 2000. Licences for Digicel and other such companies were negotiated and awarded long before the election season. The Budget was constructed under the eyes of the IMF and the parliamentary committee on finance. In fact, contrary to the JLP's thesis, the Government announced politically unpopular policies like the cess on street-lighting and revised property taxes in an election year!
Mr. Patterson had set himself the personal objective of land reform and has identified himself closely with Operation PRIDE. Since he might only have a few months or a year or two left in Government, it is understandable that he should want to speed up these programmes to make sure that major objectives of his public life are met.
There are certain things to bear in mind when thinking about spending in an election year. One is that Jamaica's domestic debt is now at its highest level ever and Governments can no longer engage in non-economic political spending the way they might have done in the past. Second, our credit ratings are regularly assessed and our economic credibility depends on low inflation targets and a limit on the budget deficit, both of which would be jeopardised by irresponsible spending on electoral politics. Third, after the financial and economic fallouts of 1995-1999, the Jamaican state has moved more decidedly to energise the economy through public investments while the private sector reorganises itself.
The important thing is that spending does not upset economic growth and stability. Thankfully, the most recent appraisals of the Jamaican economy by international agencies are very positive and the Minister of Finance and his financial team have been singled out for sound economic management. These observers see no sign of irresponsible political spending in this electoral budget cycle.
We are in a cynical period of politics and the charge that Government is involved in election spending ploys might resonate with some. But, these same people can just as easily accuse the opposition of making election promises as an election ploy. The bottom line is that elections require that Governments provide for the public good, regardless of any other motives they might have. This, at the very barest, is how democracies work, and this is what people want.
Robert Buddan is a lecturer in the Department of Government, Mona Campus. E-mail: rbuddan@uwimona.edu.jm.
