The appointment of the legal consultant of the Malta Pyrotechnics Association to the chair of a working group tasked to devise a new policy on fireworks factories is the last in a long string of “inappropriate” appointments being made under the current Labour government. The philosophy of the Tagħna Lkoll government seems to favour appeasement over and above regulation. If we were to impute goodwill to most of the moves made by this government within the ambit of appointments to official and semi-official posts the most glaring danger is not, as many would think, the “iced bun” distribution itself.
Granted, the very concept of the “iced bun” is an ugly wart that already blemishes substantially any remaining credibility that this government might have had in the field of meritocracy but there could be a scientific explanation to what may be termed as a wide retweaking of the power system that had prevailed over the last twenty years. What J’accuse calls a result of “same, same but different” – the product of weak alternation that produces a race to mediocrity is fed by what Fukuyama calls “patrimonialism or the natural human propensity to favour family and friends”.
According to Fukuyama this natural propensity “constantly reasserts itself in the absence of strong countervailing incentives. Organized groups – most of the rich and powerful – entrench themselves over time and begin demanding privileges from the state.” Better still here is Fukuyama’s extended explanation on the development of this kind of propensity over time:
In its early stages, human political organization is similar to the band-level society observed in higher primates like chimpanzees. This may be regarded as a default form of social organization. The tendency to favour family and friends may be overridden by new rules and incentives that mandate, for example, hiring a qualified individual, rather than a family member. But the higher-level institutions are in some sense quite unnatural, and when they break down, humans revert to an earlier form of sociability. This is the basis for what I label patrimonialism.” (Francis Fukuyama, The Origins of Political Order).
I find that the key words in this quote are “break down” – referring to the break down of higher-level institutions. The utopic state of perfect meritocracy is in fact a sophisticated form of democracy that is achieved gradually through the build up of “rules and incentives” and the acknowledgement thereof. In its complex form democratic society combines respect for institutions and the rules (rule of law, separation of powers) with levels of specialisation.
The previous nationalist government segued in and out of this form of higher-level institutional development without however managing to completely detach itself from the primary level of patrimonialism. Much of our political system – what J’accuse insists on calling “The PLPN Philosophy” is deeply entrenched in a primitive form of patrimonial politics. There is no incentive to improve, just the type of incentive that Orwell describes as “power as an end”. There is no politics of service but politics that aims to please an ever wider circle of “interest groups” that can be roped in for the votes then appeased with Quangos once the heads are counted.
So what is worse than the iced buns? It is the erosion of the institutions. The complete lack of awareness that the very fabric of democratic society that keeps us together is being gradually broken down in the name of Taghna Lkoll madness. Ironically this government does not stop reminding us that it wants to embark on a monumental reappraisal of our Constitution – at this stage it would be like giving a three year old kid the task of renovating the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
“There is in fact a curious blindness to the importance of political institutions that has affected many people over the years…”
