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It's unfortunate but it's true - China has the advantage that without those pesky elections to worry about it can take a longer term view of things and be plann
by Tyrannosaurs 13y ago
It's unfortunate but it's true - China has the advantage that without those pesky elections to worry about it can take a longer term view of things and be planning over a 10 year period, not a 5 year period with re-election and all the populist stuff that requires.
Obviously that's only part of the story but the discussion certainly becomes more "interesting" than it did in the 80s when democracy seemed to give better results across the board having the moral and economic high ground.
Not for a moment endorsing the Chinese approach, just saying that there is a more interesting debate than there used to be.
- waps 13y agoToo bad that actual planning seems to take a backseat to "my own swiss bank account in 10 years" planning. The same problem "islamic democracies" (or the "islamic republic") or dictatorships have. And then western (and Chinese) companies come in who promise personal kickbacks in trade for contracts. And soon the situation happens that companies who don't do this simply can't get any business at all. China will get killed by it's own politicians much quicker than any western democracy. They're still growing, today it's easy for them because China is growing at 7% per year. It will get hard soon and things will change. Fast.
- Tyrannosaurs 13y agoBecause no Western politician ever made decisions thinking about a non-exec directorship at some point in the future or campaign contributions. Politics is a mucky business full of self interest the world over, let's not pretend that's a problem for China alone.