06 April 2017

The European Union: just like every other organisation

From Nigel Farage's recent speech to the European Union Parliament:
Eighty-five percent of the global economy is outside the EU. if you wish to have no deal [with the UK] it is not us that will be hurt. ... A return to tariffs will risk the jobs of hundreds of thousands of people living in the EU. What you are saying is that you want to put the interests of the European Union above that of your citizens and your companies. Nigel Farage, 5 April
 Earlier in the same speech Mr Farage also pointed out that in 1973 the UK voted to stay in the European Economic Community; not a political union. The speech neatly illustrates two principles which I deem axiomatic:
  • Every organisation, be it a church, trade union, university, government or whatever, will always seek to overplay its hand. 
  • Every organisation will, sooner or later, forget its founding ideals and its stated objectives, and devote its energies to self-perpetuation.
In the private sector there is, or should be, the discipline of the market and competition, though we increasingly see larger companies winning out over small businesses not through fair compeition but via manipulation or subversion of the market.

Social Policy Bonds would lead to a new type of organisation: one whose goals would exactly coincide with those of society. That's one feature that would differentiate them from all other organisations in history. The other is that the goals of the organisation would either themselves be, or be inextricably linked to, society's well-being. Every activity of a coalition of holders of Social Policy Bonds would be undertaken with exactly one objective in mind: to maximise the efficiency with which society's targeted social or environmental goal is achieved. The activities, structure and composition of the organisation would be entirely subordinated to that one objective.

The difference between a Social Policy Bond regime, and any other current policymaking system, is stark. Under a bond regime governments would do what they do best (democratic governments anyway): that is, articulate society's goals and raise the revenue for their achievement. Then they'd, in effect, contract out the achievement of these goals to new organisations whose interests are exactly those of society. Their focus, and their striving for efficiency, are built into the Social Policy Bond mechanism. All society would benefit.

My reasons for voting for Brexit are given here. For more on Social Policy Bonds see the overview papers linked to here.

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