UK And The Ethics Of Making Good Policy
Politicians have recently been wary of using ethics to frame their intentions – Robin Cook’s ethical foreign policy was quickly lost in the realpolitik of international negotiations despite his later courageous resignation in the run up to the Iraq war.
The imperatives that drive policy from the sheer pace of events – 24-hour media coverage, the need to act decisively to effect change and to build coalitions with uncomfortable bedfellows – so often appear to doom an ethical framework to failure.
Twelve years ago, Labour came to power committed to evidence-based policymaking, to bringing outside experts into the heart of the civil service and to trying out innovative forms of consultation and debate. These were novel and creative attempts to conduct the business of government in a different way and to blow the cobwebs out of Whitehall.
But on the back of the fracturing of the neo-liberal economic consensus, the severe blow to democratic politics and the profound concerns about the conduct of policy making, most notably in relation to Iraq, we find ourselves rudderless. It is hardly surprising that we are in search of a deeper foundation for both the manner and the substance of our politics and policymaking.
So what might an ethical approach to policymaking consist of?
First, we need to argue for policies from first principles. Politicians have been strangely shy of talking about values. Instead they have been more comfortable with the language of evidence and ‘what works’. Of course, this is not to eschew evidence; far better that it informs our policies (and there are some excellent examples from Sure Start, the smoking ban, the statutory minimum wage ). But how we read evidence is inevitably shaped by norms, judgements, values. Too often, policy has been driven by responding to each piece of the jigsaw rather than the bigger picture. The recent Family Green Paper is an illustration of this – it fails to connect with the big issues facing families today because it quickly dissolves into a list of worthy but relatively micro initiatives.
Second, our consumerist approach to politics is deeply inadequate. It leads to people believing that the job of politicians is to satisfy all their wants, that there are no trade-offs or choices to be made. Yet we know that, unsurprisingly, people want mutually incompatible things – better public services and lower taxes, children protected, but the state off their backs, more local control but no variation in services between areas. We are at the start of an election campaign that will barely touch on the thorny decisions that lie ahead about how and at what pace we should contain the public debt and who should bear the cost. Without recourse to explicit values and priorities, it is very difficult to chart a course through these choices. But engaging people in those trade-offs and options lies at the heart of what politics and policy should be about.
What kind of ethics?
So an ethical policy is about being prepared to stand for something, rather than simply accommodating policy to public opinion. Labour’s ambivalence about leading a debate on poverty and inequality, despite it actively redistributing income, could be argued to have inadvertently led to harsher public attitudes to poorer families. Anxiety about public perceptions has repeatedly stymied action across the political spectrum on the growing prison population, in spite of the incontrovertible evidence that prisons are disastrous at rehabilitation. We assume that politics can only mirror public opinion rather than shape it. By contrast, Labour was much braver in other areas – responding to and leading the public on homosexuality and civil partnerships, driving a sea-change in attitudes. This is not to argue for ignoring public perceptions and insights but to encourage politicians to be shapers, to try and win arguments based on ethical positions.
But what kind of ethics?
The craving for an ethical basis to politics stems from the fact that the prevailing values of this past era have left out some essential elements of what it is to be part of a good society. The neo-liberal market model (albeit modified by a commitment to social justice) dominated both our political values and the matrix for policymaking. It neglected the impact that family relationships, friendship, community and reciprocal bonds have on identity, agency, opportunity and well-being. It squeezed out a proper understanding of the relationship between sustainability and our economy and way of life.
The task for progressives is to re-engage with their rich ethical heritage – whether that is co-operatives, faith, the role of voluntarism, social enterprise – as well as the familiar tools of state action for achieving change. There is no single tradition on which to draw, but the task is rather to integrate different insights from this wide source of alternative ethical frameworks to start putting together the new scaffolding that will guide policy thinking as we look towards 2020.
This is not a call for a naive approach to policymaking, inevitably ideas are shaped by the cut and thrust of practical politics. But the art of the possible rarely animates people and very often is born out of a fear of alternatives. A politics based on fear is almost always regressive or defensive. Instead, a positive view of human nature and belief that people are essentially hopeful provides a stronger foundation for ethical politics. So when a politician – like Obama most recently – offers up a vision for a different future and people are prepared to rally around it, even if they know that the reality will be a lot more messy, it has huge potential to galvanise progressive change. If an ethical framework for policy is about arguing from values and insisting that a deeper democratic engagement is intrinsic to policy making, then it has the potential to enrich our politics and re-ignite trust in our politicians.
Carey Oppenheim is Co-Director of the Institute for Public Policy Research. This article was published in a pamphlet entitled Citizen Ethics in a Time of Crisis, from the Citizen Ethics Network.
Topics: 2010, 2020, agency, Britain, business, children protected, civil partnerships, community, democracy, democratic engagement, Economy, ethical framework for policy, ethical politics, ethics, Family Green Paper, family relationships, friendship, Governance, government, Great Britain, homosexuality, identity, income, inequality, international negotiations, Iraq war, Labour, lower taxes, monitor, neo-liberal market model, news, Obama Administration, opportunity, politicians, President Obama, prisons, Public, public debt, realpolitik, reciprocal bonds, Robin Cook, smoking ban, social enterprise, social justice, society, statutory minimum wage, Sure Start, U.K., UK, United Kingdom, voluntarism, well-being, Whitehall
Print This Article in Plain Text
|
|
Latest Headlines
- Osama Bin Laden Dead?
- Florida To Share $1 Billion For Gulf Coast Restoration Efforts
- Texas Prays For Rain During Extreme Drought Conditions
- Governor Christie Takes Action To Reduce Diesel Emissions, Improve Air Quality
- Governor McDonnell Outlines Draft Transportation Improvement Program
- Alaska Energy Bill Passes Legislature
- Illinois State Building Receives ENERGY STAR Award
- Homeland Security Begins Using National Terrorism Advisory System
- U.S. Outlines New Health Insurance Options For Graduating College Students
- Electrolux Expands In North Carolina, To Create 200 Jobs In Charlotte
- Virginia Storm Victims To Receive Tax Extension
- U.S. Expands Broadband Investment For Rural Areas To Accelerate Job Creation
- U.S. To Invest $130 Million For Advanced Energy Research
- Michigan Passes “I’m Sorry” Bill
- Kentucky Sells Two State Aircraft To Save Taxpayer Dollars
