I recently read Dr. Arnold Kling’s rejoinder to Kristol’s neo- conservative agenda and Brink Lindsey’s slightly older post on his libertarian worldview (via Prashant Kothari).
Both are polished, seductive arguments. But the trouble with manifestos is that it glosses over details that do not fit the ideological boundaries. The real life is messy and full of compromises. Also, people have a way of subverting good intentions of any kind. Just like conservatism is not about racial prejudice, but it has ended up as a subculture under the republican umbrella or endemic corruption is not expected to be a part of socialism, but that it what it created everywhere; I am afraid, oligopolies that may result from a lbertarian free rein will lead to its own kind of excesses.
However, if I have to set markers, I would say that I have a lot more sympathy for the libertarian agenda (as opposed to the party bearing that name) than I do for neoconservatism. The trouble specifically with libertarian ideology is that it does not provide for any exception for stuff like, say, education. Education, to me, is the great equalizer. And only big government can administer a secular education for the poor. Libertarianism also does not make any allowance either for the greed or the foolishness which is inherent in people.
I am not advocating socialism here. In India, I saw the damages that socialism can do to a country. I am a free marketeer who has acquired over the last few years a large dose of respect for the idea of strong market regulations and of regulatory bodies . I am still working my way to a viable political philosophy. But I do find certain tenets of libertarianism appealing.
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“And only big government can administer a secular education for the poor.”
Why does the US or India (or any other country, for that matter) need a “big” government to ensure secular education for the poor? Providing primary education for the entire country is not that onerous a budget item.
In fact, a “big” government more often than not, gets involved in the wrong sectors and does not do what it really should. For instance, the government has a vital role to play in primary education. But check the percentage of the Indian government’s budget goes to primary education — it’s abysmally and tragically small. The same could be said of primary health as well.
ps: why is the link to my blog not working on your site?
ps: why is the link to my blog not working on your site?
Now it does. I accidentally messed up the link.
When I say big, I was not thinking of big in terms of cost. But big as in scope; people employed by government, infrastructure built and managed by government. I suspect that education leaves a large footprint in India from that perspective.
I also mentioned education as representative of things that only a government can administer without any expectation of tangible benefit. Healthcare, which you mentioned, is another.(I say this with caveats though. One only has to see what had happened to NY public school system to realize that govt administration is not necessarily a panacea)
I also think a government’s commitment to education should go well beyond primary education.
The first prerequisite for the IT industry to take off in India was human resources, right? There was an easily available pool of resources in India simply because an engineering education was within the reach of the middle classes. A quality engineering education was within their reach (it is getting more and more expensive) because it had been subsidized by the government.
Administration of education in India had been imperfect; but whatever was there, we are now reaping its fruits. I doubt we have the bandwidth to stretch significantly beyond where we are now (ie our share of software development market) without significantly expanding the education infrastructure.
USA seems to have great graduate schools and a terrible high school system. There is something wrong with that too …
I once read that Dr Manmohan Sing had to go back to farming before he could come back to school to do his doctorate; simply because his family could not affort the cost. For every person who breaks through such barriers, there are a hundred more who can’t.
But I agree with you that education is a small and ignored part of large governments in most places.