Can you draw a clear distinction between good and bad economic development policies?
For one, I would say – nothing of the universal kind exists. The relevant distinction between good and bad is based upon the social context of application, the forces at play, the realities undefined and the mentality at bay. If anything, it is not a distinction between good and bad but in between ‘low risk’ and ‘high risk’ policies.
Put it differently, as a policy specialist when advising my local government or enforcing the pursuit of a goal, my policy recommendation to the authority would be based on firstly implementing a low risk policy, defined in terms of minimizing the social and economic fall outs it may have. If and only if the intervention does not achieve its desired motive, I would recommend a path to a high risk policy- given that I have concluded that policy intervention will help juice up the economy in question. This is especially important for external specialist who are alien or mere acquaintances to the surroundings and workings of the environment in which they are intervening and providing advice if not action. The above narration falls in line with the new paradigm in development policy <http://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodriks_weblog/2008/02/a-new-paradigm.html> , based on the social context and learning by doing policy practice, as outlined by a few in the field.
The above narration is supplemented by several case and empirical studies, under which similar policies applied to different regions under a similar framework have provided diverging if not opposite results.
For year’s policy makers have been cornered for their short falls, for the mismatch between promise and result, for their adhocism in policy driven by inconsistency and on-off approach. In practice, the real question within the academic and policy world has been what works and what doesn’t. What role does policy have in the local let alone global economy? What is its impact and target market? Its nature, form and characteristics and above all what does it want to achieve. As many policy specialist, as either students or practicing experts are confronted with the conundrum to lay out a distinction between what works and what doesn’t, their minds are subverted towards drawing conclusions.
However, very few would say- we do not universally know what works and what doesn’t, we are unclear what is better and what is worse given a complex environment, which is the real world we live in, and we certainly cannot claim its absolute success, as it is a combination of several forces working outside the scope and domain of the policy table. If anything, we can give a drift but rarely a precise conclusion. However, such is the test of their expertise and role in the global race. For starters, maybe, acceptance is the way forward!
