Policy making under extreme circumstances
Panel with
Topic Leader:
Wolfgang Münchau (DE)
Associate Editor & Columnist, The Financial Times
Speakers:
Trevor A. Manuel (ZA)
Minister in the Presidency & Head of the National Planning Commission of the Republic of South Africa
H.E. George A. Papandreou (GR)
Former Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic
Richard Sulik (SK)
Member & Former Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic
The opening panel of the 42nd St. Gallen Symposium is raising a question that many people have increasingly been asking in recent times: How can sound political decisions been taken by governments when they are heavily driven by events rather than by their own strategy or their long-term plans? On a European and to lesser degree on a global level, the financial crisis has led to a constant succession of extreme circumstances no politician and no government has ever experienced before. All these circumstances needed immediate action. And with every decision taken under pressure – political pressure, pressure from the capital markets, pressure from the voters – and under time constraints, one asks oneself whether solutions of this kind might not actually worsen a problem instead of curing it.
The question this panel has to address is whether politics and particularly politicians are actually equipped of dealing with extreme circumstances. What is their perspective on their own decision making experience? How do they assess the risks that are involved when policies are taken under extreme circumstances? And after all we went through in recent years, should there not be more modesty when expecting solutions from politics and governments? Obviously, governments struggle to cope with the complexities of today’s social and economic challenges all over the world. But then again, who shall be in the driving seat instead?