Can an Electorate Hold Its Political Elite Accountable: The Case of François Fillon

Can a political elite hold itself accountable? Left to its own devices, absent a virtuous citizenry, a political elite is able to exploit a conflict of interest in both wielding the authority of government and using that power even to constrain the elite itself. Unfortunately, even where an electorate is virtuous, the dispersed condition of the popular sovereign is an impediment to galvanizing enough popular will to act as a counter-power to that of a political elite, which is relatively concentrated and well-informed. In early 2017, the problem was on full display in the E.U. state of France, with little the federal government could do given the amount of governmental sovereignty still residing at the state level. So the question is whether an electorate can galvanize enough power to counter that of a political elite.

  François Fillon in trouble for corruption (Christian Hartmann/Reuters)

Just months before the election, France’s leading presidential candidate was “in deep trouble” for payments of nearly €831, 440 “from the public payroll to his wife and children” over the 30 years in which François Fillon employed them.[1] Penelope Fillon “was paid with taxpayer money for a bogus job as a parliamentary assistant to her husband and his deputy” in the state Assembly.[2] Because her husband had “fashioned himself as a stern and honest politician,” the sordid odor of hypocrisy was in the air, yet the practice itself, which was legal at the time, was to “many French politicians” no “big deal.”[3] So from the press and the public came “a wellspring of anger” calling into question the standard operating procedures of the political class.”[4] In short, the response was: “They just don’t get it.”[5] C’est vraiment incroyable. Really incredible.

A political class cannot police itself if its culture is so ensconced in the misuse of funds, even if legal, that the ubiquitous practice is not even recognized as being unethical in nature. On an organizational scale, I have witnessed a university’s culture so dysfunctional—with such passive aggression from the non-academic staff—that the offending creatures would not even recognize themselves in the mirror; even to question them would be perceived as a provocation. Accountability is impossible in such a sordid organization. So, too, a political class with an ingrown sense of presumptuous entitlement cannot possibly hold itself accountable. A perception of wrong-doing is requisite to holding oneself accountable. The decisive question is therefore whether a “wellspring of anger” in a public-at-large can be sufficient to “throw the bastards out.”

Even if a sizable proportion of an electorate votes to “throw the bums out,” other rationales for voting doubtless exist and can dilute the effect such that the culture of the political class can survive. Furthermore, even intense anger today can quickly dissipate, such that the results of an election even just months away show little sign of the earlier sizzling headlines. Even major protests do not necessarily translate into the ballot box. At the time Fillon was facing a harsh reaction in France, more than 250,000 irate people in the state of Romania were protesting after Liviu Dragnea’s governing Social Democratic Party passed a law on January 31, 2017 making “official misconduct punishable by prison time only in cases in which the financial damage is more than 200,000 lei, or about $47,000”—Dragnea himself facing “charges of abouse of power involving a sum” less than 200,000 lei.[6] Here we can see the conflict of interest on full display: Dragnea was using the power of his party in the state legislature such that he would essentially be above the (constraint of) law. Yet even such a blatant case cannot be expected to be punished when the next election comes around. Something more is needed to address the inherent conflict of interest.

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1. Adam Nossiter, “Fillon Scandal Indicts, Foremost, France’s Political Elite,” The New York Times, February 3, 2017; Aurelien Breeden, “Graft Allegations Grow Against Francois Fillon, French Presidential Hopeful,” The New York Times, February 1, 2017.

2. Aurelien Breeden, “Graft Allegations Grow Against Francois Fillon, French Presidential Hopeful,” The New York Times, February 1, 2017

3. Adam Nossiter, “Fillon Scandal Indicts, Foremost, France’s Political Elite,” The New York Times, February 3, 2017

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. Palko Karasz, “Protests Rock Romania After Government Weakens Corruption Law,” The New York Times, February 2, 2017.

Is Democracy Inimical to Prudent Government Budgeting: The U.S. and India Contrasted

At a time when the U.S. Government sported an accumulated debt of roughly $20 trillion, with continued deficits expected to add about $10 trillion more over the next ten years, the most populous democracy in the world, India, laid out a prudent budget proposal—one that had been “extremely well thought-out,” according to Deepak Parekh of the Housing Development Finance Corporation in India.[1]

On February 1, 2017, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi made public its budget proposal for the following year. Even as the proposed budget “would significantly increase spending on infrastructure, rural areas and antipoverty programs,” the government’s annual deficit would be reduced to 3.2 percent of GDP from 3.5 percent in the current fiscal year.[2] The budget “included tax cuts for lower income taxpayers and small business, even as it came close to sticking with the country’s target for reducing the budget deficit.”[3] In a democratic system, in which popular pressure is even in theory for increased government spending and lower taxes, increasing discretionary spending need not come at the expense of fiscal discipline. “The economy needs the spending to give consumption a boost, but the government is also giving weight to fiscal prudence,” said Dharmakirti Joshi, chief economist at Crisil, an Indian credit-rating agency.[4] The proposal even adds spending on infrastructure such as roads in rural areas—an investment favorable to attracting foreign direct investment as the stated aim is to increase “efficiency and access to markets while providing jobs.”[5]

Modi’s action against currency on which taxes are not paid in banning the largest currency notes in November, 2016 had led the I.M.F. to cut its predicted growth rate for India by one percentage point for 2017 to 6.6 percent, so Modi must have been facing popular pressure to spur economic growth by distending fiscal policy beyond what prudence would allow. Even as five states prepared to go to the polls beginning on February 4^th, the prime minister prudently wanted to demonstrate “strength in advance of national elections in 2019.”[6] Put another way, the pressure to allow the projected deficits to increase as a percent of GDP must have been enormous, yet fiscal discipline prevailed and even allowed for targeted priorities that would take due account of the value of fiscal stimulus. 

Democracy can be strong, meaning self-disciplined, yet there is no guarantee. As Thomas Jefferson and John Adams agreed when they were exchanging letters in retirement, an educated and virtuous citizenry is essential to the continuance of a viable republic whose house is in order. A $20 trillion government debt is indicative that at least one house is not in order, and the case of India demonstrates that the problem is not democracy itself.

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[1] Getta Anand, “Arun Jaitley, India’s Finance Chief, Aims to Spur Economy Hit by Cash Shortage,” The New York Times, February 1, 2017.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

The French Socialist Party’s Proposal of a Universal Income Amended: An Economic Floor Providing Economic Security to the Poor

Benoit Hamon, “riding to victory” from political obscurity on a proposal to “pay all adults a monthly basic income,” defeated the recent Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, in a presidential primary runoff election of the Socialist Party in the E.U. state of France.[1] Although “Hamon wasn’t as tainted as Valls by Hollande’s unpopularity” because Hamon had “rebelled and quit the government in 2014,” whereas Valls served more than two years as Hollande’s prime minister in the state legislature, Hamon’s “proposal for a 750 euros ($800) ‘universal income’ that would be gradually granted to all adults also proved a campaign masterstroke. It grabbed headlines and underpinned his surprise success in the primary’s two rounds of voting.”[2] I submit that the proposal, although flawed from the standpoint of economic security, fits well with the industrial world of global capitalism.

Under Hamon’s proposal, the no-strings-attached payments could be made to more than 50 million adults in the state. The “no-strings-attached” aspect is crucial to the provision of economic security, which is itself of significant psychological and financial value to people who are either unemployed or live from paycheck to paycheck. Put another way, the lack of conditionality can give such people a more stable peace of mind that could not but improve the quality of life generally in the daily life of a town or city in interpersonal dynamics. The temptation would be to begin to insist that the money be used for A, B, and C, but not on X, Y, and Z. Even such salubrious conditionality would undercut the stability afforded by the faith that the money would be come every month necessary—come hell or high water. I submit that Western peoples tend to discount the value of financial assurance or stability—essentially the provision of a floor or net that can be relied on—just in terms of the foregone anxiety alone.

The problem is that Hamon meant the payments to go to every adult, irrespective of income and wealth. A wealth person with a good income already has financial security, so adding a floor of 700 euros would be a waste of money from the standpoint of providing economic security. So the cost of the program, which Hamon reckoned to be at least 300 billion euros ($320 billion), can be reckoned as excessive, given the purpose of the program. In other words, taxpayers need not pay so much to make sure that every person has at least an adequate amount of economic security. Lest it be said that the middle- and upper- economic "classes" would then have little self-interest in supporting the proposal, I would simply point to value of the peace-of-mind in knowing that should financial ruin, such as from an economic recession (or depression), injury, or illness hit, economic security would be maintained. Simply knowing this can lighten the step of even a wealthy person, since none of us can say with complete certainty that tomorrow will be like today.


Given the destructive competition that is a part of life in advanced industrial states, the rationale for the claim that every person should be financially secure from hardship is valid. That Hamon proposed a tax on robots to help finance “the measure’s huge costs” points to his rationale for why a modern society cannot simply rely on jobs and even unemployment insurance to provide economic security.[3] Automation has permanently removed many manufacturing jobs, both in the E.U. and U.S. Additionally, the financial incentive of companies to move factories to low-wage, non-developed and newly-developed/industrialized countries like Mexico and China, respectively, means that employment in industrial countries can no longer be relied on to provide economic security to a significant segment of populations, for not everyone is going to go to law- or business-school and graduate—even if education were tuition-free.

Abstractly put, the logic of global capital is not in sync with the fact that in any society, a portion of the adult population is oriented to blue-collar rather than white-collar work. Even if the E.U. were to become a manufacturing utopia, some people, such as the disabled, would still lack economic security, and thus stability, were jobs the exclusive means of providing it. 

In short, the nearly “post” industrial world cannot simply become a world of lawyers, physicians, accountants, and business managers, whereas everyone needs food, shelter, and access to medical care. Providing even a very low floor would pay dividends for everyone as society would be a more civil place, and the cost need not be so much as would be needed to pay 700 euros to every adult, regardless of whether the security is needed. In fact, perhaps 1000 euros would then be an option. Life is too short to sweat the small stuff, yet some people must and their lives are painful for lack of financial security.

Financial worry is like an internal, perpetual war to the poor person, eviscerating life of its pleasure. Quality of life matters, and not just for the poor. How people you interact with are doing in terms of anxiety due to hardship—whether deserved or not—can easily ruin your day, whereas being around calm people can make your day. No man is an island, and in modern society economic interdependence has its drawbacks. Giving other people the psychological security of a financial floor each month can indeed pay dividends to the payers without the floor necessarily being raised so high that the beneficiaries can take advantage of the blessing of security made possible by others.

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1. Associated Press, “Hard-left Candidate wins French Socialists’ Presidential primary,” Foxnews.com. January 29, 2017.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

A Federal Court Stays President Trump’s Muslim-Ban: Flawed Reportage?

Judge Ann Donnelly of the U.S. Federal District Court in Brooklyn, New York, issued a nationwide injunction on January 28, 2017 concerning President Donald Trump’s executive order barring people from seven countries from entering the United States. On the same day, BBC (America) radio reported that Trump had been stopped in his tracks. I submit that this instance points to the importance of investigative journalism prior to reporting. Alternatively, the case may illustrate a partisan or otherwise ideological penchant among journalists officially tasked with investigating and reporting rather than interpreting the news.

According to The New York Times, the order was “limited in scope, applying only to people on their way to the United States or already here.”[1] People en route to the United States on January 28^th would not be sent back because of the undue hardship involved. Rather than allowed into the U.S., those few hundred people would be detained. So the federal president’s travel ban was essentially untouched. So the notion that the federal judicial branch had stopped Trump is clearly untrue. The hyperbole to the contrary may “make good press,” whether by opposition groups or journalists. Yet political value in sketching a political reality in which the new president was already going too far and thus had to be stopped cannot be ignored. In politics, perception can indeed become reality. So the possibility of a political agenda cannot be ruled out.

With regard to journalists and media companies, sheer ignorance or ideological preference is no excuse for not reporting the obvious: only people on their way to the U.S. would not be turned back, and they would remain detained until or unless they have been cleared on a case-by-case basis, as the executive order permits. To characterize the judge’s ruling as an injunction staying the order is nothing short of misleading.

The order itself was being taken out of perspective societally, as it was intended to be only temporary, giving the U.S. Government enough time to strengthen its vetting process.  The president is on firm ground in that, as the statement itself reads, “No foreign national in a foreign land, without ties to the United States, has any unfettered right to demand entry into the United States or to demand immigration benefits in the United States.”[2] To take a rather blatant example, a person does not have the right to unilaterally cross an international border, not to mention to go on to insist on a right to benefits for those who have lawfully crossed the border.

The order is on much less firm ground to the extent that the intent and outcome discriminates against Muslims.  “The smoking gun they put in the executive order is the idea that they would grant exceptions for minority religions,” said Anthony Romero of the ACLU.[3] The one thing you can’t do under the establishment clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is favor one religion over another, he added. The clause states that the U.S. Government cannot establish (or favor) a religion, or prohibit the free exercise of religion. 

Would declaring or acting in such a way that only Christians are admitted from the seven countries in the Middle East mentioned in the order be to establish a religion? I submit that this question is more difficult than meets the eye. Clearly, favoring one religion over another runs contrary to the American value of toleration (it is certainly distasteful to me--comparative religion being one of my academic fields!) but does favoring people of a given religion establish that religion as the official religion of the United States? My point is merely that an elastic reading of the establishment clause may be necessary to get to establishment from barring Muslims. 

To be sure, the executive order does not bar Muslims; rather, it may discriminate against them. Yet even this may be a function of security rather than religious preference (which in itself falls short of establishing a religion). From a security standpoint, making distinctions among religions does have "a kernel of truth," given the facts on the ground. It makes sense, therefore, that stricter scrutiny would be entailed where a predominately Muslim country has lax security. I suspect that the selection of the seven countries had to do with weaknesses in the U.S.’s vetting process having to do specifically with those countries. Perhaps their security infrastructures pale in comparison with that of the Saudis--Saudi Arabia being omitted from the list in spite of being a conservative Muslim country! 

So, again, to report or characterize the executive order as a “Muslim ban” implies the sordid presence of either ignorance or a political agenda. Either way, it should be noted that a viable republic wherein the People stand as the ultimate sovereign depends on accurate reporting of the affairs of government to the principals. For intermediaries to become lazy or insert their own agendas is to disrespect the very notion of a republic, and the People as well.

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[1] Adam Liptak, “Rulings on Trump’s Immigration Order Are First Step on Long Legal Path,” The New York Times, January 29, 2017.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.