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His guide of what the United States election means 2024 for Washington and the world
Civilized societies depend on institutions. The more complex society is, the more vital these institutions. Institutions provide stability, predictability and security. Companies, schools, universities and courts are all institutions. But the most important institutions are those of the State. That is why Donald Trump’s assault to what his supporters call “the deep state” is so dangerous. Some of them think that the State should be servile to the whims of the great leader. Others think it should be at the service of the rich. Both parties agree that their ability to meet the needs of the broadest public is of little importance. These views are dangerous. They are heirs of autocracy, plutocracy and dysfunction.
In an important series of articles, Valuing the deep stateFrancis Fukuyama of Stanford examines why the state’s evisceration will be so destructive. Fukuyama has dedicated much of the last two decades to explain that “a state of high capacity, professional and impersonal is essential for the success of any society”, including remarkably modern liberal democracies. This opinion is one that many Americans hate: they see the State, or simply “government”, as the enemy. But anyone who has worked on economic development, as I have done, knows that without a competent, professional and neutral public service, nothing in society really works. The more sophisticated and complex becomes a modern society and economy, the more true this is. As Fukuyama rightly points out, the extraordinary success of East Asia’s economies is largely due to the fact that they had understood how to run a state much before the West. Even more relevant, he argues that a “successful democracy.” . . He needs a strong modern state, but it has to be a limited state by a rule of law and democratic responsibility. ”
In the United States, the creation of this state began in 1883, he argues, with the Pendleton Law, which created the Civil Service Commission and established criteria based on the merit for hiring and promotion in the federal service. This is what the Trump administration, or, as the historian Timothy Snyder labels it, the “papers regime”, giving due credit to Elon Musk’s unique role, wishes to turn.
As Fukuyama explains, the American bureaucratic system is far from perfect. But the problem is not, as the right -wing critics argue, the fact of the decisions delegation. Does anyone imagine that technical decisions on aircraft safety or pharmaceutical products, control over hazardous pollutants or nuclear waste management should be decided in detail by legislators? Obviously, decisions of this type must be delegated to qualified experts. The notion that they should be determined by people whose main rating is the servile loyalty for the great boss is absurd.
The reality is that these “reforms” have nothing to do with making the government more efficient. The objective is rather to make “PAPA” be almighty. The same game was given by JD Vance, who said that if Trump won the presidency again in 2024, he should “shoot each medium -level bureaucrat, each official in the administrative state, replace them with our people.” . . And when the courts stop him, stop the country as Andrew Jackson did and says’ the president of the Supreme Court has decided his ruling. Now that it enforces it. “Both then, because of the notion that the United States must be” a government government, not men. “This is a coup d’etat.
This effort will not transform public finances either. In fiscal year 2025 to date, 78 percent of the federal expenditure is in Social Security, Health, Defense, Income Security, Benefits of Veterans and Net Interests. Musk says Doge can save $ 2TN annually. With an expense of $ 6.8TN last year, this seems absurd.
In summary, one does not make a complex system more “efficient” by randomly popular. But one can terrorize its employees. Therefore, the true objectives, such as Anne Applebaum notesThey are intimidation and replacement of genuine public servants with acolytes. The benefits of this are clear: it will allow those responsible for using the government’s powers to prosecute “enemies”, intimidate journalists, disseminate lies, ignore science and assault state and municipal disobligent governments, if necessary by the force. And what about the rule of law? Vance has already said what he thinks of that idea. The objective, then, is to convert the US to a plebiscitary dictatorship, in which the holder of power is the king. Will this revolution be compatible with fair elections in the future? One must doubt it.
After all, much of this will be irreversible. Once loyalty has replaced integrity and lies have replaced the truth, it will be a long way back. Therefore, once you have fired competent and honest public servants, how easy will it be to find similar people in the future? The US intelligence, data and analysis services. UU. They were global beacons. How much of that will it survive? One of the evidence Because employment is to be if one adopts the lie that Trump won in 2020. It is only likely that only teachers and magician fans agree.
If the type of state that Fukuyama praises is replaced by what is now intended, a poisonous mixture of incompetence, predation and corruption is inevitable. Among the harmful characteristics will be what Daniel Kaufmann, a senior member of the non -profit results for development, calls “state capture” – The exploitation of power by those who may not only bend, but to create rules for their own benefit. For a country of high income, the United States is already relatively captured. But it is about to get worse now that the rules that protect The independence of public officials must be completed.
What is happening is destruction, not the reform. Whatever they told them, common Americans will not benefit from chaos. But we know who will do it.
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