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February 13, 2007
Managing Discontent
The StreetsBlog notes that the tide of popular opinion may be turning against mayor Delanoë's policies mentioned previously.
It quotes a few articles that have picked up that Parisians' discontent with the changes are starting to let their elected officials know, starting with the mayor.
One of the questions that interests me the most right now is how should we organize decision-making in a context where necessary but unpopular reforms need to take place. In this particular case, most citizens understand the need for change, and started out very supportive of Mr. Delanoë's plan.
Naturally, it will be unpopular for the current population to bear the inconvenience and cost of transitional change, even if clear future benefits are apparent to most. It's also clear enough why politicans would be weary to take on such projects. So what do we need to do? Is the answer simply to elect more courageous politicans, or do we need to find a way to insulate them from the whims of the electorate? Is that why we have bureaucracies?
Posted by jessehudson at February 13, 2007 09:39 AM
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Comments
Or maybe this is a perfect example of why we need Democracy as a check on executive power. Not that the BRT system is a bad idea, but it sounds like the implementation was flawed, so now Delanoe has an incentive to get the details correct and try to prove his grand scheme can work in a relatively convenient and safe fashion.
After all, the devil is in the details, and ignoring that in favor of lofty ideals of any sort (whether pro car or pro transit) would be rather
Bolshevik, no?
Interesting post.
Posted by: Ryan at February 13, 2007 02:27 PM
Me? Bolshevik?! How dare you, sir...
Of course, that's a fair point. Just to clarify, I wasn't advocating an end to democracy, or citizen-input in the planning process. You're right that Delanoë made errors in the planning and implementation, and those probably explains his slipping poll numbers more than his ideals.
Posted by: jesse at February 13, 2007 05:04 PM
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