This framework of 'hauntings' resonates deeply. As someone who grew up in a postcolonial country in South-east Asia, one of the Asian Tigers, and now resides in Europe, I’ve spent a lot of time observing the 'spreadsheet-ification' of these exact trade-offs in government and institutions thst try to become Westernised because that is the held up as the benchmark of 'the ideal way to run the state'. In my experience, the 'haunting' isn't just at the leadership level—it’s baked into the current institutional logic. In the postcolonial context, sovereignty is still constantly bartered against economic integration; in Europe, the 'economic' imperative has become so performative that it’s effectively neutralized the political. It feels like we are all managing the same decline, just via different institutional scripts. But at different points along a never-ending scale of 'evolution'...
Well, economics addresses needs that are lower in the Maslow hierarchy, so it's arguably more fundamental. Depending on your definition of politics China either resolved it first or sidestepped the issue altogether.
Other than that, which countries are not haunted by politics nowadays?
This framework of 'hauntings' resonates deeply. As someone who grew up in a postcolonial country in South-east Asia, one of the Asian Tigers, and now resides in Europe, I’ve spent a lot of time observing the 'spreadsheet-ification' of these exact trade-offs in government and institutions thst try to become Westernised because that is the held up as the benchmark of 'the ideal way to run the state'. In my experience, the 'haunting' isn't just at the leadership level—it’s baked into the current institutional logic. In the postcolonial context, sovereignty is still constantly bartered against economic integration; in Europe, the 'economic' imperative has become so performative that it’s effectively neutralized the political. It feels like we are all managing the same decline, just via different institutional scripts. But at different points along a never-ending scale of 'evolution'...
So balance is the key…seems to be a lesson the Democratic Party is learning at the same time. Politics and economy…who controls which and how.
Well, economics addresses needs that are lower in the Maslow hierarchy, so it's arguably more fundamental. Depending on your definition of politics China either resolved it first or sidestepped the issue altogether.
Other than that, which countries are not haunted by politics nowadays?