POLITICS: PJ DRUDYreviews
Renewing the RepublicBy Michael D Higgins Liberties Press, 229pp, €15
RENEWING THE REPUBLICis a critical and most valuable volume of essays by one of our foremost public intellectuals. After a successful spell as an academic, Michael D Higgins served in the Dáil for 25 years and in the Senate for a further nine – and was then elected President last autumn. This book provides a selection of his speeches and conference addresses over the past five years. His basic premise is that Ireland, despite securing a measure of independence in 1921, has failed since then to achieve a real republic. The failure relates to three kinds of power: political, administrative and communicative.
Regarding political power, it would have been necessary, for example, to dilute the power of the government and to have a more effective committee system, with a right for committees and elected representatives to initiate and change legislation and even to hold limited budgetary authority. Higgins also points to an administrative failure where many structures are hierarchical and patriarchal and the citizen is less than equal. Finally there is, he argues, a failure to communicate the truth to all. As he puts it: “Many do not have equal access to the story; rather it is for those who work in the sector.” The result of all this is a failure to ensure equality and respect for all with a basic level of rights and participation and a “non-negotiable citizenship floor below which people would not be allowed to fall”.
Higgins is a strong critic of an economic model (often referred to as neoliberal or neoclassical) that, in my view, has been dominant for far too long – a model that suggests the “free market” will resolve all our problems, be they economic, social or environmental. Dating back to at least Adam Smith in 1776, the market model asserts that the self-interest of producers as well as consumers will not only help to determine the prices of goods and services and the most efficient allocation of resources but will also be to the benefit of all, rich and poor alike.
Remarkably, the vast majority of economists and public representatives in Ireland and elsewhere have failed to question this wild contention. It is based on highly questionable assumptions and what Higgins calls a dangerous “radical individualism”. Those who espouse this model urge a minor role for the state, and a philosophy of deregulation and privatisation. Many even contend that unfairness and significant inequality are no bad things – indeed they claim that these are an inevitable and acceptable outcome in the “real world”. Large numbers of poor and disadvantaged people in the real world, whether in Ireland or elsewhere, and in particular in less developed countries, are always outside the market; they simply do not have the resources to participate.
Two economists, Friedrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman, revived this almost-dead ideology in the 1950s, and it was accepted with fervour by Margaret Thatcher in Britain and Ronald Reagan in the US during the 1980s. Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve for 19 years, was also a key advocate, although he finally recognised the error of his ways in 2008 – when the damage on a vast scale was already done. This is the law of the jungle, where only the fittest survive, and Higgins is rightly having none of it. Indeed, his sustained and scholarly critique of the failed free-market model alone makes this book a major contribution.
As he puts it: “There is nothing empirically inevitable about the market; rather it is an ideological assertion.” If we have learned anything over the past decade, it must be that the rampant speculation and unethical practices in financial and property markets have done untold damage to the people of Ireland and those of many other countries. The failed unregulated market model, and the crass practices that accompanied it during the misnamed Celtic Tiger period, must be cast aside.
What, then, is the alternative? Higgins provides a well-reasoned alternative model throughout this book. His republic would be fully inclusive and participative. People would be secure from birth to old age; all would have equal access to education, decent housing, health services and much more. The political and administrative system would espouse and implement these goals. The republic would give priority to the creation of employment well before the recapitalisation of lending institutions or economic growth.
A real republic would build on capabilities, capacities and potential. It would not just endorse and ratify a range of international covenants on human rights; rather it would implement them without question. This would be “sustainable development” in the best sense of that term, catering not just for current but also for future generations.
There are many practical proposals for change in this book. In particular, Higgins wants to build on one of Ireland’s greatest strengths: the creativity of our people. Ireland has produced, and continues to produce, wonderful writers, playwrights, poets and musicians. Yet they are but one example of what is possible in a creative society. As Ireland’s first minister for arts, culture and the Gaeltacht he witnessed at first hand its transformative potential. He points out that the creative is not limited to the artistic and aesthetic. There is potential for creativity in research, innovation, tradition, business, the environment, the celebration of both young and old people, peacemaking, diplomacy and international development.
These – together with drama, film, music and more – offer rich rewards in creating new employment locally, regionally and nationally. Resolving the unemployment problem is a central preoccupation in these pages. Higgins also calls for productive investment in infrastructure, schools, amenities and recreational facilities at competitive costs – areas where construction workers as well as architects and engineers and many others are currently without jobs.
This is a book of exciting ideas, philosophy and practical proposals for transformation and a new society. We will ignore its exhortations at our peril.
PJ Drudy is emeritus professor of economics at Trinity College Dublin
