A ética na política frente à economia política
O governo federal não poupa esforços: se algo der errado, é culpa do governo anterior. Se algo der certo, é mérito deles. Se não der, é porque a ditadura não veio (= "culpa dos outros partidos que impedem a ação dos
jedis do partido de Lula"). Nunca a militância, tradicionalmente barulhenta e até agressiva nas discussões de boteco, esteve tão calada.
É que a economia política tem uma lógica inescapável. Os caras podem tentar te enganar com o discurso de que são melhores que os outros (uns até realmente se acham assim), mas são todos iguais: agentes maximizadores e racionais. Sejam eles do partido do presidente ou não.
O melhor exemplo de que nada mudou é Waldomiro? Benedita? A barganha pelo mínimo? Os afagos para a Globopar? Olha, eu não sei, mas
esta última apenas complementa a incrível ética entortada de que empregar milhares de cargos de confiança e exigir deles um percentual fixo do salário "não significa mudança de compromisso ético".
É por isto que as pessoas precisam ler coisas mais bem fundamentadas sobre política. Eu sugiro
este livro.
Dá gosto ler a apresentação do livro:
“Politics by principle is that which modern politics is not. What we observe is ‘politics by interest,’ whether in the form of explicitly discriminatory treatment (rewarding or punishing) of particular groupings of citizens or of some elitist-dirigiste classification of citizens into the deserving or non-deserving on the basis of a presumed superior wisdom about what is really ‘good’ for us all. The proper principle for politics is that of generalization of generality.”
—James M. Buchanan, from the Preface
In his foreword, Hartmut Kliemt sums up the main objective of James M. Buchanan and Roger Congleton’s Politics by Principle: “Imposing constitutional constraints on majoritarian politics such that a more principled pattern might emerge must be a political aim of high priority for all who wish for free and responsible citizens to live together peacefully as political equals under the rule of general laws. Buchanan and Congleton’s efforts to revive the classical liberal agenda in Politics by Principle, Not Interest are of the greatest interest in that regard. And this interest is not merely a theoretical one.”
As James Buchanan notes in introducing his co-author Roger Congleton, Politics by Principle, Not Interest “embodies the working out and presentation of a single idea…the extension and application of the generality principle to majoritarian politics.” After laying out the theory, Buchanan and Congleton attempt to work it out in practical political reality. Buchanan notes that “it is much easier to discuss the generality principle as an abstract ideal than it is to define the precise conditions for its satisfaction in any particular setting.” Not daunted by the difficulty of the task, the two authors succeed brilliantly in applying the generality principle to the political arena. They are interested not in laying down precise do’s and don’ts for politics, but in pointing out the ideal of nondiscriminatory governance and calling for constitutional constraints on political action so it conforms more closely to the generality norm.
James M. Buchanan is an eminent economist who won the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1986 and is considered one of the greatest scholars of liberty in the twentieth century.
Agora, cá para nós, esta leitura passa longe da biblioteca do Planalto, dos sindicatos, etc. Uma pena.
