Business, bureaucracy not easy bedmates
sector because they were differently motivated and required different treatment, were frustrated by political opponents’ mobilisation of large parts of the public against them and by the independent stance taken by courts.
Even in illiberal states such as Russia, where President Vladimir Putin’s regime keeps trying to introduce business management practices to government, the approach meets with resistance from a tangle of local and corporate interests and gets bogged down in corruption.
Yet when a successful entrepreneur revives the old slogans about a well-run government being like a corporation, people are often inclined to listen – especially when they are tired of fractious politics, scandals and a lack of convincing leadership, as Czechs are today, Italians were in 2001 and Americans in 2016.
Most people’s views of the ‘‘corporate governance’’ idea are malleable, as political scientist Amy Gangl showed in a 2000 experiment.
She asked 400 people in Minnesota framing questions: Half were asked whether they agreed that a slow and messy debate was a positive feature of democracy; the other half whether they liked the idea that ‘‘government should be run more like a successful business, making decisions in a more timely and efficient manner.’’
Those in the first group then leaned in favour of ‘‘fairness’’ in public administration, while those in the second favoured ‘‘timeliness.’’ In the same way, people will vote for market populists like Berlusconi, Trump or Babis if they’re charismatic enough to frame the issue for them – and if their rivals lack the necessary charisma.
Babis is already facing a serious test. Nine parties – more than ever in the Czech Republic’s post-Communist history – have entered parliament.
He needs to build a coalition but has no obvious allies. He’s alienated traditional centre-left and centre-right parties. Outliers like the Pirate Party (which won almost 11 per cent of the vote) and the Communists (8 per cent) have no common interests with Babis’s leader-centric ANO party, and Babis would prefer not to deal with the farright Freedom and Direct Democracy Party because it might be more trouble than it’s worth.
If this were a competitive struggle in one of Agrofert’s markets, Babis would stand as the proud winner. But with 78 seats in a 200-member parliament, he cannot manage the nation as he ran his business. Most Czechs don’t want him to.
In recent political discussions, various strains of populism are often lumped together. That’s a mistake. Unlike political victories born of profound public opinion shifts – for example, toward deeper nationalism – the personal triumphs of market populists are more likely to be temporary, until the realities of government clash with the instincts of a sole proprietor.
That’s a problem for Trump, who managed to combine market and nationalist populism: If he fails in the eyes of Americans as an efficient manager, the nationalism alone may not be enough for re-election.
Babis, who, with a $4.1 billion fortune is wealthier than Trump, is probably a better manager, but his situation is even more precarious.
❚ Leonid Bershidsky is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru.
If Trump fails in the eyes of Americans as an efficient manager, the nationalism alone may not be enough for re-election.