Paying Our High Public Officials: Evaluating the Political Justifications of Top Wages in the Public Sector by Teun Dekker

Author:Teun Dekker [Dekker, Teun]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Public Policy, Public Affairs & Administration, Social Services & Welfare, Political Science, Economic Policy
ISBN: 9780415657037
Google: IYZDis_j6RQC
Goodreads: 15859294
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2012-12-11T00:00:00+00:00

[Data\W\D\Warrant]

If high public officials are to be able to optimally tailor policies and programs to the circumstances of common people, they are to have a firsthand understanding of the lives of common people.

[Data\W\D\Claim]

If high public officials are to run the government as well as possible, then they are to have a firsthand understanding of the lives of common people.

This way of thinking about these questions has its attractions. If one would wish to question it, the most obvious place to do so would be regarding the assumed superiority of firsthand understanding over mediated understanding in the making of public policy. Must one really know the price of milk to design and administer social support policies, and can one not know the price of milk even if one does not buy milk on a daily basis? In other words, one might doubt whether the full richness of firsthand understanding is really required to be a good high public official. One might think that a mediated understanding of the circumstances of common people is actually a better guide to tailoring policies. This is because firsthand understanding is, by its very nature, limited and local in scope; it is only understanding of a particular time and place. However, the making and administration of policy is, by its very nature, not limited to a particular time or place. Rather, policies apply throughout society. If high public officials target policies to their own situation, these policies might not be appropriate for all circumstances. A secondhand understanding can be much less limited to one particular time and place and can incorporate information and experiences from a wide variety of circumstances. Thus, it might be a better basis for making policies and providing public goods. Needless to say, the two sources of information are not exclusive, and high public officials who have a firsthand understanding of social circumstances can supplement it with mediated information to get the best of both worlds. But it is an open question whether such high public officials will do a better job than those who merely rely on mediated information.10 Furthermore, it remains to be seen whether the distinction between first and secondhand understanding is as meaningful as is assumed here. Can one not acquire the same information one gathers from firsthand experience in other ways? One might go on working visits or immerse one’s self into the relevant circumstances in other ways, without actually living under those circumstances. These are not knockdown objections, and one might overcome them and sustain the present interpretation. Nevertheless, these considerations are cause for concern. As an alternative verifying argument might fare better, one should not settle on this reconstruction, and continue to explore possible verifiers.

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