At the time of a public
health catastrophe, the economic analysis and moral logic of many pointed out the
current system failure in India. It is in this backdrop that I introduce,
Mission Economy A moon shoot guide to changing capitalism - a mission of the state at the time of crisis beautifully laid down by Prof. Mariana
Mazzucato, who already portrayed role of state by debunking myths of Public vs Private sector in her previous works.
The worst health crisis
that India is facing today is a result of
massive state failure and the entire nation is paying a heavy price. The
author is a professor of Economics, who associate with
several leaders, policy makers across
globe which brought the mission instrument with common good approach in economics. The mission
statement is solely with her
expertise of working with UN, President
of South Africa and many other incumbent
leaders and economists especially during
the time of pandemic. Mazzucato worked
as a special adviser to Giuseppe Conte, Italy’s prime minister to restructure
its Post Covid economy which is a mission undertaken for addressing the
challenges and a rethinking of the capitalism.
The people of the country
are for want of oxygen, ICU beds, ventilators and vaccines, the state has
literally failed to give free vaccination to all and to ensure the provision of
emergency health care facilities. When entire world is resolving the crisis of a pandemic, a country like India is in the state of a health emergency
like never before, and we need to rethink about the role of a risk taker
government as it is need of the hour.
In the light of above,
the mission approach is illustrated
here. All governments across
globe are combating the crisis in its own way. Author seeks an alternative solution of a mission
economy which boost its private and physical and social securities to defeat
the pandemic. It requires something just more than money to solve the nations
problem - that is definitely a concrete structure, partnership development of
both public and private sectors.
Countrywide examples
include the success story of Vietnam, through public private collaboration via
commercialisation of kits, later exported to Europe and the other part of the
world. The state of Kerala’s mission in
combating the Nipah virus and the first wave is stated as an elegant example of
successful public-private partnership. It also addressed the scenario of U.S.A, UK by stating the government should
invest in building their muscles in critical areas such as productive capacity,
procurement abilities, public -private partnership etc and she vehemently
argues that we have lost one way and we cannot keep making the same mistake
again.
To address the SDG’s for
the entire world nation and to solve various developmental challenges, we need
a different approach. It is about that aspect of sharing both risk and reward,
it is possible to put an end to the problems of our time. Hence it is a rethinking of the capitalism by
Mazzucato.
A ‘mission grounds’- what
stands in the way of next moon shoot is the first part of the book. The capitalism in crisis and the five myths
impede the progress is eloquently pointed out in this section. Next, a ‘mission
possible’ what it takes to achieve our boldest ambitions and the last is a ‘mission
in action’ - good theory, good practices and seven principles of a new
political economy.
The initial example used
in this book to state the mission and
the purpose is “Appollo Mission”, landing a man on the moon and bring him back
safely. Kennedy’s farsightedness, vision and ambition resulted in a landmark change in the history
that affecting life on earth. The same mission-oriented
approach and partnership can solve
several societal problems the economies
are facing at present. I agree the lesson from space mission can’t be
replicated to any challenge of a
developing world, but a moon shot therapy can rescue a country and its people
at a critical time.
Mission oriented approach
can change the direction of the economy and
it can foster innovation and catalyse growth with the public private
partnership. However, there is a confusion, whether the discussion is all about
rethinking government or rethinking capitalism. Capitalism was in crisis even
before the Covid 19 pandemic time even during the time of financial crisis. Also,
the example of the authoritarian government like China and other state-run
capitalist societies inefficient to great extent.
The covid 19
crisis also revealed how shaky capitalism is. The pandemic hit hard the
global production. It is at this time that countries like USA and UK outsourced
so much of their resources to private agents and consultants to accelerate
production. The mission economy
stimulates how government change in order to derive better outcome and how it
interacts with various agents. Although
the government has spent huge amount on to keep life support to people during
pandemic, still the neoliberal economics portrays government just as a bureaucratic master
which suppress the system. Thus, she debunks the
most common myth about government and explain why new approach is
inevitable to change capitalism.
At the end, Mazzucato suggests seven key pillars to better political
economy that can guide the above-mentioned approach. It includes market
sharing, organisational change, long term planning, distribution and production
growth, partnership and stakeholder value, participation and cooperation. Therefore,
to come out of the clutches of a deep crisis, we can think of a mission-oriented approach to
provide life support to its citizens and
to rescue a nation struggling to breathe.
Amrutha Mary Varkey
is a Doctoral fellow at ISEC,
Bengaluru. Currently working as Asst Professor at Christ (Deemed to be) University, NCR.
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