Policy people > Politicians and vice versa

During my visits to Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania in the last two weeks, I witnessed several interesting personal and organizational stories about the ‘individual transfers’ from policy sphere into into politics. These stories were as much related to the links between the two ‘worlds’ as they were about the personal dilemmas I witnessed in ‘policy research people’ over there. What happened when one changes the ‘policy jersey’ for ‘a political dress’?

One excellent analyst and bright scholar told me that s/he entered politics because this was the only way to influence  the future of his/her own country. This person found analysis of political processes, something s/he was doing until recently (including regular commentaries and sound scholarly work), to have very little and no influence on the chosen policies. And so s/he decided to take ‘ a dive’ into hard-core politics. The policy analyst future of this person? Certain, but in which form?

Another one had a brief ‘excursion’ into politics. This person said that while on the campaign trail s/he learned about the differences between being a ‘policy person’ and a politician. Admittedly, s/he lacked an inherent capacity to be a populist and a stronger stomach to be successful in the latter function.

A third person feared that in his/her new political role, s/he will not have enough time to continue /remain being an expert. And will s/he be able to return back as an expert after a political career?

A forth one claimed that ‘revolving door’ model of think tanks in which a politician steps down from politics and goes / return to think tanks is possible and acceptable in CEE (similar to the US and more developed democracies)

So, what really happens when one changes the ‘policy jersey’ for ‘a political dress’? And vice versa, is the model of think tanks as ‘revolving doors’ for politicians really acceptable in Central and Easter Europe?

These four fellows expressed relevant hopes and fears. Notwithstanding that politics in these three countries is dirty and most of the ‘actors’ have no scruples, still there is a need for these ‘few good, competent fellows’ to enter the political arena.  But what worries me more is that in these countries is that the general public and very often even the policy-seasoned audiences does not distinguish between ideology and partisanship. (Most of CEE languages do not have separate words for these two.). As such, the public perceives personalities, and not platforms or expertize. And this is a real obstacle for any transfer in both directions.

Second point that amazed me is how little the analytical skills (in policy context) were mentioned by all of these people. Somehow, once people engaged in politics, these skills have taken a back seat.

Finally, people in think tanks are far from being ‘saints’. Many have political aspirations. The art of this work is how the work of these organizations not to be hijacked by the individual political agenda.

To be continued… (the dilemmas of donors)