This newsletter is really a weekly public policy thought-letter. While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. It seeks to answer just one question:
Hey guys, love this newsletter and really enjoying the topics you guys are picking week after week. I havnt read the Niti Aayog discussion paper on 'One nation one election', but going by Pranay's analysis, two questions come to mind immediately -
1. The argument that developmental time is lost due to elections is valid if we look at two aspects - one, a change of Government and the resulting uncertainty about the fate of a particular scheme on program (getting scrapped, or budgets getting diverted/allocated with some delay) and two, the diversion of manpower in the form of government school teachers as well as the entire district machinery towards conducting the elections which begins much earlier than the model code of conduct. That said, I still don't get the paper's point on how one nation one election will solve this problem by merely making it happen for the entire country at the same time.
2. The point on how election expenditure is a minuscule proportion of India's GDP could be better emphasized by providing a context in the form of a comparative against similar ratios from other developing countries and/or against expenditure on a government scheme or for that matter a scam as a percentage of GDP. Are there any benchmarks for how much a country should typically spend on elections because I feel that would help make a stronger argument.
Hey guys, love this newsletter and really enjoying the topics you guys are picking week after week. I havnt read the Niti Aayog discussion paper on 'One nation one election', but going by Pranay's analysis, two questions come to mind immediately -
1. The argument that developmental time is lost due to elections is valid if we look at two aspects - one, a change of Government and the resulting uncertainty about the fate of a particular scheme on program (getting scrapped, or budgets getting diverted/allocated with some delay) and two, the diversion of manpower in the form of government school teachers as well as the entire district machinery towards conducting the elections which begins much earlier than the model code of conduct. That said, I still don't get the paper's point on how one nation one election will solve this problem by merely making it happen for the entire country at the same time.
2. The point on how election expenditure is a minuscule proportion of India's GDP could be better emphasized by providing a context in the form of a comparative against similar ratios from other developing countries and/or against expenditure on a government scheme or for that matter a scam as a percentage of GDP. Are there any benchmarks for how much a country should typically spend on elections because I feel that would help make a stronger argument.
Cheers!