EWB is an organization that accelerates development by innovating systems. It’s an approach that has evolved out of observation: that no amount of commodity (be it shoes, wells, job-training, whatever) can alleviate poverty as long as governmental, market, environmental, and other kinds of societal systems are failing. Decades of the traditional charity-based model of the commodification of aid has only resulted in increasing demand for aid. Meanwhile in America since 1966 the bottom 90% has only had an average gain compared to inflation of $59, while the top 1% has almost tripled their income. In Canada, the distribution was more equal throughout P.E. Trudeau’s time, but from about 1987 on has been similarly disproportional. Many ideas of classical economics like the GDP, the value of energy (oil is sold in the US Dollar and Nixon detached it from any physical meaning in 1971), or inelasticity of certain market supplies such as the labour force, aren’t working to provide indicators of social growth or development of society, but they’re still prevalent in the narrow rhetoric of our political institutions.
Over the past half century, institutional values and concerns have become more removed from more people’s values and concerns. The realities of work and personal life become disjointed. It’s reflected in the growing amount of people who have no faith or participation in our political institutions especially.
Just how well is our democracy currently functioning? Not comparing policy, but the integrity and value of our system, in 1933 30% of the German population elected Hitler to a minority government while in 2011, 16% of the Canadian population elected Harper to a majority government. Hitler had some work to do to get absolute power as a leader. In our institution, a majority government means that there is majority of parliament which, as members of the political party led by the prime minister, have to vote in unity with the prime minister. The executive branch of government is meant to provide a higher level of oversight than parliament, but is also controlled by the prime minister.
The previous winning electoral strategy, as commented on by Harper, was to the convince support bases which they knew would support them to vote. The PC’s public messaging is limited to short-term economics and ill-defined public growth. The Liberal’s strategy has been to moderate and dilute policy to have the widest support base possible. The NDP’s strategy seems to be to convince support bases that they’re Liberal. And nobody’s voting Green in a first-past-the-post system anyway. How do we engage?
For development’s sake, the systems of the society need to respond to their citizens. Whatever your engagement may be, development demands of you the responsibility to give the institutions something to respond to, and something systemic.
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