The currently happening turmoil in both US and Europe has made me thinking about the reasons why governments are clearly incapable of solving the crisis. Or should we go as far as stating unwilling of solving it. The political debates are going on all right but nothing seems to happen fast enough. Some parties involved seem to be playing time.

All above is actually completely understandable when we think about how people are motivated. I think ALL people are motivated by power, success and recognition in its different forms. Leading politicians are definitely no exception. I’d rather say they are the very lot exponentially driven by these three factors (imo even Mother Teresa is driven by these motives).

Above can be debated, but If I am correct, the core problem seems to be that the common legislative periods of parliamentarians are not capable of satisfying above motives. The terms running typically from four to six years are simply too short.

Governments are the biggest kind of institutions. They require visionary, real institutional level thinking of their top officials. Said means any planning should be aimed at planning  all top level maneuvers 10-15 years ahead of the intended operative execution (instead of mostly empty campaigning promises made prior to elections).

Combining the two time frames (required time and the time in power) introduces a big problem: The parliamentarians will in many critical cases most probably not be recognized by their (hopefully) good decisions.   It’s their followers that get the potential goods and the recognition. Even worse, these people quite often represent the political opposition rising into power.

If my thinking is solid said obviously does not satisfy the motives of ambitious people, but quite the contrary. I dare say the top people are totally aware of the above dilemma and this lays the very grounds for the never ending political game which makes the western political systems fundamentally as ineffective as we currently witness.

What kind of a system would be ideal then? Now that is a good question…