Vidal Garza Cantú*
Reforma: Nov. 23, 2019
The ability of a good politician is not only reflected in his speeches, but also in his ability to govern. And governing is much more complex than giving speeches or even signing decrees. It is about making the best decisions, deliberating within the context of respecting the law and government institutions and persuading citizens with arguments to move past many resistances and obstacles. To govern well is to exercise leadership in the context of freedom.
Before becoming president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, in his essay "The Study of Administration", published in 1887, clearly stated that "public administration is the discipline that analyzes the order of execution of government projects". It is this ability that leads to results.
Let's talk about two examples in which our government [of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, aka AMLO] disdains public administration: the pension program for the elderly and scholarships for public high school students.
All adults over 68 now receive, regardless of whether or not they have other income, a pension thanks to our taxes. Next year, 130 billion pesos [US$6.7 billion at current exchange rates] will be allocated to provide monthly support of 1.3 billion pesos [US$66 million] to more than 10 million beneficiaries.
It would undoubtedly be an excellent initiative if it were replaced with a program that supported truly needy adults with greater attention and effectiveness. Prior to the current program, among the population over 65, it was found that those who did not receive any type of pension or support from the government amounted to 26 percent. Thus, a program well executed by a public administration with professionalism could have doubled today's pension, but only supported those who really need it.
In this way, this program would cost half of what the government currently spends on this social welfare effort, and we would also have the certainty that this benefit is improving their quality of life. As it is now, nobody knows how they use resources we give them through the government.
The other program that deserves criticism is the "Benito Juárez" universal scholarship for high school students. This program provides indiscriminate economic support for 3.5 million young people in high school. Again, it is a program that could be improved if we take into consideration that more than 1 million young people in Mexico drop out of high school [every year].
However, what a serious public administration would have done is to analyze what are the causes of this desertion and would have found, as documented by the SEP [Secretariat of Public Education], that only 38 percent of these young people leave for economic reasons. The rest do it because they cannot advance a grade because they have failed courses.
This means that, instead of supporting all young people in public high schools with bank transfers, the public administration could be more effective by supporting the 10 percent of the total students enrolled in public high schools that really need economic support. Of course, it is also important to create programs so that students can overcome their deficiencies in math, physics and chemistry that make them drop out.
It is clear that the challenge of these two issues has to do with the ability of the public administration to detect those older adults and those young people who are in need of financial support to get ahead. That is a task that requires work, seriousness and capable public administration.
An irresponsible government is giving resources to everyone indiscriminately instead of to those who need them most. That is the difference between a government that respects the profession of public administration and one that despises it.
Reforma only allows subscribers to access its articles online.
*Vidal Garza Cantú is director of the FEMSA Foundation, AC. [FEMSA, is a Mexican multinational beverage and retail company headquartered in Monterrey, Mexico. It operates the largest independent Coca-Cola bottling group in the world and the largest convenience store chain [Oxxo] in Mexico. It is also the second-largest shareholder of Heineken N.V..] He is also a professor at the Graduate School of Public Administration and Public Policy of Monterrey Institute of Technology [ITESM]. He holds a Bachelor of Economics from ITESM, a law degree from the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon (UANL), a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University and a Doctorate in Public Policy from the University of Texas at Austin.
Reforma: Nov. 23, 2019
The ability of a good politician is not only reflected in his speeches, but also in his ability to govern. And governing is much more complex than giving speeches or even signing decrees. It is about making the best decisions, deliberating within the context of respecting the law and government institutions and persuading citizens with arguments to move past many resistances and obstacles. To govern well is to exercise leadership in the context of freedom.
Before becoming president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, in his essay "The Study of Administration", published in 1887, clearly stated that "public administration is the discipline that analyzes the order of execution of government projects". It is this ability that leads to results.
Let's talk about two examples in which our government [of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, aka AMLO] disdains public administration: the pension program for the elderly and scholarships for public high school students.
All adults over 68 now receive, regardless of whether or not they have other income, a pension thanks to our taxes. Next year, 130 billion pesos [US$6.7 billion at current exchange rates] will be allocated to provide monthly support of 1.3 billion pesos [US$66 million] to more than 10 million beneficiaries.
It would undoubtedly be an excellent initiative if it were replaced with a program that supported truly needy adults with greater attention and effectiveness. Prior to the current program, among the population over 65, it was found that those who did not receive any type of pension or support from the government amounted to 26 percent. Thus, a program well executed by a public administration with professionalism could have doubled today's pension, but only supported those who really need it.
In this way, this program would cost half of what the government currently spends on this social welfare effort, and we would also have the certainty that this benefit is improving their quality of life. As it is now, nobody knows how they use resources we give them through the government.
The other program that deserves criticism is the "Benito Juárez" universal scholarship for high school students. This program provides indiscriminate economic support for 3.5 million young people in high school. Again, it is a program that could be improved if we take into consideration that more than 1 million young people in Mexico drop out of high school [every year].
However, what a serious public administration would have done is to analyze what are the causes of this desertion and would have found, as documented by the SEP [Secretariat of Public Education], that only 38 percent of these young people leave for economic reasons. The rest do it because they cannot advance a grade because they have failed courses.
This means that, instead of supporting all young people in public high schools with bank transfers, the public administration could be more effective by supporting the 10 percent of the total students enrolled in public high schools that really need economic support. Of course, it is also important to create programs so that students can overcome their deficiencies in math, physics and chemistry that make them drop out.
It is clear that the challenge of these two issues has to do with the ability of the public administration to detect those older adults and those young people who are in need of financial support to get ahead. That is a task that requires work, seriousness and capable public administration.
An irresponsible government is giving resources to everyone indiscriminately instead of to those who need them most. That is the difference between a government that respects the profession of public administration and one that despises it.
Reforma only allows subscribers to access its articles online.
*Vidal Garza Cantú is director of the FEMSA Foundation, AC. [FEMSA, is a Mexican multinational beverage and retail company headquartered in Monterrey, Mexico. It operates the largest independent Coca-Cola bottling group in the world and the largest convenience store chain [Oxxo] in Mexico. It is also the second-largest shareholder of Heineken N.V..] He is also a professor at the Graduate School of Public Administration and Public Policy of Monterrey Institute of Technology [ITESM]. He holds a Bachelor of Economics from ITESM, a law degree from the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon (UANL), a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University and a Doctorate in Public Policy from the University of Texas at Austin.