Monday, November 14, 2011

Pavlovian Prescription

Atanu Dey suggests a simple technique to bolster national security:

http://www.deeshaa.org/2011/09/07/what-would-gandhi-do/

Is there a way out? An economist would respond, “Yes, get the incentives right.” My proposal is to create the mechanism which would transmit the pain of terrorism to the leaders. In a sense, I advance the creation of a nervous system that carries the pain signals to the brain. The incentive mechanism I propose involves public flogging but is not limited to that.

1 comment:

san said...

I don't think any Indian leader will subject themselves to any sort of punishment.

We need to grow the middle class, in order to hold the politicians accountable. It's the middle class which is not so elite as to be removed from hardship, and yet not so weak so as to be intimidated by the establishment. When the problem is dysfunctional democracy, the answer is to make it functional by creating the basic architecture for democratic accountability, and the middle class is the basis for that.