2013 the new prime minister, Tshering Tobgay, was less enthusiastic about making
GNH the top priority and not interested in touring the world to promote it. But the
scheme is inscribed into the constitution and thus I found it surprising to see the
Wikipedia entry for GNH quickly changed into past tense, claiming that it had been
abolished. The only source for that was a New York Times article in which no proof
was to be found. Later articles and speeches of Tobgay, like this quote in The
Guardian, cast a different light:
What’s changed with our government is that we believe our priority must be at home … We
must remove the obstacles to GNH and be true to it within the country… But the job of
government is not to lead debate; it is to implement the principles at home. The world
should not expect too much from us, and we should not expect too much from ourselves
(Confino 2014).
So instead of using GNH as a brand and becoming complacent about it, Tobgay
believes Bhutan should work on the unprecedented divorce rates, domestic violence, drug abuse and suicide (ibid).
Reading such statements makes me wonder when Western countries will learn
from this cultural trait: a respectful culture of experimentation seems like the best
humus for radical incremental transformation strategies. One global movement that
also works in this direction but originated in the West is On the Commons. It shares
many of the same values and the community well-being mind-set. It can thus serve
as an inspiration for all those who feel that Bhutan’s model is too dependent on its
Buddhist culture to have wider appeal.
4.4 Pioneering Governance Systems: Commoning
as a New Stark Utopia
The term ‘commons’ is mentioned in economic thinking and governance primarily
in the context of the idea of a “tragedy of the commons” in which freely available
natural resources like land, forests, oceans or the atmosphere are used unsustainably
because everyone can pursue their own benefits by exploiting them or dumping
emissions and waste onto or into them. The selfish-competitive actor view therefore
concluded that only private property rights or strict state control was suitable to
deter such action. As a consequence we frequently hear about market failure or state
failure when this is not successful.
Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom, one of the leading thinkers that inspired this
movement, rejected the universal law that all humans are selfish and that policy or
competition somehow have to rein in their destructive actions. She and her colleagues also took a closer look at whether there are really only two types of goods
that would justify being satisfied with two prototypical governance solutions. In her
2009 Nobel speech, Ostrom summarizes the amendments that she and her colleagues made to mainstream economic ideas. First, they widened the definition of
4.3 Pioneering Governments: Beyond GDP Measures as Development Frames
139
GNH the top priority and not interested in touring the world to promote it. But the
scheme is inscribed into the constitution and thus I found it surprising to see the
Wikipedia entry for GNH quickly changed into past tense, claiming that it had been
abolished. The only source for that was a New York Times article in which no proof
was to be found. Later articles and speeches of Tobgay, like this quote in The
Guardian, cast a different light:
What’s changed with our government is that we believe our priority must be at home … We
must remove the obstacles to GNH and be true to it within the country… But the job of
government is not to lead debate; it is to implement the principles at home. The world
should not expect too much from us, and we should not expect too much from ourselves
(Confino 2014).
So instead of using GNH as a brand and becoming complacent about it, Tobgay
believes Bhutan should work on the unprecedented divorce rates, domestic violence, drug abuse and suicide (ibid).
Reading such statements makes me wonder when Western countries will learn
from this cultural trait: a respectful culture of experimentation seems like the best
humus for radical incremental transformation strategies. One global movement that
also works in this direction but originated in the West is On the Commons. It shares
many of the same values and the community well-being mind-set. It can thus serve
as an inspiration for all those who feel that Bhutan’s model is too dependent on its
Buddhist culture to have wider appeal.
4.4 Pioneering Governance Systems: Commoning
as a New Stark Utopia
The term ‘commons’ is mentioned in economic thinking and governance primarily
in the context of the idea of a “tragedy of the commons” in which freely available
natural resources like land, forests, oceans or the atmosphere are used unsustainably
because everyone can pursue their own benefits by exploiting them or dumping
emissions and waste onto or into them. The selfish-competitive actor view therefore
concluded that only private property rights or strict state control was suitable to
deter such action. As a consequence we frequently hear about market failure or state
failure when this is not successful.
Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom, one of the leading thinkers that inspired this
movement, rejected the universal law that all humans are selfish and that policy or
competition somehow have to rein in their destructive actions. She and her colleagues also took a closer look at whether there are really only two types of goods
that would justify being satisfied with two prototypical governance solutions. In her
2009 Nobel speech, Ostrom summarizes the amendments that she and her colleagues made to mainstream economic ideas. First, they widened the definition of
4.3 Pioneering Governments: Beyond GDP Measures as Development Frames
139