Rising polarisation causes major shifts on US environmental policy between administrations — this worries CEOs: Vincent Pons

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Vincent Pons is Michael B. Kim Associate Professor at Harvard Business School. Speaking to Srijana Mitra Das, he discusses the role of democracy and stability in bolstering economies:Q. What is the core of your research?A.

I work on the weakening of democracy, the manifestations of this worldwide and possible remedies towards it. By this, I refer to multiple phenomena including the decline of voter participation, the multiplication of protests and increased polarisation. These are seen globally now, including in some of the oldest democracies like France and the United States.This problem is very deep because democracy itself relies on the delegation of decision-making to millions of citizens — hence, remedying this situation requires studying the dynamics of electoral politics with an aim to bringing citizens back to the polls.

We need a fundamental understanding of the different steps of the electoral cycle through which preferences are aggregated into an electoral outcome and then policies — if we can see at which steps there might be a failure, we can learn how to address that.Q. Your writing mentions how global CEOs are worried about a democratic waning worldwide — can you elaborate?A. Political stability and democracy are key conditions for economic growth — CEOs recognise this.

When they see a democratic weakening, they consider this an important concern for their company. This has been noted in recent surveys of CEOs in the US, for instance, where, increasingly, the first concern voiced is governmental and political instability. The connection between democracy and economic outcomes has also been established empirically — many economists have found democracy typically leads to more prosperity.Q. In the US, what