Mohsin Ali Khan Public Policy

Economic versus Politics

Economics and Politics have one focused group that is general public. Both fields mostly revolve
around providing goods and services to its consumers. In case of economics, the consumer is
given much preference because the consumer had to buy goods and services and producer has to
sell its goods to gain investment. If consumer is not satisfied with the price or quality of a
product, he/she would access to another producer so a producer had to comply with its consumer
preferences to remain in competitive. In politics, the government had to make people friendly
policies so to remain in power and gain people vote confidence.
Moreover, a policy is made to bring better change in the society. If a certain policy was effective
or ineffective still remains a complex question because many internal and external factors in the
surrounding play a key role in policy effectiveness. Like, economist made policy related to
output whereas politicians made policies to satisfy the public. In both parties opinion, their
policies seems effective to them due to which many social, economic gaps emerge in a society.
Politics and economics are two different fields having their own variables and constraints.
Economics mostly revolve around market failures like labor productivity, technological
constraints, market connectivity etc. these constraints are present in every market in the world
and require economic policies to resolve them. Market failure correspond to real GDP, if market
failure are consistent then real GDP growth would be affected.
Similarly politics mostly deal with “power” attribute. To remain in power the government had to
be resilient and comply with market as well as public needs. Because some authors are of the
view that good economics cannot bear good politics and good politics cannot abide by the rules
of good economics continually.
In todays globalized world where every country is dependent on other countries for trade,
information and technology sharing, like that every aspect that is social, economic and
environment sector is also interconnected with each other. If one is not carrying out well the
other sector would be affected, that is the case with economic policy and politics. Moreover, the
main problem of income inequality that hasn’t been solved yet in the whole world. The richer is
getting richer whereas putting pressure in the low and middle class working men and women.
Income inequality creates further problem in the society that is creating social unrest and
emerging of unions across the country.
Unions emerged as a result of inequality in distribution of resources and from the history events
it is clear that when market as well as politicians policies oppressed the public, they retaliate
back in order to protect their interest. After the emergence of first union in the world, whenever
unions are formed they have mostly done damage to the law by exploiting their power.
According to the authors Unions played a vital role in protecting the interest of general public
but when they are strongly formed they shift from collective to individual approach. That is
individual interest are being protected instead of a group, linkages with the market and politics
further make it corrupt because it’s a vicious cycle that never ends just like in case of Pakistan.
In order to create economic and social stability in the country, institutions need to be stabilized
first then proper law and order would be implemented in the country. There are many examples
where politics is overthrown by dictators, autocrats and social riots because in that cases,
politicians were weak and their policies are mostly affected by the strong parties which further
Mohsin Ali Khan Public Policy

creates economic instability. Secondly if politicians are strong then they can easily exploit the
market polices in their favor. Thirdly if the market and politics elite make policies in their favor
then severe income inequality in the society would take place resulting into expansion of unions.
Mostly the public, social and economic policies are very difficult to become coherent with each
other because all these sectors have different vested interests in the resources. Entrepreneurs
want to have policies in their courtesy so to earn extra income whereas public wants policies
related to social services like transport facilities, health facilities, education and communication
facilities. The last pillar that is politics or the government wants them both but due to scarce
resources it had to compromise on either market policies or social policies.
In Pakistan, income inequality is similar to any country on other part of subcontinent. This
problem arises due to the factors of interest groups mostly the unions working with the
government to protect their interests. Weak accountability system in the country, no rule of law
for the elite ones and on the other hand a weak and oppressed had been punished if tax has not
been paid. Corrupted institutions, expansion of mafias formally and informally, weak market
structure because of giants that are present already and ruled the market won’t allow the
completion.
From the previous three government in power, the data clearly illustrates that market forces and
politicians are working hand in hand to exploit the resources in their benefit. Today we had no
institution just mafias because in economics, market favor policies are been made but still our
imports are higher than over exports. Our politicians are so weak that the eligible tax hasn’t been
collected by the industrialists, landlords and giving them immunity to remain in power because
in future these interest groups would spend money on the election campaigns in order to bring
their favorite party in the ruling. This cycle carries forward and never ends making elites richer
and poor the poorer.
Good economics can’t bring good politics if market is not properly monitored and also good
politics cannot bring good economics because economy is dependent on many factors like
technical education, security, consistency, effective rule and law situation in the country etc. but
rather it’s the cooperation that brings the better of these two sector.