| The visitor from Mars: Mr. President, you look so worry.
What’s your problem?
The
President of Spartonia: I, like many other leaders, have been increasingly challenged. The
good old days when I enjoyed monopolizing of power had long gone. Everywhere there are
demands for a great variety of my actions reaching deeply into society and extending over
all aspects. People become more skillful,critical and independent. Moreover, many problems
are so complicated and beyond my ability to deal with.
The visitor
from Mars: What a tragedy of the power holders you have! Well, what is the root of such
changes?
The
conversation above illustrated the political context in the contemporary world. It implied
a great change in power relationships: the authority based on the nation-state system are
confronting with various challenges. This essay is, therefore,aimed at examining such
“authority crisis” which is closely associated with the the interaction among power,
information(technology) ,and knowledge. The second point is the possible adjustment from
the political side in respond to the shift in structure and individual level ,and more
importantly, to make the transformation into the knowledge-based society possible.
The causes of
authority crisis involves many factors, but the two most striking factors to be addressed
here are the shift in individual’s skills and orientations, and the transformation in
macro or global level. Let me start with the first factor.
Once the age of
information technology revolution set off, individuals, though not all, have gained more
developed analytical skills. Given the abundance of information, but limited time, the
ability to filter, and determine the relationships of information becomes more crucial.
Furthermore, according to Rosenua, individuals’ orientations are moving away from
unthinking to the performance criteria of legitimacy, away from loyalties focused on
nation states toward various collective groups. This is largely because now information,
both in terms of quality and quantity, is no longer controlled by the authority.
Therefore, the more individuals, even a passive participant, become more informed about
the ineffectiveness of their leaders ,the more they are likely to direct their loyalties
to other alternative groups regardless of geographical commonness. Such change in criteria
of identity has been accelerated by national government’s inability to meet more
diversified demands of citizens.
The pressure
placed on the authority also comes from changes in global context. The process of
globalization formed the complex interdependent world in which actors, communities and
issues are highly interwoven. The effect is, for example, a single government, even though
a super power, found the difficulties in tackling cross-boundary issues such as currency
crisis, natural disaster, the flaw of labor forces, and terrorist attacks. Hence, it is
doubtless why people are even more skeptical about the legitimacy of the existing
authority and system.
The other turning
point that plays an important role in changing power relationships is the end of Cold War.
Firstly, today the concepts of power has to be redefined in broader aspects. Secondly,
this historic event caused the loss of ideological instrument that the authority used to
attract people’s loyalty. What lies ahead a new world order dominated by the liberal
democratic regime is to justify its claim as being the regime for individual’s freedom,
wealth and peace by concrete outcome. These two issues will be linked with my second point
as I believe that the context of the next millenium will largely remain similar to that of
this decade.
In Political
Science,power can be distinguished into soft power and hard power. The first one rests on
intangible sources, especially credibility. The latter comes from uses of tangible sources
such as economic and military carrot and stick. The information technology revolution
contributes to the overemphasis on “information is power” which,in turn, often
resulted in utilizing information just for power politics such as propaganda. However, to
respond to the shift in individuals’ skills and orientations, credibility has to follow
by the concrete action; otherwise credibility will rapidly erode. This is to say
effectiveness becomes a crucial element of power when knowledge is power.
After examining
difficulties the authorities are facing, it is worth looking further for the possible
solutions that I think can not only overcome the authority cirisis,but also allow leaders
to take a leading role in preparing basic conditions for the knowledge society. One thing
to be reminded is that without political adjustment, the continued effort of business
sector to adapt to new global economy would be retarded because political and economic
communities are integral parts of each other in such a complex intedependent world.
Concerning an effective authority, there is every likelihood that it can be compared to
and applied from the modern management strategies of businesses. This is partly because
both government and private sector has undergone dramatic changes and under present
circumstances their complementary relationships is so vital.
Structurally,
while firms are reorganized based on horizontal network to allow for better mobilization
and utilization of resources and for greater incentives and workers’ responsibility,
government’s organization has to be reformed in the same pattern. The model of vertical
hierarchy becomes too rigid to meet individual’s diversified demands. The tendency
toward decentralization supports such idea. This also implied the importance of balancing
between individualism and collectivism in the way that both political leaders and firm’s
executives must mobilize and enhance individual’s freedom while remaining sense of
belonging to communities/organizations which is not an easy task.
In highly
competitive environment, both competitiveness of firm and comparative advantage of nation
rest on human resources as the determinant factor of the ability to maximize benefits from
technological change. Here, I would focus on the role of government in education reform
which should be in accordance with the increasingly individualized demand of students and
businesses’ demand. Education programs ,for example,should encourage individuals to keep
learning and allow them to tailor their studies to their specific corporate or career
needs. Equally important, education system has to be relevant to the need for
entreneurialships which I think is not only crucial for businesses to be able to compete
globally, but is also applicable to the need for leaderships or statemanships in the age
of knowledge.
Comparing to what
challenges managers in contemporary global economy; the need for modern knowledge
management, changing corporate culture, the shift in production , modern political leaders
are also facing vigorous changes in similar direction,but in a larger scope. One of the
outstanding characteristics of enterpreneurs is the understanding how their business is
situated in global economy. Similarly, political leaders now need to know their
country’s situation in global political economy. As different position posses different
component of stick and carrot, as well as cost and benefit, knowing own position is so
vital for both economic and political advantage. Domestically, such skill would allow for
more effective response to demands of individuals and business groups. Globally, this
would enable leaders to play constructive role in promoting and protecting businesses
under their authority. More importantly, there is always a chance that they can take
initiative role in a system. The case of Japan’s triple alliance consisting of political
leaders, bureaucrats and businesses is well assured the importance of state’s role in
economic arena. Furthermore, in dynamic changes, executives in both sectors are required
to be creative, and flexible- always prepare to refresh skills and knowledge throughout
working lives with endless enthusiasm to translate up-to date knowledge into new
innovation.
However, as
knowledge is not merely a factor for economic and political potential, knowledge as social
potential is a fundamental condition for the knowledge society as well. This implied that
power has to be considered in sociological aspect . One lesson can be drawn from the
existing problems in this transitional period is that the pace of globalization and
technology technology revolution have asymmetrical effect both globally and domestically.
Therefore, it is the confederations of states to concentrate more on equality in
accessing,allocating of resources,including sources of knowledge since ,for me, what
distinguish the development of the age of information and the age of knowledge rests on
equally better standard of livings both physically and spiritually for humans.
The uniqueness of
the era of information technology revolution is that we are fighting with
intellectual/spiritual obstacles, rather than with physical obstacles as our ancestors
did. The transition from the age of industry to the age of information technology, with
the age of knowledge as the ultimate goal, has been constrained by the inability to adjust
roles and structure of the existing political authority in respond to the shift in
individuals’ ways of thinking. Nevertheless, there are opportunities for the authority
to adjust to the new context in order to maximize benefit of society as the ultimate end
of power. This essay has pointed a necessity to reconsider the concept of power in
multidimensional perspective along with the strategies for functional and structural
adjustment of the authority; otherwise, the world in the next millenium will not make
different for our conditions of living together. It is for all of us to realize that as
long as the information technology is still regarded as an instrument of power
politics,not for the development of human’s intellectual, this and next era will not
only be a tragedy of the authority, but it will be a big obstacle for the development of
the global society as a whole.
Reference
Castell, Manuel. The Rise of
Network Society.
Harper,Timothy. “School Adapt
Programs to Executive Schedules.” International Herald Tribune
16 November
1998:12
Keohane,Robert
o.and Nye, Joseph S. “Power and Interdependence in the Information
Age.” Foreign
Affairs 77 (1998).
Rosenau, James N. Turbulence
in World Politics: A Theory of Change and Continuity .New Jersey:Princeton University
Press,1990
Smith,Pamela A. “New Courses
For A New Competitive Environment.” International; .
Herald Tribune
16 November 1998:12
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