All Roads Lead To Prosperity

The way of country’s development is often considered as one size fit all. America-led market liberalization and democratization idea overwhelms all over the world. The governments – especially in crisis – are pushed to embrace the liberal idea either voluntarily or forcedly. Indonesians experienced this dilemma back to 1998. However, seeing what has happened in China and Germany, that long-standing tenet of liberalism or democracy should have been revised.

China is not democratic country. It clearly deprived its citizens of democracy and freedom of speech. Even it ridiculously bans Facebook and Twitter. It also insists to maintain socialism, but socialism with Chinese characteristic. It also upholds irrelevant Communist Party that turns out to give an impressive result. The stability-create-prosperity idea proves right.

Tellingly, the Chinese pave the new way of modern government. Chinese reveals multi-party system is not the only option. The single party system can deliver the same outcome. In China, the Communist Party in power doesn’t mean that other best minds aren’t accommodated. Two of Chinese ministers are not the party members. The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference transforms to be a big think thank covering the China’s best minds and all stakeholders. It implicates that all policies comes from people rather than from an arrogant power.

China has challenged the democracy idea as the best system with compelling result. China begins to outperform America. The best account why the China’s system works is that meritocracy prevails. Let the best manage the rest. The leadership is always reinvigorated by regular succession. In short the scorching political clout is not the sake of power, but to do good for all people.

The other success story is Germany – the steadfast welfare state – where the free market idea is ousted. Americans frequently look down this communist-like system regarded as inefficient, unproductive and out-of-date system.

To exemplify, the German’s powerful worker unions don’t allow lay-offs which is impossible task during economic crisis. Theoretically, every company can hire or fire the workers in flexible way so as to keep the business responsive to the market. The flexibility makes the enterprises easily to be restructured and compete with new innovations. However, given such conditions, German’s companies are neither uncompetitive nor unproductive. Even they can survive in economic crises.

The recipe is likely that German enterprises didn’t have an America’s habit of outsourcing. They still produce machineries or simple tools which now associated with Chinese expertise. Certainly German’s products can’t be cheaper than China. Relying on their superior technology, they compete in quality rather than price. Now some pundits name German as China of Europe.

German’s economic system might be obsolete and travel the different path with other developed countries, but it really works.

Both paragons of China and German confirm that there is no single way of development. The long-standing democracy-lead-prosperity faith now can be juxtaposed with meritocracy-lead-prosperity faith. The free market does seek efficiency and outsourcing is a way of it, but Germans show that outsourcing is irrelevant when quality in charge.

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