Pouliot on Royal’s discrimination positive and referendums
“Ségolène Royal, the current front-runner for presidential nominee for France’s Parti Socialiste has said that she would put the issue of discrimination positive to a referendum”.Positive discrimination –or affirmative action- is a policy tool intended to “correct” an inequality of the chances among a given population.
Positive discrimination is often used to provide equalized chances to “under-represented” groups, i.e. to members of a minority. They will be those who come from poorer neighborhoods and have scarcer opportunities to get good education, health care, and work good jobs.
There is much debate about the legitimacy of such a measure; I will not take part in that argument but will develop on the political coherence of putting it to a referendum.
That said, if the social tool is meant to buttress the opportunities of one or more minority groups, it is highly paradoxical, considering the actual nature of our democracies, to put it to a referendum. Indeed, one has to grasp the difference between a Millian elector and what we shall call a Smithian elector. John Stewart Mill believed that people would progress to become such empathetic individuals that they would confound the general interest of the people with their own. Adam Smith, holding a different point of view, argued that the economy would reach proper equilibrium if everyone endeavored to fulfill his or her own desires. It is of course assumed that a Smithian individual would approach elections as he approaches the market.
A Millian elector would certainly see that aggregate utility would be enhanced by a pertinent and well-achieved positive discrimination for it gives more to the minority in question than it takes away from the majority. Plus it bolsters the equality of the country as a whole. To a Smithian elector asked if he is willing to allow a handicap to someone potentially competing with him for a job, the answer is all too obvious.
As the existence of growing individualism in modern Occident needs not to be argued, it seems clear to me that the Smithian elector has not yet progressed to become a Millian one. Therefore, my prediction is that a positive discrimination project to be put through a referendum is stillborn. It is even more so considering that the French Muslim minority does not vote in high proportion because of its low confidence in representative institutions.
Hence, I accuse Ségolène Royal of hypocrisy. As everyone in this race to presidency, she is trying to court Le Pen’s supporters –the radical nationalists- and France’s social liberals at the same time. The paradox has to be pointed as it still is nothing but words for it is impracticable. It’s promoter, once at l’Élysée, would thus only make the decline of France even more abrupt.
posted by blogger @ 2:13 PM
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