Panel V: Experts
At the 2009 Central European Forum Václav Havel regretted that, following the Velvet Revolution, we had made the mistake of placing our trust in economists and ceded to them some of our intellectual and political responsibility. Three years later Europe has lost much of its global standing while the rationale behind austerity measures, demanded by experts, is being fiercely disputed by the public, stated German political scientist Ulrike Ackermann as she invited three leading European intellectuals, Lajos Bokros, Pascal Bruckner and Adam Michnik, to explore the power of experts in the world today.

Ulrike Ackermann. Photo: Peter Župník
Euro-MP and former Hungarian finance minister Lajos Bokros, who had pioneered austerity measures in 1995 with his famous “Bokros package”, argued that experts and politicians play an equally important role in democratic polity. “Problems arise when politicians see themselves as omnipotent and omniscient and push aside the experts, and vice versa.” There needs to be a balance because both extremes are dangerous: the example of Chile under General Pinochet shows that a country ruled by experts can succeed economically but will fail politically if it is a dictatorship, while in present-day Hungary, “part of the ruling elite believe themselves to be omnipotent and omniscient and feel they don’t need experts”. The current economic problems within the EU have not been caused by experts but by politicians who rushed into creating the common currency without harmonizing financial policies. The EU is a fundamental European project that ought to be cherished. “In spite of its many current problems there have been many achievements, including the unprecedented 60 years of peace; the single market and the Schengen zone, which everyone who remembers the border fences (e.g. in Devín near Bratislava) will appreciate.”

Lajos Bokros. Photo: Peter Župník
“One does not need to be an expert to see that Europe is in a mess,” said French philosopher Pascal Bruckner, convinced it was a big mistake to cede power to the experts and allow politicians to withdraw. “If we want to save market economy we have to control Wall Street and the City and must not let them control us.” He warned that the future would be bleak and asked: “Do we want to continue like this or do we want our children to live well? We should cancel the debt rather than slowly killing Greece.” 60 years of peace in Europe are not much to boast about, especially given that Europe did nothing about the war in Yugoslavia, noted Pascal Bruckner, describing the EU as a fairy tale: “We had expected prosperity out of nothing. Anyone who applied was admitted, provided they could prove a bit of little democracy – why not admit everyone, including Azerbaijan, Morocco or Brazil? We now discover there is no such thing as Europe; Brussels is just bureaucracy.” Europeans really did believe that victory over fascism and communism meant the end of history and that the rest of the world would follow us, yet in 2012 “the Third World countries are slowly emerging from misery and poverty while we are sinking in vanity.”

Pascal Bruckner. Photo: Peter Župník
Polish journalist Adam Michnik had supported the reforms introduced by Leszek Balcerowicz, feeling they were necessary at the time: “Poland was at rock bottom and needed a powerful kick start. If you’re crossing a river, you need to make a huge leap rather than small steps but that doesn’t mean that for twenty years you can move only by leaps.” Clearly there are situations when austerity is necessary and it is understandable that the much poorer Slovaks don’t feel like paying for high pensions in Greece. In spite of all the existing problems, Adam Michnik believes in the European project: “Yes, it is a fairy tale but a beautiful one, so why drop it? It is more likely that the UK will fall apart (if Scotland gains independence) than that the European Union falls apart.” In real politics there is no big difference between experts and politicians: “Was Goebbels a propaganda expert? Or Was Beria an expert in dictatorship?” Once an expert becomes a politician s/he has to be judged as a politician and if they don’t prove themselves they won’t be reelected.

Adam Michnik. Photo: Peter Župník