Political Action Committee or Crowdsourcing think tank?

Over the last few days we have discussed on the Maha Economics and Junta Policy group two differing opinions of what we would like to achieve with the group. One alternative we have discussed is a Political Action Committee through which we would use our collective network/abilities to raise money, and fund candidate(s) or parties in campaigns in order to promote good political practices. The other option we have discussed is to be a Think Tank that researches important policy topics, by using a wikipedia-like crowd-sourcing approach. Our discussions on Facebook have been somewhat limiting given Facebook's unfriendly format for longish discussions. Therefore, I am capturing here our conversation on this blog post so we could use this blog as a basis for taking the group to where we collectively decide.

Political Action Committee: the Big Picture
We define a political action committee as an entity that raises money to finance specific political causes or candidates - without regard for political affiliation. There could be numerous examples of the political causes/candidates we fund. We could fund an initiative to hold a US presidential debate-style debate between two leading Prime Ministerial candidates or Chief Ministerial candidates. Or we could fund an initiative to raise campaign financing for a candidate who we think is very, very good. Or we could fund an initiative for a politician - say an initiative in which we (in part) pay the salary of a world class economist to advise Nitish Kumar on creating a vision for Kick-starting private investment in Bihar.

Among all these examples, the one that excites me most is the campaign funding objective. There are a number of reasons for this. First, playing a crucial role in helping even one or two good candidates get elected has tremendous ripple effects in terms of paving the way for better people to join the system. While discussing this with Suku one day, he mentioned this might be a great way to help elect one of us - in case we find that the guy/girl has a compelling agenda and intent.

Second, I believe that campaign financing is the root cause of a large amount of corruption in India - in this I have been influenced by my friend who writes a blog under the name Muddled Thoughts Confused Mind. Read his blog "How the PM, and the BJP and Congress Presidents force us to bribe the police " here. Therefore, if we could fully finance the campaign of even one deserving person, imagine the dent we would cause.

Finally, I believe that there could be all sorts of ripple effects of such an initiative. It could get media attention, and over time politicians that actually might want to engage the people on development might want to get an endorsement from such an initiative.

As Lingo pointed out in a prior post on the group, we could think and think all we can - but nothing feels as good as action. And this is as close as we could get to action, without contesting elections ourselves.

The effect of one-off donations are small. But the effect of organized donations could be substantial.

Political Action Committee: How to kick-off
RAP had suggested in a post that with 20 members, each contributing about $50, we could raise about Rs. 50,000. Lingo then pointed out that we could leverage the Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 5 lakhs (or perhaps more) by doing fund-raisers. Lingo's idea was directionally quite compelling. In fact, the fund raiser could even be on the internet? No? Let me make a conjecture - based on our personal contacts we could coax at least 5 other people to donate $50. If so, we are already leveraging the $50 6x if not the 10x that Lingo suggested.

One or two people among us would of course have to take the lead in finding out worthy political causes that we could support.

Political Action Committee: Challenges There are a number of challenges with using this group to do a Political Action Committee. The most striking one (although not the most important), is that this group is called "Maha Economics and Junta Policy" and not "Political Action Committee" or some name like that.

Second, it will take a significant amount of effort. One of us has to be the treasure; 2-3 people need to help find worthy causes - or at least put in place a process/ structure for finding such causes; some one has to take charge of organizing fundraisers; we need to interview candidates etc. etc.

Finally, there is the point that some of us view political donations as personal and are not entirely sure that we would like our personal political affiliations to be exposed through a political action committee (PAC). The example used here is inspired by the US where political action committees favouring one side of an ideological divide (e.g. on immigration) would predominantly support one party while those favouring the other side would support the other party. Thus, for instance a PAC supporting easing immigrations would support Democrats while those opposing it would favour the Republicans.

However, I personally feel that the US example does not apply well in our case. The Key reason for this is that our goal is to support good candidates - which is an objective that could apply to any and all parties. Moreover, our political leanings do not become transparent through this initiative - because we are donating to a group that would have a set mission which is not an ideological aligned to any political party.

Crowdsourced Think Tank - the big pictureIn a sense the crowd-sourced think tank model is something we are already operating. RAP's posts on corruption vs. per capita income, or Lingo's point of views on microfinance are examples. That said, it is somewhat more an unstructured effort. A more organized way of doing this is to create a wikipedia-like interface.

Crowdsourced Think Tank - how to implementThe idea is that one or two of us would take the lead on ensuring that we put some content, provide a basic structure or hypothesis of arguments, while the others contribute and make the viewpoints more nuanced, detailed, and robust. Thus for instance

Crowdsourced Think Tank - Challenges The main challenges that RAP, Lingo etc. have pointed out in this approach, have to do with impact, and our ability to drive original thinking or policy analyses that are truly compelling. We may also face a problem with sustaining momentum.

Crowdsourced Think Tank versus Political Action Committee
Other than the challenges that have already been laid out the think tank is easier but has the risk of fizzling out sooner. The Political Action Committee is more audacious, perhaps even controversial, will take significantly more effort, but if we do manage to do something it could evolve into something interesting.

THERE ARE A NUMBER OF NEW MEMBERS IN THE GROUP. WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO WITH THIS GROUP WITH REGARD TO THE TWO OPTIONS LAID OUT?

The Holiness of Vande Mataram

My wife thinks I am an over-confident and brash busybody. Perhaps I need to try to change the way I come across. That, however, is not what this blog is about. But it is related.

Assuming that I am opinionated about everything under the sun, she asks me what I think of the Deoband Muslim seminary meet that asks Muslims to stop singing Vande Mataram because it is anti-Islamic. The context of course, is that she thinks that I am unpatriotic and do not love my country. The evidence she cites to support her theory, is my opinion that our country has failed both naxalite-supportive communities and Muslims.

Therefore she is surprised when I say that I have not thought about the issue deeply enough.But as soon as I say that I have not thought about this issue, the gears of my mind begin to turn inadvertently. I begin to think aloud - my wife providing bored audience. Here goes my boring case.

In examining this case, we need to sepeate the idea of the National Song from the National Song itself and try to understand what is it that the Seminary opposed. Secondly, we also need to examine whether the form of protest that the Seminary adopted was appropriate.

The Importance of being Ordinary

It begins at infancy - the great Indian quest for becoming a Sahib. Happened with me too.

बेटा IIT वगैरह सब अपने जगह पर हैं. IAS का पॉवर ही कुच्छ और है. IAS बनो तुम। (Son, IIT is good but not great. The power enjoyed by IAS officers is in a different league. Be an IAS officer.)

You grow up seeing Sahibism prevalent everywhere. The classmate who smokes at the age of 12 is expelled but the expulsion is rescinded because his mother is the local MLA; indentities are pulled out at the drop of a pin - "you don't know me. I am the son of XYZ, or I am the Chief Inspector at CBI, or I am the friend of local Head Constable". All euphemisms for, "my lot is better than yours, I am superior. Therefore, I derive preference over you - whether it is to skip the queue at the doctor's clinic at the local hospital, or to get my son admission into the presstigious public school, or to be ahead of you in the VIP queue at Tirupati".

Is this my India? The challenges in fulfilling citizenship duties...

The workings of our governing institutions seem to want to divorce us for from our ownership of our country. Why is it okay in a democracy to be told "this is not your business"? Is this the country that Gandhi, Nehru or Ambedkar envisioned? Is it even the India that we deserve? Can we change this? How?

August - perhaps late August. Exhausted from a series of meetings, I am relaxing at a Coffee Day adjacent one of the gleaming new business towers in Jasola just behind Apollo Indraprashta, New Delhi. I step outside the coffee shop to go to a toilet that is located in the business tower. The guard salaams me as I enter the business tower, just as I notice a man with a naked gun and a belt displaying an array of bullets entering the Coffee Day shop.