Column : The transformation challenge

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Column : We always overcome

: totally unprecedented number of small donations—a revolution in campaign finance—would only have been possible with the use of the internet. Organisation and social mobilisation provides a bridge between psychological motivation and effective action. Volunteers knocked on a million doors in Pennsylvania last weekend.

The anthropologist Arjun Appadurai developed the concept of the “capacity to aspire” on the basis of his interpretation of social mobilisation and action amongst the poor and social activists in Mumbai. The capacity to conceive of and navigate alternative futures was shaped by the cultural process of social engagement of poor slum-dwellers. In a different context and with different means, Obama’s presidential campaign has helped create, or re-awaken, the capacity to aspire of many Americans.

But will President Obama be effective in the management of change? After winning the Democratic party’s nomination, his team made an impressive shift from aspirational principle to increasingly specific policy proposal. There is demonstrated organisational capacity, resilience under pressure, and the broad movement. Both within the US and internationally, Obama’s empathetic and inclusive approach provides an invaluable point of departure for healing the wounds of a polarised world.

However, both within the US and in the world, the new president will face a host of vested interests and established, institutionalised structures of decision-making. Indeed, President Obama will face resistance from old ways of thinking within the Democratic Party, that now has a tighter control over the legislature, as well as the Presidency.

Decision-making will also be in the context of a tougher economic environment than the US has experienced for a very long time. While a short-run fiscal stimulus is desirable, fiscal consolidation will be required in the medium term. There is perhaps a silver lining from the financial and economic crisis: the hubris of under-regulated financial capitalism has gone, and there will be more willingness to explore new options. But when times are tough, established interests fight harder to protect themselves. One of the central questions in the domestic policy arena will be whether Obama’s highly inclusive, all-America approach can be translated into the need to confront both vested interests and established thinking.