System failure and despair
All systems are prone to fail at some point. In politics, it’s the response to failure that matters. A lack of response generates a sense of exclusion, cynicism, and, for some, the search for more radical alternatives. These are outcomes that can carry a heavy cost for democracy. After a crisis, political leaders are likely to say that action must be taken to ensure that a particular failure will never happen again. But tomorrow there will be new, probably different, failures and we look afresh at our systems.
Surely some systems fare better than others. Many Greeks lament domestic failings and claim that such a failure would never happen abroad: in Britain, for example. Variously, they might cite the tragedy of the rail crash at Tempe, following the failure to invest and manage the system upgrade. Or the failure to hold anyone to account for the awful loss of life when the Adriana sank, full of refugees. Or the spyware scandal in which prominent figures across politics and society had their phones tapped, leading to an investigation that many in the opposition found fundamentally flawed. The common theme is of a system of impunity – those responsible getting away scot-free.
We might note, however, that for each of these failings parallels can be found elsewhere, including in Britain. Separately, I was prompted this week to think anew about “system performance” by events in Britain. A report following a public inquiry found that between the 1970s and the 1990s, some 30,000 people were given contaminated blood in NHS hospitals and, at the latest count, some 3,000 of them have died as a result. The report concluded that most of these deaths were avoidable, they were not an “accident,” but the result of a “cover-up”: Ministers and clinicians were told of the risks to patients, but they ignored them and then lied and acted to conceal their actions. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the report was a “day of shame” for the state in Britain and is offering compensation to the victims that may total €12 billion.
You might read this and admire the way the British system is correcting its failings. Yet, the picture is not so straightforward. Successive governments – of different political parties – refused to instigate a public inquiry until 2018 – despite the problems being evident more than a decade earlier. A year ago, the same public inquiry called for compensation to be paid to the victims, but the government did nothing.
Other scandals offer warnings. In 1989, almost 100 Liverpool supporters died at a football match in Sheffield, crushed to death as a result of the police opening a gate. The police later knowingly issued false reports of what had happened. Court cases and several inquiries were set up. The Liverpool fans were exonerated. Yet, no one has been found guilty of causing the tragedy.
Mitsotakis put the wrong guy in charge of the Greek intelligence services, and the UK chose the wrong boss to lead the Post Office
In 2017, more than 70 people died when a fire broke out in a block of apartments – Grenfell Tower in London. A public inquiry followed. But to date many remain without a proper home, and criminal prosecutions will not be considered until 2026 at the earliest.
More recently, a TV drama highlighted a scandal with the British Post Office. Local post offices had been required to use a new IT system. It was falsely claimed to be infallible and so, when money seemed to go missing in local offices, local managers were charged and convicted of theft. An ongoing public inquiry is finding that the national Post Office lied and concealed evidence: They knew the IT system was insecure and the evidence of crimes was unreliable. But they kept innocent workers in jail, causing much suffering and some to commit suicide from the shame.
What are the lessons here? The picture is very complex. Yes, human failings contributed to the disasters: deceit, as well as mistakes. Poor choices were made: Mitsotakis put the wrong guy in charge of the Greek intelligence services, and the UK chose the wrong boss to lead the Post Office.
But these stories surely go deeper. None of these scandals occurred simply because of one or even several individuals. Patterns of behavior and weak processes were tolerated. Then worse, the systems of accountability failed. What is worse, a parliamentary investigation that is seen as biased (Greece) or a judge-led public inquiry (UK) that is ignored? Neither delivers justice.
Populists attack our systems for ignoring the “people.” Perhaps our systems are giving them too much ammunition. We need to re-examine our structures of “checks and balances.” And we need to look again at the underlying principles of public service: duty, trust and independence. Such self-reflection will be painful, but it’s surely overdue.
Professor Kevin Featherstone is director of the Hellenic Observatory at the London School of Economics.
