Know who Ramón Socias is? Thought not. He is in fact the delegate from Madrid for the Balearics, a sort of political director of football reporting to the board while the manager, Francesc Antich, loses or keeps the dressing-room of the populace. The Constitution Day revelries were an opportunity for him to pronounce and, as reported by "The Diario", he did just this when turning his attention to the three "C's" - of constitution, crisis and corruption. The second of these was economic; it could as easily have been the third, and one could toss in the first in crisis as well, given the existence of the third.
It may not have been Burke or Locke, but Sr. Socias philosophised on the nature of politics, or the nature of politicians to be more precise. They should not see politics as something to depend upon or to see it as a means of a salary or privileges that cannot be obtained in other ways. They should be politicians for a "determined period" as a way of curbing corrupt practices. And in the Balearics, he says, there has been a failure of control mechanisms that has led to corruption, itself a fault of the system.
In a way, it is loaded stuff. I'm not sure that finite terms of office are in themselves a means of preventing corruption, but if one accepts the maxim of "all power corrupts", then it is probably true that there is a temptation to greater corruption the longer a politician is in situ. To act corruptly, however, requires a willingness to do so and a system that allows it. Sr. Socias is not wrong when he refers to a failure of control, though one might suggest that it is an absence of control. To admit, though, that the system is at fault is a pretty damning observation as it brings into question the whole edifice of local democracy here. It was revealing that he explicitly said that the problems of corruption in Mallorca (and the Balearics) were not those of the political parties; it chimed with what I said the other day about Franco and his desire to dismantle the party system. Yet, the parties are a part of the system, and the system is one of layers of government and duplication and of networks, families, nepotism and favours with a specifically Mediterranean flavour. I don't believe that people necessarily seek office in order to act corruptly, but the dynamics of the system are such that it can be all too easy to do so.
Taking democracy to as local a level as possible is a laudable political model, but one has to ask as to the wisdom of there being so much of it. In Mallorca, there is the autonomous regional (Balearic) government, the Council of Mallorca, and then the town halls, some 50 or so of them, each with mayors and various councillors heading departments which, in the main, replicate those of the institutions higher up the political food chain; mayors and town halls for an average, approximately, of every 17,000 of the population. I am unclear as to the necessity for the Mallorca Council, or why the town halls all need councillors for the various departments they have, or how it can be expected that truly competent officials can be available when there are so many municipal administrations - the talent, what there is, is spread thin and one is left with the impression of so many jobs for the boys (and sometimes girls). The more there is of all of it, the greater the potential for power corrupting, especially if there are inadequate controls.
I once compared local politics here to the collegiate JCR (junior common room) system of my old university. That was playing at politics, mimicking much that existed in a more meaningful fashion elsewhere and leaving only the bread and circuses of free beer and dance nights as a genuine "local" contribution. Looking after the towns' own bread and circuses - the fiestas - is fine, but land policy often is the subject of questionable procedures and should be subject to external scrutiny or decision, and why exactly is there a need for councillors to oversee things like the environment? In Alcúdia, you may recall, I was surprised to learn, when asking about the canals, that they are the responsibility of a central ministry, not of the town hall. As with other things, the "carreteras" (highways) for instance, there is a central body. In Pollensa, they have contracted an outside firm to establish the budget. It is good in one way as it may give rise to better management, but it does make one query the need for and competence of certain officials. And then there is the electoral system, the one that can lead, so I am told, to Joan Cerdà gaining but 13% of the vote only to find himself, to his surprise, as mayor of Pollensa. There are those who might doubt his ability, but I have sympathy for him as he is a part of a system that intrinsically can enable the Peter Principle of competence to apply - if indeed this is true of him.
For all that Sr. Socias may have touched a raw nerve, to imply that local politicians should treat their posts purely as those of some short-term civic honour is to ignore the political impulse, that of which he himself is a part*, i.e. to seek and gain office and then to continue to wish to do so. As for salary, well of course officials should be paid. The question is whether they are good enough to warrant their salary and whether they were the right people to be nominated in the first place. If the system allows for the next person off the rank, for horse-trading or for the only available person to fill, for instance, the mayoral office, then there is clearly a system fault. If Sr. Socias is serious, he should propose a root-and-branch examination of Mallorcan public office. He talks of cleaning up local politics, and one hopes that the recent scandals may bring home to those in office the need to act in ways other than for their "own benefit", as he puts it. But if the system isn't working, can we be sure that it will?
The danger is, though, that too much is made of the recent spate of corruption cases. In doing so, the good guys can be branded along with the villains. The reference to political parties by Sr. Socias may have also been diplomatic (he is socialist), as he didn't wish to single out the Partido Popular and the fact that so much of this spate relates to the period of its last administration. In which case, it is something for that party to sort out. But that still leaves the system.
* For the record, Sr. Socias is in his second four-year term as Balearics delegate. He was previously the senator for Mallorca (for eight years), mayor for Sóller,and a co-ordinator with Palma council.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "Don't Dream It's Over", Crowded House (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZZfuCJ970w). Today's title - album by? A band that has previously appeared here - American and satirical.
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