Loser and Winner in the game of change

Shahab Sabahi
Energy and Environment for Development – Policy Analysis Research Group

One of the recent discussions in the Strategic Planning Society brought forward the old dilemma of the change process and tries to address it however, in my view, in idealistic ways.

The discussion recognizes creation of loser and winner as the trouble of change. And it builds its premises based on this belief. I critique the discussion’s certainty and its proposition and argue that the marginal groups are driving forces of change and crucial to change’s success. The trouble appears when marginal groups become larger and more divided which is so-called polarization.         

Company boards, directors, legislators are presumed to be sane. It requires them to hurt no one when carrying out their responsibility which is to assure their systems steadily progress. Under the strain of change, they should respond, restructure, reallocate the scarce resources, and impose new regulations, to create fresh system resilience. By nature these processes rearrange resources and shatter the previous merit system. These processes create marginal forces (let’s call them winner and loser). The marginal forces are critical in the process of change. Both marginal forces, upper and lower average would be supporting the change, if they remain marginal. The problem appears when a system was polarized at the first place.

After the demise of communist and followed strong conductivity in the world, a polar-free world would be expected. Contrary, all systems are now thoroughly polarized and the question is WHY? (Foreign Affair Jan Feb 2012)

Polarization creates the sense of winner and loser in systems, and it should be addressed   

 In the context when change is inevitable, scarce resources, priority setting comes first. (the dilemma of judgment). What guides one’s decision making process is the principle of economic efficiency and cost-benefit analysis. Efficiency does not speak about distribution. However welfare economic theory posits grounds for working out distribution issue. In the case of change, in the race between efficiency and redistribution efficiency must triumph. In fact winners do not outnumber losers but they organized efficiently and share strong and clear interests along with compromise wherever it is needed (Mancur Oslon)