RESERVE BANK
KHAYA SITHOLE: What gets nationalised must stay viable
This theory has influenced generations of governments with socialist tendencies across the world
In the age of polarisation and populism, finding politicians who can remain true to their ideological leanings has become a rather elusive science. Of course, as human beings politicians are entitled to update their views due to changes in sociopolitical circumstances. The problem is that unlike the rest of us politicians translate their ideological views into official policy that has profound consequences for the rest of society. The Brexit brigade is one example of politicians who managed to get their ideology to translate into a referendum that has created unprecedented chaos in Britain. Conveniently, politicians who are not in government enjoy more latitude to champion ideas that are great in theory but hard to put in practice. Once such politicians have made their way to power on these "radical" views, reality intervenes and backtracking is inevitable. Vladimir Lenin is an example. As a hardcore communist, state control of the economy and everything else was central to his poli...
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