1. The military balance is complex. There is not any other superpower, but the world’s Sheriff has to compete with new players: new nuclear countries, strong poverty, uncontrollable terrorists and a decay of the US miltary forces. Examples of complexity: “During his first six months, the U.S. has suffered more combat casualties than his five predecessors at the outset of their terms. The armed services also have grown considerably in cost, eating into the post-Cold War peace dividend.” “Peace and security depends not just on common defense but on the political and economic stability of individual countries. Conversely, abject poverty is a security challenge as well as a humanitarian one”.

2. Climate change is not a joke. “The concentration of greenhouse gases is creeping upward toward a level that scientists believe will cause the increase in the mean temperature of the planet to trigger a perfect storm of irreversible and catastrophic consequences unless somehow checked or countered”

3. The nightmare of the weak economy. “The fall-off in productive output, spending, and employment is the worst – by far – since the Depression. Most experts believe the unemployment rate will continue to rise for the rest 2009. Unlike previous recent downturns, virtually no region of the U.S. has avoided job losses. Nearly all American homeowners have experienced significant declines in the value of their homes. Public debt as a percentage of GDP has now exceeded even Reagan-era levels, thanks to recent years of high debt and the massive spending of the stimulus package”.

4. A honeymoon with voters, at the moment. “Confronted with such ironies, dilemmas, and stresses, how does the public feel its government is doing? Remarkably, so far, so good. Obama’s first six-month job approval numbers are impressive. But he should note that several of predecessors also got the benefit of the doubt—for a while”. “Obama’s ability to sustain that optimism and trust will depend on his ability to nudge the more objective indicators in the right direction”.

What do you think about that? I do not watch any positive scenario in the in the horizon. Optimism will be short.

A good example of the right way they are following is one their latest publication, Assertive Citizens: New Relationships in the Public Services In this report they explain that citizens are adopting in politics a similar behavior they have as consumers. They are active, they do not agree with any proposal from the public sector if they think the service is poor or does not fit their expectations. The consumer’s revolution has brought one of the main changes in our democracies. Citizens have waked up to asking for a good quality of products and services they demand and companies have been pushed to respond properly to the new rules of commerce.

Members of SMF believe that the new conduct is not valid only for economic matters, but also for politics. Voters want to participate in the way public services are delivered.

“Public service users are now more aware of their rights, expect a better service, and defer less to established sources of advice such as professional opinion. This creates profound challenges for the relationships between the users of services ? pupils, students, patients – and providers, such as doctors and teachers”.

The Social Market Foundation considers this movement is positive for the growth of democracy, although it increases the challenges for a good number of professionals, like teachers, doctors and other public servants. The new environment asks for a revision of relationships and implies to respect more the opinions of citizens. The think tank recommends to reinforce the work in several areas: 

• Better training for teachers on how to cope with assertive parents
• Teaching young people how to get the most out of public services as part of the citizenship curriculum.
• The establishment of a co-production fund to serve all public service institutions.
• The role of professionals must change.

The report helps us to discover another way to balancing the power in democratic societies. If politicians do not take into account the new political behavior of voters, they will have difficulties to win elections and, after that, to stay in Government.