There are competing policy approaches to build national leadership in a digital future.
A recent article by Mark Jamison describes a choice American voters might make this November. He describes a Republican platform, embracing “the consumer-oriented and business-led economic policies that made the US the leading country for tech startups, AI research capacity, and creating world leading tech giants.” On the other side of the ballot, is the Democratic platform, with “a European-style government-built economy where government is the creator of jobs and director of business.”
Dr. Jamison is the director of the Public Utility Research Center at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business.
Dr. Jamison says the Democratic platform puts government as the central planner for evolution of the information technology sector. “In this paradigm, the government creates tech hubs, breaks up companies, and oversees what businesses do. The vision is clear: Government supervision and direction are necessary to distribute the benefits of technology and curtail large, successful businesses.”
He describes an alternate vision, with government simply setting out a legal framework for economic and technological development. He describes the Republican platform as emphasizing deregulation to spur innovation. “An underlying belief is that less government interference allows for greater technological advancements, led by customers and the private sector.”
Last week, I referred to the European Union’s newly released report, “The future of European competitiveness”. The report laments “there is no EU company with a market capitalisation over EUR 100 billion that has been set up from scratch in the last fifty years, while all six US companies with a valuation above EUR 1 trillion have been created in this period.”
The problem is not that Europe lacks ideas or ambition. We have many talented researchers and entrepreneurs filing patents. But innovation is blocked at the next stage: we are failing to translate innovation into commercialisation, and innovative companies that want to scale up in Europe are hindered at every stage by inconsistent and restrictive regulations.
There are competing visions for how governments should support the economic drivers for a digital future. Europe is being advised that past approaches favouring heavy regulatory intervention are counter-productive.
Dario Betti, CEO of the Mobile Ecosystem Forum, was quoted by Telecoms.com asking “should telecom services be treated as utility services like water, electricity, and gas, where government oversight limits prices but stifles innovation? Or should the industry operate as a free market, where businesses innovate, set prices, and consolidate freely?”
I question whether US voters will actually place an emphasis on economic platforms when voting for president. I think other fundamental questions are (or at least, should be) front of mind for voters. Perhaps pocketbook issues will play a bigger role as voters fill out other portions of their ballots, such as voting in congressional and senate races.
Based on what I hear in Parliamentary Committee meetings, it isn’t clear that one political party favours a materially different level of government intervention in the market. Once we get past the carbon tax rhyming rhetoric, I wonder if a change in government will simply replace the name of the Industry Minister with a thumb on the scale.
Will competing visions for a digital future emerge in the development of election platforms in Canada?