Lorenzetti painted it in the 14th century, intending it as a message to the Sienese on the importance to society of a stable and wise government. Some 700 years later, it still holds a critical lesson: even in our Internet-driven age of plenty, bad governance can wreck a country.
In fact, globalization acts like a magnifying glass that exposes the weak spots in a society. Economic competition between individuals and nations has never been so strong, and investors’ money has never been as elusive. That, in turn, means that a country that is governed badly will pay a higher price, and much faster, for its mistakes than in the past.
Nowhere is this message more important than in Europe, which is still reeling from the euro crisis. The European economy has been picking up, and many Europeans already believe that the worst is over.
But whoever thinks that this was the worst crisis the European project will ever encounter should think again. What Europe has gone through in recent years could be just the beginning of a long cycle of crisis. And unless it fixes its governance problems, it will do even worse in future crises. » | Clemens Wergin * | Monday, October 14, 2014
* Clemens Wergin, the foreign editor of the German newspaper group Die Welt and the author of the blog Flatworld, is a contributing opinion writer.
