The politics of thinking there are simple solutions to complex problems

What it means when outrage dominates public debate

A defining myth of rightwing populism is that some hero-like figure can come along and “cut through the bullshit” and, with an arctic blast of “common sense” accompanied by a “three-word slogan”, rid us of all the “roadblocks” and “red tape” and “regulation” that are, allegedly, the only things getting in the way of what would otherwise be the smooth operation of all the systems of governance.

The political class in general—and I include the media in that—is full of people who pretend you can impose simplicity on complex systems and what I want to talk about here is how that pretence is the source of much that can go wrong with our democracies.

The likes of Donald Trump embody this approach and it is unsurprising that his former adviser, Steve Bannon, announced early after Trump’s 2016 victory that a key aim of the administration would be “the deconstruction of the administrative state.”

Simples!¹

A lot of business thinking is underpinned by the same fairytale of simplicity and it has fou…