From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

FROM POVERTY TO POWERWithin families, communities, and nations at large, people inpositions of power are usually better resourced, connected, organised,and skilled in pursuing their interests, and can use that power tomaintain privileges and exclude others from the charmed circle.Economic power and political power are always interwoven. Elites inall countries have historically gone to extreme, often bloody, lengths tomaintain and even increase their dominance. That structures andpractices on issues such as the lack of transparency or accountabilityreinforce these inequities is no accident: efforts to reform them meetdogged, sometimes violent, resistance. Redistributing economic andpolitical power more fairly is often the first step towards disruptingthis self-perpetuating cycle of inequality.The founder of the British National Health Service, the Welsh radicalAneurin Bevan, believed that ‘the purpose of getting power is to give itaway’, and indeed those in power may opt to share it, for a combinationof altruistic and selfish reasons. In the end, though, harnessing powerfor development depends not on the virtues or calculations ofindividual leaders, but on a combination of public watchfulness andinstitutional checks and balances, such as the division of powers, ruleof law, and an independent media – all based on the guarantee ofrights.Asserting rights can be slow, legal, and peaceful, but often itinvolves moments of confrontation and struggle, when the powerfulresist, often with force, and the newly empowered refuse to backdown. In some of the epic struggles for justice in recent times, such asthe fight against apartheid in South Africa, violent confrontationlasted for decades and became a crucible in which a new collectivenational identity was forged. Even when such dramatic events are over,the struggle and negotiation for the fulfilment of rights continues.30