Policy makers and their advisors tend to use inappropriate static models of social change. These models include: the divine right of rulers, the responsibility of the chosen few to make decisions on behalf of the inept many, and belief in eternal principles of social interaction. The results of these static models of society include: fragmented and protectionist policies, rigid laws and traditions and injustice.
Large international corporations have created financial planning models with global perspective; but they largely exclude national corporations from the planning process, even though the national corporations are also dependent on the global situation. The needs of the consumer are seen only from the vantage point of the producers, which even further distorts meaningful planning.
Although there is accumulating evidence of environmental interdependence, the majority of people only give thought to their immediate environmental situation rather than directing energy to long-range, more inclusive, environmental planning. This concentration on individual circumstances avoids purposeful action on local and global environmental issues and leads to fears for the future as evidence on environmental issues grows.
2. In 1994 Russia was coming to the view that advice from western international organizations and visiting experts was founded on the illusion that a western model of market institutions could be replicated in post-communist Russia. Such advice had proved intellectually questionable in that even in the West it was challenged as sectarian and discredited, but also as being politically frivolous and highly dangerous in the Russian situation. The truth is that it is not possible to determine what mix of economic policies and institutions is most appropriate for the Russian people. But they will not be solved by the importation of bankrupt western models which, following the Cold War, may not themselves prove appropriate to the future of their own societies.