Abstract
The aim of this paper is to review the rationale, nature and operation of independent fiscal councils (IFCs) in order to gain insights into how futures are being configured at executive levels of government and to examine how futures could be incorporated in policy making. The emphasis IFCs have placed on non-partisanship, transparency and forecasting is viewed as reflecting a particular understanding of the problem of public debt and a limited understanding of the future and policy making. Located within the context of increasing technocratic tendencies, it is argued that IFCs can be seen as part of efforts to secure the de-politicisation of policy making. Attempts to secure the de-politicisation of policy making may at best, be considered laudable, but naïve, and at worst, represents an ideological sleight of hand in attempts to colonise the future. Moving forward, it is argued that strategic foresight can make a vital contribution to an open form of policy making that deepens and extends an understanding of what the future could be - the necessary ficta of policy making.
Highlights
Questions over the form of knowledge and the role of analysis in relation to policy making are varied and contentious [1]
The aim of this paper is to review the rationale, form and function of independent fiscal councils (IFCs) in order to gain insights into how futures are and could be represented and realised in policy making
The aim of this paper has not been to evaluate the work of IFCs per se, but to consider the actual and potential role of futures in the interplay between the exertion of power and construction of meaning in long-term policy making [81]
Summary
Questions over the form of knowledge and the role of analysis in relation to policy making are varied and contentious [1]. The transparency that is hoped IFCs provide over the political cycle, would discourage any opportunistic pre-election tax give-aways or spending sprees, improving democratic accountability and realigning policy makers and the wider publics’ expectations as to what constitutes a sustainable fiscal policy [68] Implicit in this assessment is a recognition that the actions that will need to follow from an independent assessment will not necessarily be welcomed or prove popular with a wider public. The perceived independent status of the assessments produced by IFC is central
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