The London Times, in an April 12 article, reported that atop Tariq Aziz’s desk in his palatial Baghdad home was a copy of Power Plays: Shakespeare’s Lessons in Leadership and Management, which I wrote with Tina Packer. Power Plays chronicles almost every mistake in governance that a leader can make. Why would Tariq Aziz be interested in a book on governance?
Other artifacts indicate Aziz was an eclectic reader in economics, political science and the social sciences. Even though he was complicitous in Saddam’s cruel regime, he might have seen the handwriting on the wall: repressive, totalitarian regimes ultimately fall. Perhaps Aziz was anticipating the fall or, even more intriguing, planning its overthrow.
Iraq was ready for revolution, whether engineered from within or without. No wonder! Even if non-Baathist Iraqis escaped prison, torture or execution, their existence was generally miserable. Prewar unemployment has been estimated at 40 to 50 percent. Iraqi GDP per capita was $1,078; much was from oil and did not trickle down to the average Joe. Comparable numbers for Turkey are 10.8 percent and $2,782, and, for Jordan, approximately 14 percent and $1,786.
Yet, in the three traditional factors of production — land, labor and capital — Iraq is as rich or richer than most of its neighbors. The fabled land between the Tigris and Euphrates is not all desert. Under the surface is the second-largest oil reserve in the region. Iraq has a well-educated labor resource. Properly exploited and managed, its oil reserves would make Iraq the envy of every country in the Middle East. What’s missing?
Jean-Baptiste Say, the 18th-century French economist, suggested that entrepreneurship could be the fourth factor of production. Nathan Rosenberg of Stanford University suggested in How the West Grew Rich (Basic Books, 1987) that innovation is an important factor of production. Implicit in both Say’s and Rosenberg’s works is the concept of governance. In my view, governance is so important that it deserves its own number: let’s call it the sixth factor of production. I believe that governance is the best descriptor of the differences in economic, social and political health among nations.
Around the world, people have asked me to discuss our country’s success factors. I point to the Founding Fathers, whose constitution spoke forcefully to economic and social as well as political issues. Their insistence on individual freedom — protected by the rule of law, property rights, respect for contracts, the separation of powers, rules of succession and rules of just conduct (the Bill of Rights) — contributed mightily to our prosperity.
Tariq Aziz, in your present detention, perhaps you should embrace Ralph Waldo Emerson’s maxim on learning from great works: “In every work of genius, we recognize our own rejected thoughts. They come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.” If you had acted on the governance insights found in your library, you might have been one of the Middle East’s heroes rather than one of its principal villains.
John O. Whitney, professor of management and a two-time recipient of the Singhvi Prize for Scholarship in the Classroom, received the Dean’s Award for Innovation in the Curriculum this May. Having taught at the School for 17 years and created several courses that endure as some of the School’s most highly sought electives — Turnaround Management (see page 14), Shakespeare’s Lessons in Leadership and Managing in a Market Economy — Whitney will retire in August.
