An examination of independent fiscal councils and their orientation to the future and policy making

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 depoliticisation 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.

Futures Studies, Mobilities, and the Postdigital Condition: Contention or Complement

“…Agencies granted a licence by authorities to know the future have the capacity to exhibit influence over what is deemed possible and desirable and the potential to shape today and tomorrow. Therefore, attention needs to be given to who receives a licence for representing the future and the conditions under which these licenses are held (Connor 2017 ).…”

“…Rather it seeks to make explicit that an inherent, but not always explicit, aspect of research, scholarship, policy, and practice is its orientation to the future and therefore its associated contingencies and plurality. And yet, the future, or what we should term futures, and how best to anticipate futures remains an underserved issue (Connor 2017 ).…”