Percepciones gremiales sobre la entrada en vigencia del TLC con Estados Unidos

The preceding examples are of the external behaviour or structure of holons and a number of policy methodologies are available to document and to analyse these aspects and to take account of the impact of human behaviour. However, the exterior behaviour as observed is of limited use by itself and must be complemented with insight into the subjective experience of the person. This requires an understanding derived from psychology. Although the importance of behaviour and psychology to policy making was recognised in 1918 by the economist John Maurice Clark,463 it has only been relatively recently that there has been an increased focus on the use of the behavioural sciences in policy analysis. Behavioural policymaking was popularised in part by Sunstein and Thaler's book, Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness464 and the last decade has seen an increase in academic exploration of the topic.465 It is based on the relatively simple observation - albeit one that many approaches to the study around decision-making have documented for decades - that people do not usually make rational choices. This has permeated some policy making communities to the extent that it has become the subject of an Executive Order issued by the President of the United States, Barak Obama, in 2015.466

Entitled Using Behavioral Science Insights To Better Serve the American People, this Order recognises that purely economic or fiscal data is an insufficient grounding for policy; it must be complemented by an evidence-based approach to policy making, in this case one based on actually observing the behaviour of people (Terrain of Behaviours) and using the psychological and behavioural sciences (Terrain of Experiences) to not only understand the behaviour, but to provide a way to modify that behaviour through policy interventions (Terrain of Systems). The only thing missing is the Terrain of

463

Eldar Shafir (ed), The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy, Princeton University Press, 2014, p.1. 464

Richard H Thaler, Cass RSunstein, Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2008.

465

Shafir, The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy. 466

110 Cultures and the addition of some analysis around developmental issues, but the Order (a Terrain of Systems legal construct) covers both Person and Planet. It does not appear to be a model of which business is afraid,467 particularly as the Order states:

For policies with a regulatory component, agencies are encouraged to combine this behavioral science insights policy directive with their ongoing review of existing significant regulations to identify and reduce regulatory burdens, as appropriate and consistent with Executive Order 13563 of January 18, 2011 (Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review), and Executive Order 13610 of May 10, 2012 (Identifying and Reducing Regulatory Burdens).468

Although the Order does not cover off on the Polity (the Terrain of Cultures), it hints at shared political values:

To more fully realize the benefits of behavioral insights and deliver better results at a lower cost for the American people, the Federal Government should design its policies and programs to reflect our best understanding of how people engage with, participate in, use, and respond to those policies and programs. By improving the effectiveness and efficiency of Government, behavioral science insights can support a range of national priorities, including helping workers to find better jobs; enabling Americans to lead longer, healthier lives; improving access to educational opportunities and support for success in school; and accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy.469

Apart from a low-carbon economy, the other national priorities would likely find broad bipartisanship support, at least for the goal itself, as opposed to agreement on the exact policy or legislative methods that different political parties might use to achieve similar - or very different - ends. Such a policy tool also could provide a general mechanism for incorporating specific shared values, environmental or otherwise, and hence include the Polity. This is more fully explored in Chapter Five. Policy mechanisms like this Executive Order could allow for a strong inclusion of the Person, as the psychological disciplines brought to bear can interpret the Terrain of Experiences, through ecological lenses or others. This is further expounded in Chapter Six. From the point of view of Antarctic policy then, the adoption of a behavioral analysis framework like that promulgated in the Order would be useful, as the efficacy of this approach has been shown in a range of studies.470 The recognition that cognitive and emotional limitations generally prevent people from being rational agents is a recognition of the importance of the interior, which can be usefully worked into an Integral Policy Triptych.

467

Francesca Gino, ‘Why the U.S. Government is Embracing Behavioral Science’, Harvard Business Review, September 2015. https://hbr.org/2015/09/why-the-u-s-government-is-embracing-behavioral-science, accessed 26 March 2016. 468

Executive Order No. 13707, op. cit. 469

Ibid. 470

Timothy D. Wilson & Lindsay P. Juarez, ‘Intuition is Not Evidence: Prescriptions for Behavioral Interventions from Social Psychology’, Behavioral Science and Policy, 2015, 1(1), pp. 13-20.

Emily H Ho, David V Budescu, Mandeep K Dhami and David R. Mandel, ‘Improving the Communication of Uncertainty in Climate Science and Intelligence Analysis’, Behavioral Science and Policy, 2015, 1(2), pp. 43-55.

111 Behavioural policy in its simplest incarnation begins with a focus on Zone 6, the outside of the Terrain of Behaviours. But it is broad enough in scope to encompass, at least in a behavioural sense, Zone 5, the inside of that Terrain. This ecomode is probably less-well understood and infrequently applied to policy and politics, as it represents the interior structures and processes that give rise to the self-organisation of an individual holon, or its autopoiesis. While I recognise the need for this perspective, it has struck me that the use of autopoiesis is somewhat ironic. The concept posits a self-contained system, able to maintain, replicate or refresh itself by controlling its own composition and maintaining its own boundaries. This appears at odds with an integral approach, which recognises the tetra-arising of the four quadrants, and the complex effect this has on individuals and systems; hardly appearing to support a self-contained or autonomous individual holon. However, we must recall that one quadrant cannot be reduced to another. Even though all quadrants arise at once, each of the individual and collective holons has its own way of maintaining and regulating its composition and keeping its boundaries. However, as we will see in the section on understanding the inside of the Terrain of Systems through social autopoiesis, the components of any kind of autopoiesis (whether the interior interactions of a number of collectives, or those inside an individual) display holarchic properties. Beyond this, however, behavioural policy allows us to include disciplines and perspectives that provide an understanding of this objective interior structure or individual autopoiesis.