Rearranging the Power Game: Bankova’s Bold Move in Government

Source: Author’s Facebook page

I promised to write about the government reshuffle. But why do I expect neither anything good nor anything bad from it? 

The problem with the current government is not a lack of competence — on the contrary, many highly professional specialists are involved. The real issue is that the government is largely excluded from making key decisions. As a result, the vast majority of officials either get caught up in managing day-to-day processes without any hope for systemic change (which is exactly what is needed), focus on secondary projects, or implement harmful initiatives dictated from above, such as cashback schemes or blanket payments of a thousand to everyone.

In reality, most government officials have accepted these rules of the game to at least have some opportunity to make positive changes within their areas of responsibility. However, this is far from enough — the country and its people desperately need deep, systemic reforms. How much sense this philosophy of “loyalty in exchange for a chance to do something” makes depends on many factors. Unfortunately, good exceptions are rare.

The likelihood of replacing current officials with more qualified ones is highly questionable. First, most incumbents are already highly qualified. Second, it is unlikely that equally skilled professionals would be willing to join the government under conditions of low pay, lifelong restrictions, and — most importantly — a fundamentally subordinate, secondary, and dependent role. Third, the state leadership does not expect new ideas from the government because it already has its agenda. Above all, it expects loyalty.

Most likely, people who are less competent but definitely more loyal—and possibly even more openly corrupt—will come. But that’s not really the issue, since the government doesn’t actually make any key decisions under our current conditions.

At this point, someone might argue that new people won’t arrive, and it will only be a reshuffling of the same faces. If that’s the case, then such a reshuffle makes even less sense, as it simply disrupts the workflow during a time of immense challenges for the entire country.

Given the effective collapse of parliamentarians, we shouldn’t expect the government to function properly. Until there is a strong parliamentary coalition willing to take real responsibility for the country—as has happened during the most difficult periods in modern Ukrainian political history—nothing good should be expected.

Instead, the arrival of a new government will likely break the continuity of ongoing processes and reduce the effectiveness of current operations, including those related to international cooperation. As a result, more negative consequences are inevitable.

Why is all this happening? Because there is an illusion that replacing the government will yield political dividends. But this is a vain illusion. Everyone knows perfectly well who truly runs the country. It won’t work to shift responsibility for any failures onto the prime minister or the ministers.

In normal countries, a government change happens either as a result of elections or a major failure. Changing the government simply because it is possible is pointless—especially if it’s only a cosmetic reshuffle.

Since the government occupies a secondary and subordinate role, replacing it will not improve reforms, political ratings, efficiency, or international relations. This is fundamentally an inappropriate, ineffective, and uninteresting idea.

But they will do it anyway—because they can. There is no other reasonable explanation.

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