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Democracy too costly for 'nudgers' Democracy too costly for 'nudgers'
(5 months later)
The problem with No 10's "nudge unit" personality test for jobseekers is not that it uses the wrong number of questions but that it is being used at all (Personality test for jobseekers is a failure, say its creators, 7 May). The scandal, as you pointed out some days ago, is that the jobless are asked to respond to questions designed to help identify their strengths – but they get exactly the same (uplifting) character description however they answer them (Jobseekers cajoled into taking bogus online survey, 30 April). And this isn't a question of one bad apple – the whole barrel needs opening up. "Nudge" replaces politics with psychology and makes a virtue of "working with the grain of human nature" (which, for nudgers, means maximising self-interest).The problem with No 10's "nudge unit" personality test for jobseekers is not that it uses the wrong number of questions but that it is being used at all (Personality test for jobseekers is a failure, say its creators, 7 May). The scandal, as you pointed out some days ago, is that the jobless are asked to respond to questions designed to help identify their strengths – but they get exactly the same (uplifting) character description however they answer them (Jobseekers cajoled into taking bogus online survey, 30 April). And this isn't a question of one bad apple – the whole barrel needs opening up. "Nudge" replaces politics with psychology and makes a virtue of "working with the grain of human nature" (which, for nudgers, means maximising self-interest).
Once the nudge unit is part-privatised, and profit-making and shareholder returns become a priority, the need for results will drive its work yet more powerfully, with ever more focus on the ends and even less scrutiny of the means. The alternative to the anti-politics of "nudge, nudge" is "think, think" – engaging the electorate in a dialogic debate. But, for nudgers, democracy is too costly and time-consuming. This is a dangerous trap – and with her plea for more leadership and less listening Polly Toynbee looks to be falling into it (Comment, 7 May).
Professor Andrew Dobson
Spire, Keele University		Once the nudge unit is part-privatised, and profit-making and shareholder returns become a priority, the need for results will drive its work yet more powerfully, with ever more focus on the ends and even less scrutiny of the means. The alternative to the anti-politics of "nudge, nudge" is "think, think" – engaging the electorate in a dialogic debate. But, for nudgers, democracy is too costly and time-consuming. This is a dangerous trap – and with her plea for more leadership and less listening Polly Toynbee looks to be falling into it (Comment, 7 May).
Professor Andrew Dobson
Spire, Keele University
• Difficulties with the nudge unit's jobseekers' questionnaire? Don't psychological tests always tell us more about their designers than about the people who fill them in?
Mick Beeby
Bristol		• Difficulties with the nudge unit's jobseekers' questionnaire? Don't psychological tests always tell us more about their designers than about the people who fill them in?
Mick Beeby
Bristol
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