INSTRAW stated that it was unable to continue its pioneering work on statistics and indicators as a result of budget constraints and not because it was unresponsive to the suggestion of the Special Adviser.

The government failed to prevent the crime, then failed again when its unresponsive, inefficient, and crooked police force was unable to respond appropriately. A wholly moribund and sclerotic administration simply did not know where its duty lay.

These disheartening results raise an important question How do politicians who are unresponsive to the interests of the vast majority of their constituents get elected and, more important, re elected, while doing the bidding mostly of the wealthiest individuals?

For the last four years, the LDP had shown itself to be utterly unresponsive to the key issues of popular concern pensions, unemployment, and the fraying social safety net. Moreover, the LDP was plagued by a string of minor scandals and consistent bungling.

At the same time, selective repression can contain social frustrations and discontent only temporarily. As long as much of Chinese society views the current political system as unjust, unresponsive, and corrupt, there will always be a large reservoir of ill will toward the ruling elites.

Populism can be a necessary corrective when political parties grow sclerotic, mass media become too complacent (or too close to power), and bureaucracies are unresponsive to popular needs. In a globalized world managed by bankers and technocrats, many people feel that they have no say in public affairs they feel abandoned.

Some will object to the description of a person with advanced dementia as an empty husk. But, having seen this condition overtake my mother and my aunt both vibrant, intelligent women, who were reduced to lying, unresponsive, in a bed for months or (in my aunt s case) years it seems to me entirely accurate.

By the same token, development would be at best hindered and at worst reversed in a world riven by violent conflict or mesmerized by the fear of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, or one in which human rights were trampled, the rule of law was disregarded and citizens' views and needs were ignored by unresponsive and unrepresentative Governments.