The middle class in
most countries supports economic development through its demand for public
goods and by requiring government accountability to promote an improved welfare
state, and thus reduce inequality and poverty.
اضافة اعلان
In Jordan, instead of demanding better spending by
the government on public goods, the middle class, encompassing 30 percent of
Jordanians, seemed to have individualized (made private) the demand for public
goods. In other words, as the numbers show, the middle class opted to replace
the government in the provision of such goods.
A public good is a product that an individual can
consume without reducing its availability to others, and from which no one is
excluded. Examples of public goods include roads, police and army protection,
primary education, clean air, etc. Typically, public goods are provided by
governments through capital expenditures, and they are not profit. On the other hand, individualizing public
goods means that individuals opt to provide these goods or services themselves.
Many of the services that are typically delivered by
the government in Jordan are being provided by the market system through
individual spending. For example, 33 percent of children go to private schools,
while 67 percent are enrolled in public schools. In terms of higher education,
344,796 students were enrolled in universities in Jordan in 2020–2021, 27.5
percent of tertiary education students are enrolled at the 17 private universities,
and the remainder at the 10 public universities.
The public health care system shows another
departure from public to private supply. Of the 122 hospitals in Jordan, 72 are
private, 33 are governmental, 15 are military and two are university hospitals.
Clearly, the number of private hospitals far outweighs that of public
hospitals. Complaints regarding the public healthcare system and attacks on
staff at these hospitals may be additional evidence of the level of public
frustration and lack of trust in the system.
How about drinking water? According to a study
conducted by the Jordanian-German Water Program, around 80 percent of the
central region’s residents buy bottled water, which seems to be widely spread.
According to the Ministry of Health, there are 32 water bottling factories, 542
local water purification plants, and five mineral water bottling plants.
Many of the services that are typically delivered by the government in Jordan are being provided by the market system through individual spending.
What about public transport? It is true that the
government provides adequate roads, but public transport on these roads is
mainly provided by the private sector. The number of registered vehicles, as
reported in December 2020, stood at 1,728,144. Since there are restrictions on
vehicle ownership by non-Jordanians, one can surmise that there is a vehicle
for every five Jordanians, which is the average household size.
Furthermore, year-on-year, there was a 3.25 percent
increase in 2020 over the number of vehicles in 2019 (1,673,759). Note that the
rate of increase is higher than the population growth rate in 2020, which was 1
percent. This is simply because the rate of increase is commensurate with the
rate of entry of youth into the job market, not the population growth rate.
Among the negative impacts of such individualization
of public transport is the stress on the environment through carbon emissions,
and the balance of payments deficit — in June 2022 alone, Jordan imported 8,148
vehicles, valued at JD105 million, and JD10 million in spare parts.
What about electricity generated by photovoltaic
cells? In 2019, around 15 percent of all households in Jordan were equipped
with solar-based water heating systems. Had there been more incentives and
fewer restrictions, the number would have easily risen to more than 30 percent.
In almost each of these public or semi-public goods,
the ratio is close to 30 percent, which is also the percentage of the middle
class. Could this mean that the middle class of Jordan has got tired of
requesting the government to improve its services and opted instead to
individualizing such public goods? Does it also mean that there is a lack of
satisfaction or trust in government services? The numbers do support such
conclusions.
Yusuf Mansur is CEO of the Envision Consulting Group and
former minister of state for economic affairs.
Read more Opinion and Analysis
Jordan News
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