Apples to Oranges

If there is one tidbit of knowledge I have gained from my studies and experiences in international relations, it is that you can't compare apples to oranges.

Huh?, you're thinking? You've spent almost 4 years and thousands of dollars only to learn an epithet that everyone already knows? Well, in all fairness it's not exactly about fruit. It's about countries and policies: what works for one state simply may not work for another. There is no way to correctly compare states and their policies with other states and policies.

Take for instance the Scandinavian welfare model. While this model produces excellent, and I mean excellent results for Scandinavia (seriously, those people have got it together), the rest of Europe - notably France - just can't quite churn out the same phenomenal results (hence the seemingly annual Parisian riots).

Now, I am not attempting to elucidate on the pros of Scandinavian welfare states; there is no doubt that those models work, and work very well for those countries. But what I am trying to do is simply paint a picture that says, "what works for Sweden may not work for France or the United States or any other country." And vice-versa.

It is not functional to take a state with 9 million inhabitants (Scandinavia's most populous nation, Sweden) and compare it to a state of 60 million inhabitants (France). That is an apple to an orange comparison. It would be very erroneous therefore, to conclude that since Sweden's system works for Swedes so well, it must work equally well for the French and everybody else for that matter.

Not only does this type of comparison (which occurs both in theory and in practice all too often) become fallacious due to demographic differences, but in that governmental policies must transpose cultural and ideological differences. Policies and procedures are usually built upon values and beliefs. What some cultures value deeply, others often brush off as unimportant.

A third factor is economics. With policy, just like with nearly everything else, money is what makes the world go round. Economies, just like demographics and cultures, differ across the globe. Good, effective policies need the financial means of ensuring a job well-done. Oftentimes, there simply isn't enough of the green for one state to successfully pull off what another state can.

A banana grower wouldn't expect the same results from planting banana trees in Phoenix to banana trees growing in Ecuador. Neither should governments and people expect policies that work in one state to automatically work in another.

The next time you hear the words, "well in Denmark...," realize that many policies simply cannot successfully transfer from one country to another. Also, the next time you hear someone mention "nation building," realize that well, you can't transplant a banana tree to the desert.

So I guess in a way, it is all about fruit.