IN MANY respects, the US is a puzzle even to those among non-natives who have seen it from the inside and are familiar with its lores and mores. Take, for starters, the nomination of Mr John Roberts by the Bush Administration for the post of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and the hearings conducted by the Senate Judiciary Committee into his credentials. Laterally interposing a rank outsider who had only been a judge on the Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, over the incumbents who have put in several years of service as Supreme Court Justices would have been unthinkable in a country like, say, Britain or India. And yet, the judicial fraternity in the US seems to accept such impositions by the executive with equanimity.

Again, in a country which ostensibly sets much store by professionalism one would have expected the highest Congressional level appraisal of a nominee to include a critical examination of his experience and past performance, justifying his being catapulted to the top judicial slot. Instead, during the hearings, the Senators were mostly concerned with the views of Mr Roberts on abortion rights, overlooking more substantive issues. Also, the approach seemed to be determined by party politics and ideological prejudices rather than finding the best man for the job.

Expertise, specialisation, hands-on experience, track record: These are the watchwords often mouthed by American management gurus. And yet, they have been able to swallow without protest the appointment by the Bush Administration of a veterinarian with no prior experience in women's health issues to head the Office of Women's Health, or a 38-year old lawyer with no claim to distinction, other than being the niece of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as the chief of the complex and sensitive Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. Had such a thing happened in any other country, it would have received a tongue-lashing from sanctimonious American academics.

Finally, the biggest riddle of all in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is how a country boasting a rich corpus of literature on contingency planning, technological supremacy and material wealth could be so inept in handling a situation which young district magistrates in India manage without batting an eyelid.

B. S. Raghavan

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu Business Line