Academic CentreUnderstanding the Concepts of Trust, Cooperation and Unity in the National Development Plan
Sergejs Kruks
In 2020 the Latvian parliament has accepted the National Development Plan of Latvia for 2021–2027. The Plan envisages the development of science-based industry and production of higher-value-added items by 2027. According to the policy document, transformation of the national economy requires reforms in public governance and changes in individual habits. Testing the illocutionary force of the plan revealed that at least some of the propositions and claims are not valid: they miss logical coherence, are not open to discussion because in the given grammatical construction they lose the status of an assertion, do not affirm the author’s intention to improve public governance and do not meet the epistemic criteria of sociology and psychology when referring to scholarly concepts. The change in individual habits envisages an improvement in social relationships. Collaboration is specified as the main precondition of economic growth. The document however does not distinguish between business cooperation and social solidarity as different modes of collaboration. It also neglects political interaction in resolution of conflicting group interests. The basic shortcoming of the Plan is non-recognition of pluralism of interests in the social cohesion (unity) concept envisaging instead an unreasonable homogeneity of interacting individuals.