Nepal, May 8 -- We have recently been reading books that outline the history of economic thinking. During our readings, we have come across prominent thinkers, like Bernard Mandeville, whose ideas were later developed by famous economists like Adam Smith and Frederich A. Hayek. Their argument is simple: Societies are not designed from the top down. They emerge from the everyday actions of individuals, each responding to their own needs, constraints and incentives. No single policymaker, no committee, no ministry can ever fully understand or control this complexity. And when policy assumes otherwise, it begins to fail.

We have long witnessed this in Nepali policymaking. And the sad part is, we still do. Consider what has happened in just ...