|
Reader question: Please explain this sentence: “However, change was unlikely due to entrenched interests.” What are “entrenched interests”? My comments: We’re talking about some kind of reform here, aren’t we? Anyways, someone was talking about changing something apparently but later conceded that it was not going to happen because people with influences were resistant to the idea. So entrenched interests are people with influences? Yes, strong and deep-rooted influences, too, but let me explain. First, interests here refer to interest groups. That’s another jargon, but a common enough one. They’re people with common interests who stick together for a common goal. They can be business groups, the oil industry for example, or politicians and bureaucrats. Entrenched? If you remember watching soldiers on film digging ditches right before battle you’ll have no problem coming to grips with the word entrenched. Trench and entrench, you see, share the same root. That is “trench”, a narrow hole or tunnel soldiers dig for themselves as extra protection in warfare. To “entrench” therefore is to reinforce, make something stronger and more resilient. If something is entrenched, it cannot be easily changed or destroyed. Metaphorically speaking, if one’s beliefs are entrenched, then one firmly believes in them and will not budge. Hence and therefore, we may safely infer that entrenched interests are interested groups whose interests (benefits) are deeply set in the system strong. It is quite easy to understand, then, why entrenched interests are resistant to change because they’ve gained the most from the status quo. The status quo, by the way, is the way things are as they are. It is, after all, entrenched interest groups who have established the so called status quo in the first place. | 
