Democracy Coma*
Now, I’m not the world’s biggest fan of democracy. I’m certainly not one of these people who fetishize it and argue that it should be an aggressive international export; sent by the West across the globe (by force if need be). But I am even less of a fan of our version of democracy. Because, for me, our democracy has ceased to be about politics. In fact, I’d argue that our democracy has become the absence of politics.
Don’t believe me? Well, when was the last time you had
contact with your elected representative? For most people, the last engagement with those people and therefore with what we laughably
call politics was at the polls either in the general or local elections.
Putting your “x” in the preferred box (or, most likely, voting for your least
hated option). And that’s it. That’s you done, politically speaking. If humans are,
to paraphrase Aristotle, social and political animals, then we’re only about
50% human.
Of course, there is more that we could do politically if we
wanted, but it is all largely pointless. Write to your MP – why? It isn’t going
to change how they vote in the House – that tends to be based on what the Whips
want – and unless you are one of the very few that they can proactively help
then the chances are you will end up with a very polite fuck off letter. Write
to a more senior politician and you’ll be lucky to get the brush off – most likely
your epistle will be consigned to the file marked “b1n”.
Then again, we could be involved with a political party. But
again that little question springs up – why? What does that achieve? Join one
of the main political parties will involve substantial compromise for most, and
will see you joining a party that, in vast swathes of policy and ideology,
broadly agrees with its main opponents. And as for joining a smaller party –
well, you may as well take your membership subscription and flush it down the
toilet. Overall, you’d be better off joining some sort of pressure group. At least they
tend to believe in something, and often have the tunnel vision to effectively pursue that belief.
So there we have it; democracy, or voting whenever you are
given the chance, is the extent to which we get to engage with politics in this
country. For the rest of the time, the vast majority of us are in a democracy
coma, or a political stupor induced by being able to vote for people you don’t
know and even if you did, you probably wouldn’t rate. In the meantime, that
empty ritual of voting allows the self-perpetuating oligarchy in charge of this
country to do pretty much what they want, to the occasional but utterly
impotent howls of the people.
What’s the alternative? Well, we often hear that direct
democracy is the way forward. Let’s have more referenda. Let’s get the people
making legislation whenever they can. Which is all well and good, until you
consider the cost of such exercises. And that nature of a referendum – the government decides a
question, and you get to say yes or no to it. And then there’s that sinking
feeling I get when I think about the sort of results we might get from
referenda. I’d be pretty happy to have one on the EU right about now, because I’m
reasonably sure I would agree with the outcome. But one of the death penalty?
Thanks, but no thanks. Part of it is a lack of faith the in intelligence of the
electorate (look at how many millions still voted for Gordon Brown in 2010, for
example), but if I’m totally honest a lot of it boils down in my lack of faith
that the electorate will always back what I believe in.
Besides politics could – and should – be about a lot more
than assenting or otherwise to a closed question designed to rubber stamp
(almost certainly uncontroversial) government policy. Therefore, to have a genuine return to politics in this
country, politicians need to do less and the people more. There needs to be a
fundamental redistribution of powers from the former to the latter. We need
more localism, and less central government. And we need it urgently. We need
disparate and different communities that reflect our diverse and fundamentally
pluralist culture – not an attempt by central government to come up with policy
designed to impress all 60 million people in this country that ends up
impressing none. And we need the right of exit within those communities, so the
successful ones are able to flourish and the less successful ones fade away
without government intervention to favour or suppress any particular preference
in terms of community.
Of course, the chances of this happening are next to none.
Our political class won’t let it. They are like black holes when it comes to
power – power is dragged towards them, almost like a law of physics, and power
moving in the other direction looks like an impossibility. But we’re
responsible for it too, you know. We shouldn’t allow ourselves to be fobbed off
with the chance to vote every few years for anonymous candidates representing
largely indistinguishable parties. We should demand more. Because we certainly
aren’t going to get to be active participants in the political process unless
we do so.
Labels: Democracy, Vote Whores, Voting
4 Comments:
We need more localism, and less central government.
Good in theory but there is then the Common Purpose factor in every council in the UK.
Ignoring any debates about the intentions and influence of Common Purpose, I don't think that the existing political structures are necessary for genuine local government. In fact I can imagine a lot of communities would want to rebuild the local government representing them from the ground up.
Thanks for an interesting and thought provoking post. Can I offer a few observations.
1. Most people are not very bright. That is not to say that they cannot understand some things and to some things well. But they have little or no knowledge of the disciplines necessary to make sensible judgements on big issues. These include some maths, economics, sociology, psychology and a degree of logic.
2. These not very bright people are informed very largely, possibly wholly, by the media. The media are biased, selective, dishonest, superficial and error strewn. As a source of the relevant information, they are worse than useless.
3. Referenda are therefore a lottery conducted largely by stupid people making irrational judgements based on useless information. Hardly the basis for sound policy.
4. Elections are effectively referenda and they result in politicians of whom we are deeply critical and cynical. QED. Given this, how do we get 'decent people' to enter politics voluntarily?
5. Those who have least knowledge express it most forcefully. I have in mind pressure groups like Greenpeace and the Labour front bench, who have the contradictory ability to appear both brainwashed and brainless simultaneously. Not that the other front bench is much better.
6. I find this quite depressing as I also like the idea of consulting people. Possibly irrationally I want a referendum on the EU. I don't expect that any government would immediately go about untangling our membership because I think it would be extremely difficult to do so. However, I would like to see politicians confronted with what I see is the overwhelming wish of the people.
7. The EU will fall apart eventually (the sooner the better) and the trick will be to dismantle it without wars. I have the USSR and Yugoslavia in mind as models.
8. From personal experience, and despite my comments, politicians as a whole appear no better/worse than the common herd.
Backbenchers appear to be very frustrated by their inability to influence things.
"Don’t believe me? Well, when was the last time you had contact with your elected representative? For most people, the last engagement with those people and therefore with what we laughably call politics was at the polls either in the general or local elections."
Now hold hard, matey. My MP is St Vincent Cable. I didn't vote for him (he promised to abolish my government department, nearly got punched by my sons for saying so
and is now head of the government department he was going to abolish) BUT: I've met him several times at my local church, for big events; met him at our local theatre; and he turned up last Sunday at the local war memorial, so fair dos.
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