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.

*Also a song title by Manic Street Preachers.