I have lost count of the times when campaigning or door knocking to get peoples views, I get some one literally interrupt my doorstep introduction to tell me firmly “sorry I am not interested in politics”, bid me good bye and then firmly shut the door in my face.
In that situation, I take a deep breadth, say thank you to the closed door, turn around and go on to the next door. But deep inside I would be groaning at the dismissal or as I walked away, mutter to myself something along the lines of “if only you understood just how politics affects you on a daily basis.”
Why are people not engaging with or interested in politics – turns out Paddy Ashdown had given the answer about four years ago in 2014 in a TEDx (Brussels) talk that he gave titled Why democracy is failing.
Democracy is Failing
Conventional politics is failing, says Paddy Ashdown, as he recollects that he cannot remember any time in his long career in politics when governments have been so distrusted, when politicians have been so disrespected, when the political dialogue which ought to be about a rational approach to politics has been so diverted by those who fill the space where rational dialogue should be, with the raucous shouts of the demagogue!!
OK, so I had to look up the meaning of demagogue- and when I found it, had to agree. Its what has led us to the brink of Brexit today! The Brexiteers having played on the (irrational) fear of immigrants and the prejudices against Brussels stoked up by the main stream media over the years.
Fundamentals of Politics gone wrong
So what has gone wrong, and why are politicians so disrespected, governments distrusted and the public disinterested? This is what Paddy Ashdown had to say (not in any specific order).
Firstly, he reckoned Westminster, as in other nation states, sees itself as supremely sovereign and supremely powerful and when politicians ask for votes of the public, do so saying that they politicians can solve all the nations problems. However, as in his previous TEDx talk in 2011, globalisation means that is not possible. So inevitably, people are disappointed when solutions promised by the nation state are not delivered.
Secondly, that Politicians have failed badly, abandoned that space where that great debate of principle should be, and replaced it with the principle of managerialism. There is a vacuum that is not filled by politicians with a clash of ideas but by the press who fill it with “the devils song”, a conspiracy to be obsessed with the petty.
Progressive politics is being undermined by vested interest – so true in the current Brexit context.
Thirdly, he saw a massive mismatch between how people live their ordinary lives and how they are governed. In our private lives, we are powerful citizens, in control and with freedoms of the internet and new technologies, and treated as kings in the marketplace where we purchase.
However, these powerful citizens are governed by a distant institution miles away in the capital city, an institution that does not speak our language and does not respond to our needs as it should. It seems that in seeking to govern everything, governments have become dysfunctional and not delivering.
Righting the Wrongs of Politics
The challenge now is how to get the public re-engaged in politics – how to make it relevant and exciting enough for the public to re-energised to participate.
On the first issue of globalisation preventing governments being able to unilaterally provide solutions, Paddy Ashdown advocates building systems of global governance as he explained in his previous TEDx talk in 2011. The UK, he said, was already ahead in that as part of the global governance already created in Europe (EU) where we share sovereignty for the benefit of all citizens.
Secondly, for politicians to regain respect, we would have to win public support amongst the people in favour of a proposition for the common good. We must suppress vested interests if they stand against the progress of the common value and the common will.
Vested interests such as the voice of division, of the hate of foreigners must be suppressed. We can be patriots, as patriotism is not based on having to hate someone elses’ country. We must stand together in unity across the classes, colours, countries and ignore racism.
Bottom line is that politicians need to be honest and the public needs to allow politicians to be honest. The media should also allow the politicians to be honest.
Thirdly, we need to have active and informed engagement of the citizen and re-engaging the citizen can be achieved by devolving power so that citizens can get engaged in the process. Changing the balance of power from the center and moving it closer to communities gives people the chance to really get engaged in the decisions that affect their lives and how their taxes are used. The state can determine the standard to be achieved but it should be up to the local area to decide how to achieve that standard.
Unity in Diversity – Motto for our time
Maybe I should have sub titled this Paddy Ashdown Motto for our time. He goes on to ask, how do we move away from the me, concept of selfishness, to the us, we as a community? What do we hold together in common as a community?
He answers by saying it requires a new political framework and a new political attitude. Its our diversity that is the greatest gift we have and we have to find a way of finding value in that diversity.
Paddy ends by quoting a poem by Rabindranath Tagor which talks about unity in diversity:
‘We are all the more one because we are many,
For we have made ample room for love in the gap where we were sundered.
Our unlikeness shines with a radiance of a common creation,
Like mountain peaks in the morning sun.’
According to Paddy Ashdown, “if we can begin to value our differences, create a political structure that gives power to the citizen not the state, realising that that our diversity is the greatest gift we have and greatest expression of humanity, then whatever threats we face can be surmounted.”