Sir Winston Churchill once famously wrote, ‘No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time. ‘ That was in 1947.
When Churchill made his comment he was Leader of the Opposition having lost the first election after the war he had one. He might well have been bitter about democracy but that is what he had fought for and he recognised that in a democracy the people had ‘a perfect right to kick me out.’
In 1929 George Bernard Shaw asked a BBC audience, ‘Who can blame Signor Mussolini, for describing democracy as a putrefying corpse.’ In the same broadcast he even expressed warm sympathy for the Nazi movement. Now we might think of that as one of the silliest things Shaw ever said, but would we have thought so at the time?
We take democracy for granted now in this country but we would be wise to recognise that it is not in the best of health.* In the early 70s public opinion polls showed that almost half the population thought our system of governing generally worked well. Now only a third of the population think that. In 1963 60% of the public thought they would be taken seriously if they raised an issue with the government. Now only 15% think so. The last three general elections produced the lowest turnouts on record since 1918. Until the early 90s around 75% of the population voted. Since then it has ranged form 59% in 2001 to 65% in the last election. In that last election just 44% of people aged 18-24 voted in comparison with 76% of those aged 65 and above. Until the late 80s people across the classes all voted in about equal numbers. By 2010 affluent voters voted much more than their poorer neighbours. So one thing shown by these figures is that elections are now likely to be decided by the interests of older and better off voters!
If we look at political activism the same depressing picture emerges. In the 1950s nearly 4 million people belonged to a political party. Now fewer than half a million people do so. At the same time the social base of the main parties has changed, being drawn now from a smaller and smaller pool of activists who are perceived to lack ‘life experience.’ Similar declines are experienced in churches, trade unions, and voluntary groups. People are more inclined to participate if they know it will serve their own interests. Community groups may more often come together because of what they are against rather than what they wish to achieve for the wider community.
Since 2013 Russell Brand has been encouraging people not to vote – and from the statistics given above it would seem that he has cottoned on to a trend even though he is definitely not the cause of it. The cause is more widely attributable to an anti-politics mood. There is a sense that both in power and striving for power politicians serve only the interests of those who will support them or who can be persuaded to support them through policies which appeal to a particular section of the population. Politicians come across as adversarial and point scoring – what could be worse for the reputation of democracy than Prime Minister’s Question Time? (Nearly a third of the Public say it puts them off politics.) Politicians seem evasive and unwilling to answer direct questions, frightened of what the Press will make of their answers.
The Hansard Society’s ‘Audit of Political Engagement’ has shown that the media in general do little to benefit democracy by nourishing political engagement – it is probably better to read ‘no newspaper at all than to read a tabloid.’ Though newspapers have always to varying extents taken sides, journalistic comment rather than straight reporting is ubiquitous. Interviewing on radio and television can be hectoring and aggressive, and complex issues are reduced to an instant need for yes or no answers. The more serious issues such as education, pensions, housing, or climate change need whole programmes to be explained and discussed not a few minutes in the packed news schedule of the Today programme.
All this also reflects the increasing complexity of government. Politicians have come to be seen as crisis managers responding to situations not of their making and at odds with ‘Europe’ or global corporations or the growing power of India and China. Or else they are seen as interfering with our freedoms to take initiatives for ourselves, because of Health and Safety laws, or invading our privacy because of security measures needed to keep us safe from dangers we can’t be told about. And because the issues are seen to be so complex, so the expert seems to become as important as the politician, even though experts aren’t elected, though they may occasionally be given a seat in the House of Lords. So it becomes harder for politicians to explain their decisions or to show why this policy is better than that and why we should vote for this party rather than that.
Now it is just possible that if the next election produces a minority government our democratic system will find a new lease of life. Government by consensus will become more necessary; proportional representation may again be considered; Parliament will have fewer Bills to consider and may therefore produce more carefully framed laws; fundamental issues may receive wider discussion; and regional initiatives may raise more interest as local communities begin to see that their voices might after all make a difference. Perhaps…
In the mean time the last of those suggestions is being met by Citizens UK of which this parish is a member. At the moment I’m attending one of their training courses on how issue based local campaigning works, and so will have more to report in a future letter. Also as a local community we might work for better political literacy amongst young people, to help them discover what it might mean to be a good citizen. For example recent polling has shown that 29% of the population think that 16 is already the minimum age for voting and 33% don’t realise that the House of Lords isn’t elected. We might find such ignorance astonishing but it would be interesting to try to find out the areas of ignorance amongst our own young people and to see whether their attitude to politics in any way reflects our own. Do we set an example with our own interest in politics and citizenship?
And finally how might we nurture the politicians of the future? How for example might we encourage a view of political work as a vocation – a calling to serve the community. It is of course the case that most of our members of Parliament are trying to do a good job and to serve their constituents, but might their reputation be enhanced if for example they had to take swear an oath to behave ethically at the start of every Parliament – the equivalent of the vows which the clergy have to make when they are ordained!
As Christians, Scripture tells us that our true citizenship is in heaven. And yet it also tells us that unless we have learnt its meaning on earth through serving Christ in all our neighbours in all ways that we can, individually, socially and politically, we shall have learnt only a goat like understanding of citizenship which is far from heavenly.
* The contents of this letter is almost entirely based on the chapter, ‘Improving the health of our representative democracy’ by Ruth Fox, (Director and Head of Research of the Hansard Society) in, ‘On Rock or Sand?’ edited by the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu (SPCK)
The Vicar writes
Stephen Tucker