CHAPTER 20 – IS POLITICS BROKEN?
- Nature and health of politics
- Politics is connected to words such as corrupt, liar and untrustworthy → but is it
true?
A CRISIS OF ANTI-POLITICS?
- Anti-politics → refers to rejection of, and/or alienation from conventional politicians
and political processes, especially mainstream political parties and established
representative mechanisms
- Crisis in politics?
o In some sense politics has never been healthier
▪ More democracies – Eastern Europe, Arab Spring
o But also heavy cloud over policies – people disengaging from political process
Declining political engagement?
- Political engagement is an indication of the health of a political system
o Citizens are less interested in using their rights to participate
- Political engagement → the participation of citizens in the life of their community,
although this may range from formal political participation to wider communal
activities or even civic-mindedness
- UK voting turnout has decreased from average above 75% between 1945-1997 to
average of 62.5% between 2000-2015
o Similar trends across Western Europe, Japan, and parts of Latin America
- Fewer people identify with political parties → partisan dealignment
o Major long-term decline in party membership
o 2010 – fewer than 1% of people in the UK are members of parties, 50 years
ago it was 7%
- Political participation → the act of taking part in the formulation, passage, or
implementation of public policies
- Declining levels of party-activism
o People are cheque books members – paying to be members but not engaging
with the party
- Robert Putnam → declining social capital
- But there is criticism to the ‘participation crisis’ → maybe there was a shift from one
kind of participation to another
o Disillusionment and cynicism with mainstream politics
o Shift to pressure group politics, protest movements and use of social media to
facilitate debate and activism
o New politics – more fluid, participatory, non-hierarchical and more
spontaneous styles of political participation
- Mainstream politics → political activities, processes and structures that are regarded
as normal or conventional, the dominant trend in politics
The politics of anti-politics
, - Growing cynicism and anger towards mainstream politicians and parties
o Breakdown in trust
o Politicians seen as out-of-touch, privileged, corrupt or self-serving
- Anti-politics
o Associated with anti-capitalism and anti-globalization
o Also wide range of right-wing populist groups and movements (far right,
neofascists)
▪ Italy
▪ US – Tea Party movement
▪ 62 million people backed Donald Trump
▪ 10 million people supported Marine Le Pen
WHY WE HATE POLITICS
- We moved from a passive phase – declining level of political participation to a more
active phase – upsurge in loud criticism of politics
- Apathy → the absence of interest in, or enthusiasm for, things that are generally
considered to be interesting
Uninspiring party politics
- Mainstream political parties have been object of criticism
o Catch-all parties have been criticized for losing of ideologies
o Failed to provide emotional attachment for their voters
- Mainstream political parties are selling products rather than hopes and dreams
o All sounding the same and targeting same groups of voters
o Abandoning major issues and big choices → less meaningful
Declining capacity to deliver
- Declining capacity of political actors to ‘deliver the goods’ by affecting people’s lives
and bringing about meaningful economic and social change
- Loss of capacity to deliver has happened in 2 ways
o 1. Spread of neoliberalism
o 2. Advance of globalization
▪ Complex economic interdependence
▪ We can’t prevent global financial crisis from spreading
- Domestic circumstances are increasingly shaped by events beyond the government
control
The wrong politicians
- Assault of the characters of politicians
- The relation between power and corruption
- Members have often little to no experience from the real world – living in a bubble
and being politicians their whole life
o Politicians often seem like media constructs
- Nature and health of politics
- Politics is connected to words such as corrupt, liar and untrustworthy → but is it
true?
A CRISIS OF ANTI-POLITICS?
- Anti-politics → refers to rejection of, and/or alienation from conventional politicians
and political processes, especially mainstream political parties and established
representative mechanisms
- Crisis in politics?
o In some sense politics has never been healthier
▪ More democracies – Eastern Europe, Arab Spring
o But also heavy cloud over policies – people disengaging from political process
Declining political engagement?
- Political engagement is an indication of the health of a political system
o Citizens are less interested in using their rights to participate
- Political engagement → the participation of citizens in the life of their community,
although this may range from formal political participation to wider communal
activities or even civic-mindedness
- UK voting turnout has decreased from average above 75% between 1945-1997 to
average of 62.5% between 2000-2015
o Similar trends across Western Europe, Japan, and parts of Latin America
- Fewer people identify with political parties → partisan dealignment
o Major long-term decline in party membership
o 2010 – fewer than 1% of people in the UK are members of parties, 50 years
ago it was 7%
- Political participation → the act of taking part in the formulation, passage, or
implementation of public policies
- Declining levels of party-activism
o People are cheque books members – paying to be members but not engaging
with the party
- Robert Putnam → declining social capital
- But there is criticism to the ‘participation crisis’ → maybe there was a shift from one
kind of participation to another
o Disillusionment and cynicism with mainstream politics
o Shift to pressure group politics, protest movements and use of social media to
facilitate debate and activism
o New politics – more fluid, participatory, non-hierarchical and more
spontaneous styles of political participation
- Mainstream politics → political activities, processes and structures that are regarded
as normal or conventional, the dominant trend in politics
The politics of anti-politics
, - Growing cynicism and anger towards mainstream politicians and parties
o Breakdown in trust
o Politicians seen as out-of-touch, privileged, corrupt or self-serving
- Anti-politics
o Associated with anti-capitalism and anti-globalization
o Also wide range of right-wing populist groups and movements (far right,
neofascists)
▪ Italy
▪ US – Tea Party movement
▪ 62 million people backed Donald Trump
▪ 10 million people supported Marine Le Pen
WHY WE HATE POLITICS
- We moved from a passive phase – declining level of political participation to a more
active phase – upsurge in loud criticism of politics
- Apathy → the absence of interest in, or enthusiasm for, things that are generally
considered to be interesting
Uninspiring party politics
- Mainstream political parties have been object of criticism
o Catch-all parties have been criticized for losing of ideologies
o Failed to provide emotional attachment for their voters
- Mainstream political parties are selling products rather than hopes and dreams
o All sounding the same and targeting same groups of voters
o Abandoning major issues and big choices → less meaningful
Declining capacity to deliver
- Declining capacity of political actors to ‘deliver the goods’ by affecting people’s lives
and bringing about meaningful economic and social change
- Loss of capacity to deliver has happened in 2 ways
o 1. Spread of neoliberalism
o 2. Advance of globalization
▪ Complex economic interdependence
▪ We can’t prevent global financial crisis from spreading
- Domestic circumstances are increasingly shaped by events beyond the government
control
The wrong politicians
- Assault of the characters of politicians
- The relation between power and corruption
- Members have often little to no experience from the real world – living in a bubble
and being politicians their whole life
o Politicians often seem like media constructs
