(no subject)

[tinyjo]

So, according to a survay done in Germany, which I found out about here, Germans are disillusioned with their democracy. As is I think everyone else I know. So, where do you stand?

[Poll #862947]

Comments

[white_hart]

I'm not disillusioned about democracy. I'm cynical about politicians (I wouldn't say disillusioned, because I'm not sure I ever really had many illusions about them) and increasingly so about politics, and I'm definitely disillusioned by New Labour (have just been filling in UNISON application, and was rather struck by the fact that I was ticking the box for the general political fund rather than the affiliated one!), but I still believe in democracy. I also suspect that we probably have only ourselves and our apathy to blame if there isn't actually anyone decent to vote for...

[white_hart]

Also (following on from topicaltim's post last night), I'd be interested to know how many of the people who are disillusioned with democracy actually bother to take part in it...

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

I think the illusion I had was that there was some sense in which I was going to be represented but increasingly I feel that there's no way for me to make my voice heard as the system is right now. If we had a more representative voting system I probably wouldn't feel so frustrated but that isn't likely to happen any time soon...

[white_hart]

I'm not so sure that PR is really the answer. After all Germany *does* have a PR system. The author of the article you linked to sees Germany's coalition as part of the problem, and generally PR systems are far more likely to produce coalitions than first-past-the-post. I think the author of the article makes a good point about needing to get people more involved with their communities, but I'm not quite sure how that could be achieved...

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, see I tend to the opinion that coalitions would produce better results, partly because it would lead to less pointless slagging each other off in the papers I hope and partly because it would be a change, which is something that often can re-energise people.

I know what you mean about the communities thing. That's a bit of a theme at the moment when I listen to the news - a lot of stuff that the government would like to change, like the respect stuff or peoples drinking habits or parents getting involved in their kids educations, is just not something you can legislate for but it's often what makes the real differences.

[white_hart]

I think a coalition might be a good thing next time round, as I don't think New Labour can be turned round as long as it stays in power and no matter what Cameron says I could never welcome a Tory government. I wouldn't want it to last more than one Parliament, though. The problem with coalitions is that they have to tread such a fine line of compromises that very little actually gets done. It was quite astonishing when Oxfordshire went Conservative after 20 years of coalitions how much happened, and how quickly. And there's a lot of stuff (the environment, mostly) that needs action.

I think a lot of the trouble with local issues is that the current government is very much into centralisation of power. Too many decisions on local issues are being handed down from Whitehall and councils can't do anything about them, so you don't get that dialogue between people and politicians at a level that would actually be meaningful.

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

It's true that coalitions can lead to inaction, although I think that happens more in a system like ours where coalitions are rare. If they are the norm then there's more willingness to buckle down and get things done, although it's still not perfect - you trade off blunting the more extreme ends of each party by slowing things down, I think.

Definitely on the centralization of power. There seems to be an attitude that if things are left to local government we'll get some kind of a postcode lottery on all kinds of things which is rather unfair - after all, the local councils are elected officials so we'll still get to hold them to account for this stuff...