At 4/21/15 07:31 PM, Huddud wrote:
First, a summary of the current problems plaguing the political system (in western, liberal democracies in particular. Any semblance to other countries is purely coincidental).
An unprecedented distrust of politicians and the political system
People across western democracies have been showing decreased levels of confidence in politicians for the last several years, and the number of voices criticizing the current system vastly outnumbers those who show genuine confidence in democracy as a good, viable government of the people rather than as the lesser evil.
Why is this? Is it because of the increased distance between citizens and politicians (see below for further elaboration)? Is the current generation expecting too much/too little from the politicians? Are people just complaining for the sake of complaining? Something else?
I wouldn't say it's because of distance. Many of the Eastern European countries that joined the EU joined partly for the opportunity to be a part of EU institutions because they were seen as less corrupt and more professional than their own. In places like Greece or Bulgaria they're probably right.
The issue is more effect, depending on the country change is either really fast or really slow. In the US change is really slow, there are very few cases where someone comes into office and changes everything really fast. Even when a President had control of both Houses there were times where people urged him to use executive orders to execute policy simply because that would be faster. Now imagine a President having control of only one or neither houses? Policy would just go to a standstill. On top of this the power of the judicial system allows people to make legislative change through lawsuits (this is part of the reason the GOP butchered the Public Defense system in the 90's, can't have poor people having their voice heard). On top of this so much power is delegated to the bureaucracy that alot of change can happen from unelected officials, much faster and easier than from elected ones.
Go to a country like France or Britain where public policy is much faster and centralized the issue is elsewhere, you know like the Socialist Party in France passing pro-business legislation hurting workers(how Socialist of them....) to the voting system being set up in a way in the UK so that parties which should have more seats don't get them (like the LIberal Democrats or UKIP). On top of this
A career in politics is increasingly seen as unappealing/a means to an end/a poor way to change your country
Where politics previously had the image of something you entered because you wanted to change your country for the better, now a politician is largely thought of as a career choice or something to be for its own sake.
I'm sort of confused by this. Hasn't politics always been a career choice and wanting to change your country? I can't think of any time that it was not.
Is the problem due to the creation of a "new nobility" in the political caste? Is it due to politicians preserving the status quo to keep their seats? What else?
There has always been a political elite, well everywhere, which dominates politics. It's not anything new.
"The working man" is increasingly feeling forgotten by the politicians
What are the results? Do western democracies lose legitimacy in the eyes of their citizens as a result? Could it be solved by somehow increasing the amount of "regular" candidates/increasing the coverage of "regular" candidates? What are the possible alternatives to the current system (insofar as the desired result is more representation of or concern for "the working man")? Anything else?
I think what it is is that labor issues have largely been thrown aside from the focus of politics. Part of this has been that Labor Unions have been less supportive of Left Wing politics and many of its members are socially conservative, so the traditional groups which support them aren't as strongly behind them because of their attitude towards minorities and women and because Labor Unions have declined in membership.
