THE NEW POLITICS; IS THE PARTY OVER?

Those who value democracy the most are those who don’t have it. Witness the huge queues in the blazing sun of Zimbabwe risking beatings by Government thugs, or the massive turnouts in the ex-Soviet colonies like Poland when, free at last, they were able to vote. Alas, after the first few elections in Central and Eastern Europe, the numbers going to the polls dropped to the levels of other European democracies. Democracy is a tough business. Nobel Prize winners and heroes of freedom and perestroika, Lech Walewsa and Mikhail Gorbachev, at the end of their political careers, couldn’t muster 2% of the vote. That’s how it is and how it should be. As I said after another election loss, through gritted teeth and a fake smile, “the people are always right, even when they are wrong they are right.” The best election-night loser was U.S. Democratic nominee candidate, Mo Udall who, said to tearful supporters, “Isn’t democracy great, the great American people have spoken, we must celebrate this freedom!” (muted cheering and clapping), then looking straight down the barrel of the camera, finished his political career by proclaiming, “The great American people have spoken ..... the bastards!”

The industrial age and its manifest injustices as western societies urbanised, gave rise to the party structures normally based on class that we are so familiar with now. The franchise gradually widened. The U.K. only became a real democracy with votes for women in the 1920’s. Some states in Australia would not have passed a democratic test until the 1970’s, given the rural quota which meant a rural vote was worth many urban votes. But something new is happening. The party system based on branch membership is melting down like a lump of sugar in a hot cup of coffee. The Financial Times recently reported that “party membership in New Zealand fell from 23.8% to 2.1%. Denmark 15.7% to 3.1%, and the U.K. from 10% to 1.9%. U.K. party income rose by 42% between the 1960’s and 1990’s, while party staff numbers fell by 56%. The U.S. has never really had mass membership parties. Parties are now ‘brands’ that have outsourced their work to public relations companies, pollsters, researchers, and spin doctors. Paid for now in the main by rich supporters and corporations. Political activists now don’t seek out parties to join, but realise their political ambitions through pressure groups. Greenpeace U.K. has more members than all the political parties in Britain combined. Enlisting the support of Oxfam and National Rifle Association means money for candidates but also credibility through endorsements. Politics has probably always been show business for ugly men, now show business celebrities and politics have converged. Bono is treated like a head of state and addresses party conferences, his star quality ensures a full turnout of cameras when he meets congressmen in Washington. Saint Bob Geldorf joins hands across the world to raise awareness and money for poor countries. Hollywood politics is coming to a town near you. Is President Bush Steve McQueen or Chuck Norris of the Texas Rangers? Is Senator Kerry Henry Fonda or the doomed priest from the movie “The Exorcist”? 50 million Americans watched them debate, almost as many worldwide. Al-Jazeera, the Arabic channel carried the debate live.

Media coverage is tightening to smaller TV bites and radio grabs every election, politicians are rewarded if they can master the 20-second sound bite. Parliamentary democracy has given way to telecratic and talk-back democracy. Technology simultaneously has reduced and expanded the debate. Web page manifestos now reach beyond the powerful filter of media magnates, email petitions have enlarged public participation. Chat-rooms can replace home and street-corner meetings. Appearing on a talk-show is more important than visiting a marginal constituency. The political parties’ primary role of driving up policy and acting as middlemen for candidates and voters is over. Now mass media has made it instant, relatively cheap and easy. That’s how tycoons such as Prime Minister Berlusconi of Italy, and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand were able to finance new parties and take power. It helps if you own a football club, or a good brand. Politics is the ultimate reality show. Industrial age Taylorist assembly line party systems have given way to the Information age. Those parties that adapt, win; those that don’t, perish. Labour, National, Liberal are still good brands even if these hallowed parties have been hollowed out.

To think I wasted the best years of my life as a teenager putting out chairs for branch meetings. I like the old ways and old days, perhaps because I look my best on radio.