It is a paradox of democracy that, while a few politicians are idolized from time to time, politicians, as a class, are criticised most of the time.
Criticism of politicians is no new phenomenon. When one looks at some of them through the prism of history, criticism is more than justified.
Shakespeare’s King Lear refers to “the scurvy politician”, who seems “to see the things thou dost not”. Anatole France was most scathing when he said, “I am not so devoid of all talents as to occupy myself with politics.” Nikita Kruschev ridiculed politicians saying that they seek “to build bridges where there are no rivers”.
Bribery and corruption have traditionally been associated with a class of politicians whose hunger for power is never assuaged.
In Britain, described by some as “the cradle of democracy”, Lord Ashley (later Lord Shaftsbury) successfully won Dorset in 1831 after spending £12,000 in public houses and inns for “the refreshment of the people” – and this when gin was a penny a glass! This phenomenon has manifested itself in different guises, in different countries, ever since, such as in Tammany Hall in the USA in the 1860s, and during the mani pulite trials in Italy some years back.
Vulnerabilities
All of this explains why dissatisfaction with politics runs deep, and why people sometimes express doubt about the future of the democratic system and its institutions.
It is worth trying to assess how and why things have come to such a pass. On mature reflection, there is insufficient public understanding on how new and vulnerable our present democratic system is.
To start with, universal suffrage, and the principle of one-person-one-vote, started to gain recognition only after World War One. In Malta, women won their right to vote after World War Two. Many democracies are still in the early stages of dealing with the problems and opportunities of democracy.
The advent of the party system leaves little room for independent members, and controversies, which used to take place outside the political parties, now take place inside closed party circles.
Thirdly, the party system led to the drawing up of detailed political programmes for presentation to the electorate. This has led to the doctrine that the party in power has a mandate to implement its entire manifesto. The modern practice of drawing up an electoral programme triggered a reaction from many electors who ask “what are you going to do for me in return for my vote?”
Electoral aspirations
The extensive and all-pervading development of the welfare state has snowballed. Come to think of it, one of the four great freedoms to which the late President Roosevelt aspired was “freedom from want”.
In progressive democracies, it is not enough to have democratic rights. Electors want a safety net.
The rapid spread of higher education has equipped people to criticise and question almost everything. Moreover, electors everywhere have far more information about events than ever before. The media convey the news much more vividly, and the Internet has broadened the volume, and accelerated the speed, of communication.
All of this influences the judgments electors have to make about events and about people, including politicians.
Finally, the innate international idealism of the masses has been subjected to very many shocks. There are less and less people who believe that, if all the representatives of all nations get together, to discuss dispassionately burning international problems, goodwill and, perhaps Providence, will guide one and all to wise and just solutions, thereby securing peace and the observance of international law.
In practice, as in democratic parliaments, nations vote, not according to right and wrong, but according to “national interest” or according to expediencies. Some of the speeches and propaganda, to explain or justify blatant actions, would make both the angels and the electorates weep!
Disillusionment
All of the above explains, in different circumstances, the disbelief and disillusion one often encounters today. It explains why democratic politics are often under examination.
Scepticism and questioning is healthy – so long as analysis if conducted along the right channels. There is never enough time available for this kind of healthy debate.
In Malta, the intellectual class, as a whole, seems to lack concern and appear indifferent to the search for an improved political climate, where the electorate as a whole is, at once, more enlightened and capable of playing a more active and independent role on the political stage.
While active politicians of all parties tend to consider themselves as members of one professional class, where are the countervailing forces to enlighten the electorate about the dangers of too much government and prudent public finance?
Who has been openly and consistently stimulating public awareness of the unspoken burdens that have been building up in recent years to threaten the security of future generations, as the national debt escalated and the welfare gap widened?
Why do some politicians place more and more emphasis on economics and less on people, and, at the same time, miss the fact that the ratio between the national debt and Gross National Product has risen from 15.8 per cent in l987 to over 75 per cent now? Who can believe their mantras, in support of the EU, when they have been playing ducks and drakes with the Maastricht criteria without batting an eyelid?
Who speaks on the need to give the individual citizen more independence from the State and its creeping bureaucracy?
Why do many politicians speak in terms of the plight of faceless “citizens”, instead of family heads, with mouths to feed, children to educate and dependents or relatives with drug problems, and of the environment in which they have to live?
Taking the long and short perspectives, these are democracy’s teething troubles.
It is true that maturity comes with time and experience, and that there is a learning curve for the practice of democracy.
But it is just as true that democracy cannot bloom into adulthood, before and unless it grows out of its teething troubles.
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