What’s happened to politics?

Good question, Mr Editor, and one that is asked and answered by Bob Rae in his recently published book of the same title that I mentioned in a column a few weeks back, about which I promised a follow-up.

It is a quick read, if you can manage a copy of 147 pages, and well worth the time it takes to work your way through. He is a Canadian politician of considerable experience, wit and insight. He has served provincially and federally on government and opposition benches, including a stint as Premier of Ontario, and later switched parties to become interim leader of the federal Liberal Party. You might say he has seen and done it all.

Mr Rae is also a man of some talent as well. While no longer active in politics, he is now busy teaching public policy and governance at the University of Toronto. The timing of publication of his book couldn’t have been better. It was published just about at the start of the present election campaign; no coincidence, that, I am sure. Still, it is unlikely that the book or any of its recommendations will become the subject of Canada’s electoral battle. As Mr Rae himself points out very early on in the book, what happens after and between elections tells us far more about democracy than the result of an election. How true that; here, too.

In fact, the former Canadian politician makes a number of telling observations that ring true with me (surprise, surprise) which you may think very relevant to what’s happening here in Bermuda. Or not. Let me share some of them with you, briefly, to whet your appetite not just for the book, but on the need for change.

• Political parties today are constantly running permanent election campaigns. “Politics has become a full-time business in which incessant campaigning trumps real governance”

• A healthy dose of reality and scepticism is essential. As Rudyard Kipling pointed out: triumph and disaster are both impostors

• The growth of inequality is threatening the very fabric of society and diminishing social mobility is threatening people’s sense of fairness and opportunity

• Past paternalism, the remnants of colonialism, which remain a part of our laws and bureaucratic structures, need to be replaced. The model we inherited is not working for us. We need to fix what’s broken

• “Most people want moderate, intelligent politics that is based on evidence, good values and compromise”. They would like to see less pandering, less personal attacks and less partisanship, all of which seems to have become common currency

• “The purely majoritarian theory of democracy is not good enough. A richer view of constitutional democracy is needed”

• We should not just rely on the rule of the majority. Good government should mean that the power of the people is limited by what is fair to minorities or those in Opposition, and by what is reasonable, fair and constitutional

• Disagreement and debate is fine. People need to know the choices. But that is no reason to ever close out debate and to try and bend people to your will

• Doing politics differently means changing the way Parliament works (and for Bermuda, read the Legislature)

• “The growing disaffection with politics in democratic countries is no longer a passing trend” — if it ever was. “The consequences of this phenomenon will likely become even more severe with the passage of time.” It is fostering political estrangement that must be addressed to ensure a free and democratic future for those to come after us. Just working at the margins is not enough

There’s more, but I will stop there. You may want to buy the book and give it a read yourself. You may think it a Rae of hope. But only if we act, Mr Editor. If only.