Britain is mired in democratic crisis – but it goes much deeper than Brexit: Aditya Chakrabortty
The master-text on the moment we’re in was published nearly 20 years ago. Coping With Post-Democracy was an alarm sounded by the
British political scientist Colin Crouch towards the end of Tony Blair’s first
term as prime minister. He coined the term “post-democracy” to refer to a
country that still had its ballot boxes and elected chamber and rowdy journalists
– only all were being drained of meaning. Democracy, argued Crouch, “thrives
when there are major opportunities for the mass of
ordinary people to
participate”.
But the
post-democratic order he saw taking shape was “a tightly controlled spectacle
managed by rival teams of professional experts in the techniques of
persuasion”, in which the interests of multinationals and big businesses would
always trump “the political importance of ordinary working people”, especially
with the withering away of unions. From here it was a
short step to today’s Westminster of “retail politics“, parties touting their
“offer“ and the apparatus of marketing. For a while, the sorcerers of the new
post-democratic system could buy our consent, as long as house prices kept rising
and cheap credit could be thrust down our throats. But then came the banking
crisis, which just showed our debt was the financiers’ credit and that they
would always collect.
From the wreckage of
that system came much of the 2016 vote for Brexit and it today ensures the
indifference of the public as a bunch of posh boys try to strip us of our
hard-won rights. Years before the advent of Facebook and Twitter, Crouch warned
of a public habituated to a “negative activism of blame and complaint”, no
longer interested in formulating constructive demands – but merely demanding
some MP’s head on a pikestaff... read more:
