Opinion & Commentary

Youth disgust weakens democracy

We might as well face it, democracy has an image problem. According to the most recent Lowy Institute Poll, only 59 per cent of Australians believe “democracy is preferable to any other kind of government”. Among 18 to 29 year-olds, the percentage is even lower. More than half our young people would prefer to ditch democracy altogether. In a country in which voting is compulsory, one in five young people do not even bother to register to vote.

What is going on? Do Australian youth yearn for an Aussie Hitler or Stalin? Would they prefer the Red Brigades? Of course not; they are simply reacting to what they see around them. Australia is not exactly a shining example of Athenian democracy. Blathering politicians are recycled while the general population has trouble making its voice heard above the din.

Three years ago, a back-room cabal removed Kevin Rudd and anointed Julia Gillard party leader. After years of scheming, and several failed attempts, Rudd finally returned the favour and then, with a perfectly straight face, called for a kinder, gentler politics.

We can always hope, but experience suggests our politicians will not spend the lead-up to the next election engaging in mutually respectful political debate. Instead, the campaign will almost certainly degenerate into a cacophony of name calling, vilification, and character assassination, which will become increasingly strident as the election draws near.

This will lead to our young people becoming even more disenchanted with democracy.

On the night of his resurrection, the Prime Minister acknowledged Australia’s youth are disaffected. He called on them to get involved in social issues. He got the symptom right but not the diagnosis.

Young people are not apathetic. They put tremendous energy into social movements – women’s rights, environmentalism, fighting poverty and much more. They readily join NGOs, participate in “occupations” and spread their ideals through social media. Our youth want to change the world, they just don’t believe that our political parties provide a mechanism to do this.

And they are right. Rather than seek the common good, political parties have become self-serving cliques of (mostly) old men whose methods, motives and messages have not changed since their grandfathers lit up their back room cigars.

As political parties shrink and single-interest groups grow, our democracy weakens. Single-interest groups focus on one goal (stop drilling for coal seam gas, for example). They are intolerant of other views, and they equate compromise with selling out. But democracy can quickly turn into tyranny without compromise. To get the best outcome, you have to give a little here and get a little there.

Homelessness, poverty, crime and all of the other big social problems have multiple causes; they cannot be solved by pressure groups pushing one specific goal. Democracy requires people with different aims to work together.It requires broad-based political parties, which include young members.

There is only one way our increasingly sclerotic political parties can reach out to the young. The parties need to articulate a compelling vision of what they are trying to achieve for the nation.

Taxpayer-funded propaganda bragging about the number of new laws passed by parliament is not a vision, nor is giving more money to schools. Legislation and spending programs are only tools for achieving social goals, they are not goals in themselves. It’s sad to say, but at this point in history, Australia is a nation of means without ends.

Politicians receive lots of useless advice at election time. Emmeline Pankhurst, the campaigner for women’s rights, advised Keir Hardie (the first leader of the British Labour Party), to contest the 1924 election on a platform of celibacy, prohibition and rights for women. Not a total vote winner, I admit, but at least Ms Pankhurst knew what she wanted the world to be like.

If they want to attract more members (old and young), then our political parties need to come clean. Here is a political narrative that I would like to see a party adopt: “We disapprove of effortless entitlements and will wind them back. We believe in success though hard work, but there are some missing rungs on the ladder of social mobility. So, we will invest in health and education to ensure all have the opportunity to live up to their potential and make their full contributions to society.”

Steven Schwartz is a senior fellow of The Centre for Independent Studies.