I was listening to the radio this morning as the
General Election starting guns were fired and politicians of all hues got on
their soapboxes and told all manner of untruths.
The Prime Minister first off the starting line and
discussed the reduction of the deficit. Now you can argue the rights and wrongs
of deficit reduction until the cows come home, however it was another phrase
that David Cameron used that intrigued me. He said that the Conservative party
were not undertaking the deficit reduction for ideological reasons. I started
to think, is our Prime Minister peddling a technocratic argument where we
essentially vote on which party is best at running government. Now this is
dangerous ground, it was famously said that Mussolini made the Italian trains
run on time. Is that a good reason to vote for a fascist party? I feel that I
need to know the fundamental ideology of the party that I am voting for.
I could agree with David Cameron that reducing the
deficit is a good thing, but I could profoundly disagree with him as to the
mechanics of undertaking this. So if we look at the current parliament there
has been a cut in taxes for high earners and corporations while at the same
time a reduction in benefits for poorer voters. Now presumably it was due to an
underlying Conservative ideology that it was undertaken in this way rather than
for instance preserving benefits and not reducing taxes. That is perfectly
legitimate, but lets be honest about it.
This is also very important as no matter what any of
the politicians tell us, they do not know what the future holds, and they will
be absolutely at the mercy of events and have to be reactive to those events.
At this point it is hugely important that I know the belief foundations that a
politician has, because this will shape his/her decision-making. If the voting
for a politician is about who can do thing the best, i.e. a technocratic
approach then we would be better off setting our candidates a series of
Apprentice style challenges and judge who accomplishes them better.
So please be passionate about your ideology, let us
know where you stand on the fundamentals, tell us your big idea, because that
it what achieving power is about the ability to change and impact things,
otherwise what is the point of standing for election. I want to be able to take
the measure of you as an individual not as a technocrat. So David tell us about
your ideology, shout it from the roof tops so that I can make an informed
decision as to whether yours is the sort of country I will be proud to live
in!!! I really want to hear the big ideas.
Your title caught my eye, Nigel. Here, "ideology" is a bit of a bad word as it connotes a fixed mindset, as in "these are my ideas and I'm going to stick with them regardless of events." Just after I read this post the other day, a report on NPR referred to someone as an ideologue, in an unfavorable way. Ideology seems to include process as well as desired outcomes. Instead, we look for vision, with flexibility in how to problem solve to achieve it, which speaks to character as well as skills. Two sides fixed on their own ideas, or ideology, without working together has landed us in the difficulties we find ourselves in here.
ReplyDeleteKarin, I understand your comments, what I think is that a politician should have a bedrock, for instance to re-distribute wealth. I am worried when one just says what he thinks the public wishes to hear.
ReplyDeleteI agree. The difference in our use of language struck me. And I am curious about the possible differences in how your parliamentary system encourages collaborative problem solving, or not, compared with our system. Good thing for me to read up on!!
ReplyDeleteKarin - At the moment we have a coalition government so there is some limited compromise between the two parties. Largely though the parliamentary system is confrontational, however because we have a weak second chamber and no president there is no log jam between the two. I suppose that my beef is that politicians have become two obsessed with what people want rather than what is right.
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