Where is the 21st Century Model For Democracy?

Click to enlarge

Great succinct assessment here (http://worldstreets.wordpress.com/2014/10/25/op-ed-political-behaviour-is-largely-non-rational), from someone based in Lyon, France, that applies equally to what is happening in Western Australia right now with the state government attempting to force local government amalgamations. Legal action might actually stop this one in its tracks and community pressure has forced some splits in the ranks of the powerful, but it shouldn’t be necessary (and isn’t always possible) to resort to the courts to curb the excesses of the Executive. Somewhere along the line, the Parliament has lost its way and is now no more than a rubber-stamp for the Executive in most cases.

My own view is that conventional political parties are 19th century dinosaurs, necessary in their day to achieve some form of consensus when communication was slow and cumbersome. The disengagement of people from politics is reflected in the plummeting membership of political parties (http://www.economist.com/news/essays/21596796-democracy-was-most-successful-political-idea-20th-century-why-has-it-run-trouble-and-what-can-be-do) which, in turn, allows small groups to dominate parties and further alienates the rest of us.

In the 21st century we have much more immediate and effective ways of influencing decisions (witness the rise of petition websites such as GetUp and Avaaz) than either Parliament or political parties. Until our political system embraces 21st century technology, including social networking, it will continue to move further and further from the ideals of democracy on which western societies are supposedly based.