Winston Churchill said in 1947 that democracy is the worst form of government except all other forms:
‘Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…’
It has also been said that as democracy is the rule of the people that means it is often the rule of the mediocre.
I think that democracy relies on the quality of candidates, and increasingly it seems many of the candidates on offer are mediocre at best. Recent elections around the world feature candidates who are worse than mediocre, but according to voters are not as bad as the alternatives.
But flawed democratic systems help enable flawed candidates and flawed governments. Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton is one example, two quite flawed candidates, and arguably the most flawed, with fewer votes, was able to take power.
This year’s election looks no better. Trump has proven more flawed than pessimists predicted, but Sanders, Trump and the populist juju
The best news for Bernie is that his rivals are so weak
The best news for Bernie is that his rivals are so weak. Joe Biden’s candidacy is a sad spectacle, his mind is gone, yet his zombie campaign drags itself on. Pete Buttigieg is a clear second in the delegate count, yet his pale imitation of Barack Obama’s rhetorical style leaves people cold. Amy Klobuchar is doing enough not to be discounted, yet not well enough to count. Elizabeth Warren has faded dramatically, but she kept her candidacy on life support with a good performance in last week’s TV debate. The person who lost that debate in Nevada was indisputably Mike Bloomberg. He still has enough money to brainwash and cajole large chunks of the electorate.
Team Bloomberg and Team Sanders now loathe each other — possibly more than they despise Trump.
The chances of an ugly election in the US and an ugly outcome look high. All the candidates look quite flawed. US democracy seems to deter decent candidates.
The Economist: Global democracy has another bad year
Democracy is in retreat, according to the latest edition of the Democracy Index from our sister company, The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). This annual survey, which rates the state of democracy across 167 countries based on five measures—electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government, political participation, democratic political culture and civil liberties—finds that democracy has been eroded around the world in the past year. The global score of 5.44 out of ten is the lowest recorded since the index began in 2006. Just 22 countries, home to 430m people, were deemed “full democracies” by the EIU.
New Zealand was rated as a “full democracy” at number 4 in the pecking order.
New Zealand decided to try to curb flawed governments by switching from First Past the Post (FPP), that enabled governments with far less than majority support. The Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) we adopted may be more representative, but it may well have resulted in more mediocre governments and more mediocre candidates.
The leaders and parties on Parliament now are disappointing.
Jacinda Ardern has excelled at some things but overall has looked weak, Her Labour are widely perceived to have underperformed.
Winston Peters won’t have disappointed many because expectations were low. he would have to be one of our most flawed politicians, and his party isn’t referred to as Winston First for nothing. His most prominent co-MP, Shane Jones, has significant flaws too.
Green support collapsed before the last election after the flaws of Metiria Turei turned their campaign to custard. As a Minister James Shaw has worked hard with limited power, as a leader he has been missing in action. Co-leader Marama Davidson has narrow appeal and has not had a good term.
Simon Bridges may have improved a bit as leader of National but that was from a less than mediocre starting point. National maintains good levels of poll support but that may reflect more on the weakness of the alternatives rather than anything.
David Seymour had a good year last year and may manage to get one or two ACT MPs to join him, but will remain small fry on the fringe.
Local (Dunedin) MPs are the disappointing Minister of Health David Clark and the failed minister of a few minor things, Clare Curran.
What are the alternatives? Colin Craig, Kim Dotcom and Gareth Morgan all tried to start up new parties but despite big money their flaws and the threshold defeated them.
Current alternatives look like list causes. The Sustainable Party never fired and has since crashed and burned. The New Conservatives don’t have a leader or candidates that will get them far, they will be lucky to get to half the threshold.
Some are promoting an add-on to our democracy, a People’s Assembly. I don’t think our politicians will hand over power, but it’s hard to see it being any more than mediocre.
Voters in a democracy look for strong leadership. That’s lacking in New Zealand’s current democracy.
Why do we get such a weak and flawed bunch of candidates to choose from? Is it money? While being an MP has become a career for some there is much better money in private business – and as a public servant – than being a politician in the public spotlight.
I think the way politicians are exposed by media and increasingly social media must deter many potential candidates. Who would want to risk that crap? Better to anonymously earn more elsewhere.
I don’t have any solutions to offer for the generally poor and diminishing quality of candidates. Does anyone have any ideas on how to turn this around?
Perhaps democracy is simply destined to decline.