Australia's Democracy
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AUSTRALIA’S DEMOCRACY A STRATEGIC ROADMAP FOR RENEWAL Dr Mark Triffitt University of Melbourne Introduced by: Glenn Barnes & Verity Firth Co-Chairs, Citizens for Democratic Renewal AN INITIATIVE BY THE CITIZENS FOR DEMOCRATIC RENEWAL PART A A PART A B INTRODUCTION In Australia today, we citizens enjoy a of Social and Political Sciences at the University stable governance structure gifted to us by our farsighted forebears – citizens understanding of the serious systemic challenges of Melbourne – seeks to inform and improve from all walks of life, not just the Australia faces in our governance structures and practices, while bringing together a number of powerful and privileged. They strived possible remedies into a potential roadmap for for near 30 years to piece our Federation democratic renewal. together, based on a liberal democratic ‘representative government’ model, and In bringing these matters to your attention, we to gain popular support for it. public awareness of the issues involved and the It is now time for this generation of imperativeare seeking for to enlistcommunity your involvement wide engagement, in building Australians to put in a similar effort for discussion and consideration of how we can the benefit of today’s citizens and for name on a list of citizens supporting us, we need future generations. taxmake deductible our democracy donations work and better. we need We need public your During the nineteenth century the system commentary to help build broad awareness of of representative democracy evolved to the the need and opportunity for this project. antecedent of the current forms in use. The system All details are at democraticrenewal.org.au aimed to address the perennial challenge for Our end objective is to stimulate the establishment societies characterised by competing ideas and of our whole community, to determine how we ‘common interest’ decisions that the vast majority canof an regenerate Australian and citizens’ strengthen assembly, our thatdemocracy, is reflective caninterests accept. of finding a trusted process to make through: • Better enabling the discourse, deliberation, past hundred years in meeting the needs of those legislation, regulation and enactment of manyThis system societies has who worked adopted reasonably it - including well for Australia. the a transparent, fact-based, consultative, timely as practised today is not now meeting the needs andGovernment civil manner policy with making the common to be conducted good given in ofHowever, today’s theresocieties are andsignificant the myriad signs of that new the and system overriding priority; distinctive 21st century challenges they face. • Better representing the views of our population Frustration with the failure of our political system in government policy formulation; to move with the times has morphed into growing • Establishing a constitutional review process citizens who increasingly believe the system that will give us a contemporary constitution islack no of longer trust, geared cynicism to achievingand disengagement the common by promulgated and legislated by the people of interest. Instead of leading through transparent Australia (in place of the current constitution and fact-based, deliberative policy development - legislated by the UK Parliament in 1900!) that supported by processes of appropriate community wisely as we face contemporary and future averse and partisan in their policy development. opportunitiessets the framework and challenges. for governing our country Societiesconsultation are -venting politicians their have frustration become through reactive, risk voting for political extremes or fragmentation. is central to a sound economy and the wellbeing We are also seeing a growing pattern of civil ofEfficient the entire and community.effective government In today’s decisionworld this making disobedience as citizens resort to more radical requires that citizens see adequate ongoing action in the belief this is the only way to have their listening to, and weighting of their views, in the voices heard. policy development processes. While these patterns of dysfunction are evident We need your active help to achieve this, as it will across most liberal representative democracies, the good news is that the system can evolve to system to catalyse the impetus for change. overcome the current shortcomings. take action by those normally outside the political Glenn Barnes & Verity Firth Co-Chairs, Citizens for Democratic Renewal The accompanying paper, written by Dr Mark Triffitt – lecturer in public policy with the School PART A CONTENTS PART A 3 Executive Summary 4 The Problem of Democratic Decline 5 Democratic Decline in Australia 7 PART B 9 What’s at Stake? 10 Decline of Effective Government A Shift to Extremism PART C 11 Who’s To Blame? 12 What’s to Blame? 13 Democracy Disrupted 15 Two Connected Crises 16 PART D 17 A Roadmap for Renewing our Democracy 18 Reforms and Rationales 20 Conclusion – Renew or Wither Democracy? 22 PART E 23 Newspaper headlines & commentary 24 Books, Think Tanks & Reports 25 Citizens for democratic renewal: Aims & Objectives 26 Timeline for A National Conversation 30 Endnotes 31 Executive Summary The Problem of Democratic Decline Democratic Decline in Australia PART A PART A EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The paper highlights the imperative for The paper argues that the causes are much deeper major renewal of our democracy in view than conventional views that blame ‘bad’ political of declining public trust, engagement leadership. Instead, failure is occurring because of and increasing policy inertia which a fundamental and growing structural disconnect is threatening our nation’s capacity to govern itself effectively in the 21st muchbetween the our same democratic way as they system have –done still largelyfor the past century. The paper argues that these configured to operate and engage with citizens in problems are not one-off or temporary; the 21st century. In short, democracy has been rather they represent a deepening disrupted100 years in– and much the the new same and way different that many realities other of pattern of dysfunction across many areas of our society have been disrupted over the democracies around the globe, past 20 years. including Australia’s. representative and functionalThis disconnect is creating two interlinked crises eachfor our other. democratic These two system crises – have combined to create an environment – which are wherefeeding major off and policy amplifying change and public support for it is becoming increasingly for renewing Australia’s democracy to improve ourdifficult nation’s to achieve. ability toThe meet paper and outlines stay ahead a roadmap of and social policy decisions that now face us. Thethe myriad roadmap of complexrecognises and the difficult need to economic shift from in isolation, to a broader, innovative and multi- stagedpiecemeal agenda solutions for reforming that look our at one political problem and policy system so that Australia’s democracy better aligns with the fundamentally changed social and Above: Yellow vests political conditions of the 21st century. protests in Paris Below: Brexit protesters in the UK PART A 4 THE PROBLEM OF DEMOCRATIC DECLINE First row left to right: Theresa May; Emmanuel Macron & Donald Trump Second row left to right: Jeremy Corbyn; Bernie Sanders Democracy globally is at a tipping point. Nearly Young people in particular are detaching themselves in droves from active (or even passive) participation in formal democratic systems. Again, beenevery falling key indicator over the of past its healthdecade. – These trends are in the US, only 7 per cent of young people now notin particular, peripheral public or temporary, trust and butengagement are now strongly – has evident across the democratic world, particularly is now a deep distaste for mainstream politics in long-established, so-called ‘core’ democracies. andconsider distrust running of the for current public democratic office, reflecting system what to achieve public interest outcomes4 The percentage of Americans, for example, who young people in the UK feel largely alienated from say ‘they can trust the government always or mainstream politics, believing the current. Likewise, system most of the time’ has not exceeded 30 percent since 2007. In 2019, this number is 17 per cent1. to them5. Trust in the British government stood at 26 per does not reflect or address the issues that matter cent at the beginning of 2017, while trust political parties and political leaders to ‘do the right thing’ also stood at unprecedented low levels, at 18 and SUPPORT FOR AND 19 per cent respectively2. A similar trust crisis is ENGAGEMENT WITH MAJOR evident in national democracies across Europe, POLITICAL PARTIES IS ALSO and in particular in its continental democracy, the DROPPING ACROSS MUCH 3 European Union . OF THE DEMOCRATIC WORLD, WHILE PARTY MEMBERSHIP IS AT NEGLIGIBLE LEVELS. PART A 5 THE PROBLEM OF DEMOCRATIC DECLINE Support for and engagement with major political There are some variations in these downward parties is also dropping across much of the trends. Some indicators in some democracies democratic world, while party membership is at remain comparatively more positive. Short-term negligible levels. Although there remains a sense of circumstances play a role: a particular leader is elected, or responds to a particular event or crisis in a way that leads to a bounce in public conduitsparty identification to aggregate amongst and organise voters, voters the authority