Technocrats are on the rise, as is anti-politics sentiment, but politics remains the only way to answer complex questions
In June 2012, the second Greek elections took place along "pro" versus "anti" bailout lines. Although the German government had pledged not to endorse anyone in the Greek race, on the day before the election, Angela Merkel said it was vital for Greece to elect lawmakers who would respect austerity commitments. Not surprisingly, in the event, the exhausted and bewildered Greek electorate gave the main opposition party the right to form a coalition.
On the face of it, who could blame the Germans? Except, of course, never in recent history has so much interference been tolerated in the election of an independent sovereign country, and with so little comment outside that country about the unacceptability of such encroachment.
Politicians in Europe seem to be either adopting the guise of technocrats, or being replaced by them. In Germany, technocratic solutions (and a particular form of economic orthodoxy) suits both the German psyche and their economy. Yet the removal of the prime minister in Greece – like the removal of both the prime minister and the cabinet in Italy – could be seen, in some respects, as a coup.
Politics and professional technocracy have blended seamlessly. Faith in technocrats over politicians is not a trend from which Britain is exempt. Peter Keller, president of polling organisation YouGov, tested in spring the proposition that "Britain would be governed better if our politicians got out of the way, and instead our ministers were non-political experts who knew how to run large organisations". Almost as many people agreed, 38%, as disagreed, 43%.
But it is at this moment we need politics and, dare I say it, politicians more than ever. Both to articulate the language of priorities, as described by Aneurin Bevan, but also to mediate and decide between contradictory demands from the public and short-term pressures alongside long-term imperatives. How much should we cut spending? Do we need to raise taxes? How do we structure our health and education systems? Making progress on these complex issues can be met only by elections, political engagement and democracy.
Yet in order to defend politics and therefore political democracy, we need to change the way in which we "do" our politics. My pamphlet In Defence of Politics Revisited, published this week, sets out several concrete suggestions for how to achieve this.
One unusual but not unthinkable idea, for instance, is for government to directly support mutual action and key campaigns. In the spring of 2012, consumer magazine Which? organised, under the heading The Big Switch, the coming together of almost 40,000 people in order to negotiate a better deal on domestic energy consumption. Government support for such initiatives would be transformational.
Similarly, nurturing the process of getting people to run their own facilities locally can be seen as one of the few positive developments from the austerity agenda. There are good examples in North America of how services have been reshaped to offer this new way of meeting need. In Oregon, for example, people with mental health conditions are helped to live independent lives through a personal budget. They are assigned an adviser to identify goals and how to best use the budget to buy goods and services which will help them achieve these aims. "Co-delivery" would help people to help themselves.
At the heart of pioneering a new approach to service delivery, we also need new finance mechanisms to help tackle the widening gap between rich and poor. This should include lifelong accounts developed jointly between the individual and government contributions.
And at the centre of all this, we must refocus politics on core issues that matter most to people. Taking on the challenges of an ageing population and affordable retirement, and mobilising civil society through volunteering (including direct support to the million young people out of work and training) will require engagement, creative thinking and determination.
We need to reaffirm that politics is not merely compatible with economic progress and development in the 21st century, but essential to it. In Europe, we cannot hope to move forward in a co-operative and productive way whilst one country seeks to dominate. But by confirming the importance of politics and politicians in Britain, we can build from the bottom up, and begin to reverse the worrying anti-politics trend, which will empower the elite technocrats and leave defenceless the man or woman in the street with a mere vote to cast.
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