Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader of Britain’s Labour Party — despite the opposition of Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and most of Labour’s elite — is a major shock to Britain’s political system. It has been clear for several weeks that Corbyn was likely to win. Yet when he decided to run for leadership, he was regarded by political commentators as a complete outsider. His success suggests that there’s something wrong with Britain’s pundits — and perhaps with Britain’s party system.
In 2013, Peter Mair’s book “Ruling the Void” came out, two years after the author had died unexpectedly of a heart attack. Obviously, Mair didn’t predict the rise of Jeremy Corbyn in particular. Nonetheless, his diagnosis explains why someone like Corbyn could succeed, against the odds, and gives us some sense of his chances for success in future.
There’s something rotten in Britain’s and Europe’s political parties
Mair’s book is a study of European political parties — and how they no longer play the role that they are supposed to. Once upon a time, political parties like Labour created a vital link between the public and political decision making. They were never perfect, but they allowed citizens to get involved in politics, and, when they didn’t like what the government was doing, to vote against the parties that run it.
Now, this is no longer true. Mair argues that a twofold process is taking place. First, European political elites — the people who really make decisions — are finding that they don’t really need the party rank and file as much as they needed. Parties are supported more by state funding than by members. Party leaders are more interested in their role as part of the government than in representing their voters. Second, the ordinary public is drifting away from parties. They are less likely to vote, and when they do vote, they are more likely to shift from party to party.
Mair argues that this is bad for democracy. Quoting another political scientist, Rudy Andeweg, who says that “the party … becomes the government’s representative in the society rather than the society’s bridgehead in the state,” Mair suggests that political parties are becoming glorified spin doctors for state power. The structures of power and decision making are increasingly “protected from the people and from excessive input.” As British sociologist Colin Crouch argues, this also means that political elites come to identify less and less with voters, and more and more with the representatives of special interests whom they socialize with, who provide them with financial support, and who shape their fundamental ideas about what policies are acceptable and what policies are unacceptable.
Read the full piece at The Washington Post.