Beware of those who promise new politics

'They started out idealistic and democratic but eventually became dominated by a self-serving group of people, who have achieved positions of power and responsibility. They became enthralled by their elite positions and more inclined to make decisions that protect their power, rather than represent the will of the group they are supposed to serve.' 'They started out idealistic and democratic but eventually became dominated by a self-serving group of people, who have achieved positions of power and responsibility. They became enthralled by their elite positions and more inclined to make decisions that protect their power, rather than represent the will of the group they are supposed to serve.' You could be forgiven for believing that this is a reference to the current government and the state which Ireland finds itself in. However, these are words coined by the German sociologist Robert Michels in his 1911 publication 'Political Parties, The Iron Law of Oligarchy'. One hundred years ago, Michels recognised the inbuilt tendency of all complex social organisations to turn bureaucratic and highly undemocratic. According to Michels, even left-wing parties of western Europe in the pre-World War 1 era who were committed to mass democracy and equality tended to become de facto oligarchies. He noted that, even in his own fundamentally democratic organisation, The German Social Democratic Party (SDP), only a few people in executive positions actually held power and made all the important decisions. Eventually, the SDP leaders gained real legislative power and public prestige, but instead of serving the collective will of the mass membership they were, in fact, dominating and directing it. Over the past three decades, it could be argued that Ireland has developed its own fine version of the 'Iron Law of Oligarchy'. The political oligarchy is the last one standing or, at least, the one in the public eye. However, it is clear that there were also banking and business oligarchies, among others, who gained their own elites who cornered power for their own interests. Consistent with the 'iron law', many of these oligarchies were controlled by the smaller elite groups within them rather than the larger body whom they purported to represent. Hence, widespread apathy evolved from the early 1990s onwards with consistently lower levels of participation in democratic organisations and in referenda and general elections. The irony of the 'iron law' is that such apathy fosters even better conditions for the oligarchy and preserves their dominance for far longer than it would otherwise do. The apathy that has existed for well over a decade now, has suddenly been arrested by the shock of the disastrous outcome of the behaviour of some of those oligarchies, particularly the banking and political ones. Hence a widespread alienation has emerged with all forms of establishment, and out of that alienation a growing tendency is evolving where economic and business commentators are being proffered as some form of super-intellectual, managerial elite who could sort out all our problems. In most cases, people suggest that these people should not even have to be elected but should come from some form of list or preferred system which would allow them not have to answer to the people. In fact, almost all of the people calling for political reform are actually arguing for reduced democracy and not more, and are, therefore, arguing for lesser accountability and even more extreme forms of oligarchy than we have experienced. As citizens, we must all take responsibility for taking an active role in our community, locally and nationally. The preoccupation with an economy has been indulged at the expense of our community, and particularly, our health system. The spectre of hundreds of people waiting on trolleys is an annual event, both in the good times and now in the bad times. It is a growing indication that society simply does not care until the problem comes to its own doorstep. We will have an election soon and the only people who we can vote for are those who will put their names on the ballot paper. There is every possibility that many new faces right across the existing political parties will emerge from this election and politics will change as a consequence. To indulge in the folly of following those who concentrate only on the economy and offer apparently quick fix solutions will be a bad mistake. We must seek commitments from our political parties that wrongdoing will be punished and that laws, like our Offences Against the State Act, will be revised to encompass white collar crime and those who put the nation in peril. We must demand of those canvassing us that our health service will be a priority and not an afterthought, and that the standard of education of our children is of high quality in terms of international comparison. We must demand that they prioritise work for our people and that, instead of pouring money down the black hole of bank debt, they demand of the banks of the world that mortgages reflect the actual value of property now rather than the grossly inflated and unjustified prices that was demanded from the ordinary householder in the past decade. These are, indeed, extraordinary times but it is important to note that the 'Iron Law of Oligarchy' suggests that people wishing to avoid oligarchy should take a number of precautionary steps. They should make sure that the rank and file citizens remain active in the politics of their country and that leaders should not be granted absolute control of a centralised administration. As long as there are open lines of communication and shared decision-making between leaders and the people, an oligarchy cannot easily develop and sustain itself. Money is still the root of all evil and power still corrupts. We must avoid allowing our frustration with what has happened lead us to the point of handing away our democracy to monosyllabic experts whose cure may be worse than the cause. We can make a change and we can change politics by participating fully on the next occasion of a general election and making it clear that we will be there to judge those same people on the next occasion and every one thereafter. Dave Hughes is Deputy General Secretary of the Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation (INMO)