What the world needs now is….Democracy!

I have written a number of blogs on democracy over the years and having returned from a holiday in Greece I feel the need to comment again.
A number of news items have ignited my thoughts on the most prescient issue of the moment, democracy. Here are some of the strands that I hope to tie together.
The first article from the ABC news website told the story of a group of our politicians going to Washington to engage with the DOJ about Julian Assange. Here was a collection of Liberal, Labor, National, Greens and an Independent appearing to be as disparate a group you could possibly imagine but with a unified message. The thing that struck me most was the confounded response by the U.S officials who could not process the concept of not just one political party being present but more than two!
Now this is in the shadow of the upcoming election of the president of the most influential country today, the U.S.A. With last week’s debate highlighting the profound and dismal contest that may be the end of the ‘democratic’ façade that has been held up for nearly 200 years. The drift to accepting a dictator has come as people there have seen the terrible failings of their antiquated system of government and their conflation of unrepresentative government, swayed by wealthy donors, with what they were fed as ‘democracy’
But it never was a democracy.
Meanwhile in the U.K the expectation of a collapse in support for the conservative government has pundits suggesting that the number of seats held by the Conservative party could fall from 344 to less than 100 while Labor could have an overall majority with more than 325 seats in a parliament of 650 yet only receiving less than 40% of the votes on current polling. The distortions will be interesting to follow up after polling day.
Again I would say that the U.K is not a true democracy.
So what to say of the last election in Australia that delivered a majority Labor government having 77 seats in the parliament of 150 seats yet only receiving 32.5% of the votes. Meantime the LNP managed only 58 seats with 35.7% of the votes. Further investigation provides these further anomalies-
The Greens with 12.2% of the votes have only 4 seats (instead of 18) while One Nation and UAP had 5 and 4% of the votes but no seats at all in the parliament when they should be entitled to 6 each.
Which leads me to my punchline that without representation in proportion to the votes cast, you do not have democracy.
Democracy can only be assured by the application of Proportional Representation in the allocation of seats to parliament.
Full stop.
So let’s look at a real democracy for enlightenment, Denmark, which so happens to have a vibrant economy, rates highly for education, social services and ranks near the top of ‘happiness and well-being’ indices.
A look at their parliament on Wikipedia shows the most fascinating outcomes.
The government is a coalition of 3 parties that also requires 4 other parties to guarantee confidence and supply and still governs in minority as the opposition of 10 parties has 2 more seats in parliament. Yet they make it work! No single party has held a majority since 1901. So all the talk of ‘hung’ parliaments leading to disaster in Australia is pure bluster from those unwilling to negotiate. Equally, any casual review of majority governments here or in the U.K, reveals the most appalling infighting with leadership coups the main priority of these governments. How can any sensible policy making occur when all the time and energy goes into skulduggery and back stabbing?
While writing this blog, I have been listening to a recording of the last LNL program on Radio National in which Philip Adams is himself interviewed by Laura Tingle to reminisce over 30 years of interviews. Sadly his final remarks showed pessimism for the future and feelings of helplessness as he heads off to spend time in retirement on his beloved farm. I can’t help feeling that if these towering intellects directed their energies to promoting democracy here in Australia then all other seemingly important issues would finally be dealt with.
There is only one sustainable way forward for the benefit of all Australians and that is adopting real representative democracy and until then, no amount of hand wringing and blind hope will change our world.