Parties without members

The Greens new leader, Senator Richard Di Natale, is probably the sanest, least obnoxious person to hold that position. But he was installed in a very tricky manoeuvre after the sudden resignation of his predecessor. This was necessary because the membership, given time, would have pushed for a more extreme option.

The Greens maintain a high level of secrecy about their internal affairs, and this is usually interpreted as part of their old far left heritage, but it could well be due to a need to hide the membership from scrutiny. Some relatively normal people who have attempted to join The Greens report that the branch meetings are rather scary events. One meeting is usually enough.

As Di Natale and his MP supporters try to make the party more electable the greatest opposition is likely to come from his own members.

The general public is way out in front of the politicians on issues such as gay marriage, euthanasia, promotion of alternative energy sources, population, the republic, and more. But the unrepresentative nature of political party membership stops the adoption of popular policies. The Greens have adopted some of the popular positions but their members' insistence on crazy economics and self-righteous moralising means they are not an option for most voters.

It is almost impossible to see the old model of a mass party, with well-attended monthly meetings in community halls, ever being revived. In the era of big-money politics the membership have little practical or financial value to the party leaders and the old ideologies are no longer sources of inspiration or fear.

Rather than trying to get sane citizens to sign up it could be time to try something radical and abandon the old idea completely. Parties could be registered as a form of company with very limited ownership. Each one would be dominated by Members of Parliament and candidates, and a few financial backers. Funds could still be raised from donors who supported the policy program developed.

In practice that would not be much different to what happens now, except that the need to appease weird and recalcitrant memberships would disappear. New, more specific and short-term ways to engage the general public could then be developed.

The link between citizens and politicians is one of the many social structures in transition. Being first to create a successful new model could deliver great success.