Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Political seas are changing fast

By Peter McMahon - posted Friday, 11 August 2006


In Australia, the sudden energy debate (stimulated by Howard’s lurch towards nuclear energy), increasingly strange weather (with resultant economic effects), and issues like the Victorian wind power legislation and Toowoomba water proposals have become hot political topics.

The changes have even reached into that most sacred area of economic life - real estate - with the likelihood of interest rates hikes caused by rising inflation due largely to high petrol and banana prices (both aspects of the global crisis). As low interest rates have been the main pitch of the Howard Government, the political seas are fast changing.

Ultimately, the matter of most relevance here is how fast things are changing. This speed is due to the same two factors - the growing capacity and pervasiveness of information technology, and the realisation that global environmental systems and oil usage are running out of control at an accelerating rate. In both cases, thanks to Moore’s Law in relation to computer processing power and the growing demand of a still expanding global population developing fast (especially in China and India), exponential growth is occurring. And exponential growth means increasing acceleration.

Advertisement

In political terms the result is a cascade of issues that will soon overwhelm existing practices. Political parties and governments, already transforming to accommodate the knowledge rich, highly mediated world, will need to completely change to keep up.

One change will be the decline of the specialist spin-doctor, and the rise of the informed issue specialist, and ultimately, that forgotten creature, the theorist. As issues of real substance emerge, an increasingly well-informed public will not accept the usual glib sound bites from the public relations hacks. Instead, politicians will be forced to go to well-informed sources to be able to debate the issues. Sometimes these sources will be locals who understand the local specifics, which will promote a return to local political connections. Also politicians will increasingly rely on those with appropriate knowledge who already understand the trends and who are thus not thrown by sudden events.

Given that response speed is crucial, time for prolonged consultations will increasingly disappear, and politicians will need to employ people who can stay ahead of the debate by maintaining their knowledge base. This is done through both relevant technology (for example, papers, books, the Internet) and maintaining broad contacts with a number of individuals (former student or activist colleagues).

Pretty much everyone knows the basic rules of public relations management now, and the details are increasingly better taken care of by information technology specialists. This, and the need to maintain staffers and other contacts who actually understand issues - and can thus participate in fast-moving debates - will see the end of the specialist spin doctor who saw all policy as just undifferentiated content and who focused on process.

The new politics will be primarily defined by flexibility through access to knowledge resources. It will return to focusing on the fast-changing real world, as opposed to the internal processes of political power.

There is much good news in the advent of change. Politics has become dull, moribund and largely irrelevant. It will bring well informed, serious-mined people back into politics, and politics will return to what it was supposed to be - open, well-informed debate on the substantive issues of the time - after decades of neglect. The new relevance of political processes will re-legitimate politics and thus government, and there will again be a countervailing force to the rampant dynamic of the market and the corporate sector.

Advertisement

Of course, whether this is enough, or soon enough, to deal properly with the threat of global catastrophe remains to be seen. At least politics - the life-blood of any functional society - will be interesting again.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. All

Article edited by Natalie Rose.
If you'd like to be a volunteer editor too, click here.



Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

26 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Dr Peter McMahon has worked in a number of jobs including in politics at local, state and federal level. He has also taught Australian studies, politics and political economy at university level, and until recently he taught sustainable development at Murdoch University. He has been published in various newspapers, journals and magazines in Australia and has written a short history of economic development and sustainability in Western Australia. His book Global Control: Information Technology and Globalisation was published in the UK in 2002. He is now an independent researcher and writer on issues related to global change.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Peter McMahon
Related Links
No more seduction by spin - On Line Opinion

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Photo of Peter McMahon
Article Tools
Comment 26 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy