March 13, 2006
It should be more about the renewal of social democracy, shouldn't it? But the factions are no longer concerned with a contest of ideas. If it cannot be carried out through the factions, where in the party can this debate about renewal occur? On its margins?
Leahy
Clive Hamilton has a go at addressing the issue of renewal. He argues that an incipient recognition that the old model (statism?, welfarism?, the distribution of wealth?, the traditional deprivation model of social democracy?, egalitarianism?) can no longer serve the interests of the party or the nation.
The new thinking that is being opened is based on the realization that though we live in a nation with record levels of financial growth and prosperity, we alao live with record levels of discontent and public angst. We are on a treadmill of work; sense the lack of solidarity; find consumption as the reward for work disatisfying; yearn for community etc. Wasn't the Third Way meant to be all about this? Hamilton argued in Growth Fetish that most Australians want to turn their backs on material wealth.
Hamilton says that:
...there is an air of unreality about the debate over factionalism. The problem is characterised as a purely institutional one. The debate is wholly inward-looking, as if the problem lies solely with a handful of power-hungry factional bosses who have managed to capture the party. The structural problems are rarely debated in historical terms, so no one asks what has been happening in Australian society that has allowed the ALP to be transformed from a party built around a powerful set of values and social goals into one dominated by personal fiefdoms.
Hamilton adds:
The problems of the party structure are manifestations of a wider malaise - ideological convergence, individualisation in society, the withdrawal from politics and the withering away of solidarity. The party that evolved to represent the interests of trade unionists and their families cannot survive in a world where union membership has shrunk to less than a quarter of the workforce and where those who remain have been depoliticised.The Labor Party has served its historical purpose and will wither and die as the progressive force of Australian politics.
It's an accurate diagnosis.
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