Varied responses to political failures

DIFFERENT societies react differently to pretty similar challenges, especially economic ones. The prevailing ethos — left or right — usually leads the decision-making process once it has established itself in parliament.

That was seen in the overnight session of the Greek parliament on Thursday when MPs overwhelmingly approved a third bailout deal for their troubled country. That vote was so divisive that an early election is expected. Irrespective of who is returned to power after that election, if there is one, Greece’s position will be very difficult.

In America, as the end of President Barack Obama’s second term in office approaches, the scramble to win either the Republican or Democratic nomination veers towards something so bizarre as to be disturbing. When Ronald Reagan began his climb to the White House in 1980 he was derided as a B-movie actor parroting someone else’s lines, but compared to some of today’spresidential hopefuls, he seems a philosopher king. This denouement must worry anyone who cares for America and the generally positive influence it brings to bear around the world.

In Britain voting for a new Labour Party leader has begun and there is a very real prospect that the old fashioned, principled socialist Jeremy Corbyn might be elected. He has polarised the British left, some warning that Labour would be unelectable under his leadership. Others suggest with equal conviction that a return to the old policies of the left offered by Corbyn is the only way to protect the most vulnerable in society and realise a equitable distribution of resources. In Spain, less than a 18 months after it was founded, the left-wing Podermos is becoming ever more popular. In May’s European elections, it secured almost 8% of the vote and had five MEPs elected. Compared to, say, Fianna Fáil, this is a resounding opeing salvo. The Arab Dawn, a movement that offered such hope not so very long ago, has petered out an been replaced by an escalating horror story, one that is increasingly volatile and unpredicatable.

All of these developments, and many more around the world, an are an expression of disenchantment with how, for the want of a better term, established conservative political parties responded to the economic collapse and, in north Africa, the appetite for strengthened democracies.

By and large the traditional parties of power have not been convincing in their response to the economic collapse and its causes. They have not shown an energetic willingness to confront the practices and culture, or white-collar crime, that destroyed so much wealth and many countries capacity to provide the services its citizens expect.

In Ireland we are no different. Our Government, for whatever reason, talk the talk about light touch regulation but still shy away from confronting deeply-rooted vested interests. That is unfortunate enough, but the real tragedy is that it will, come election time, open the door to the kind of extremism that has shown itself utterly incapable of good governance in any society that choses it. And the clock is ticking...