2023 FUTURE OBSERVATORY
2023 FUTURE OBSERVATORY
In the post-war years, the practical workings of western democracy were often based upon processes lying outside of the formal electoral system. Thus, in the 1960s and 1970s it came to be generally accepted that there were many (plural) groups - usually outside of government - which also wielded a degree of political power. More important, the belief then was that it was possible to achieve a balance between these groups; or, at least, to reach some form of consensus.
In the 1980s the political scene had returned to a more confrontational - black versus white - coloration; where a consensus was no longer sought - and even a search for consensus was seen to be a sign of weakness.
The indications are that the political establishment - oppositions just as much as government, locked into a shared groupthink world-wide - is still firmly committed to the latter, confrontational, view. On the other hand, electorates - finally disillusioned by the failures to deliver the certainties they were promised in the 1980s - seem to be moving back to a pluralist consensus which is extending down to individualism - where it is the individual who counts, not just the group to which he or she gives their allegiance.
The new US hegemony has slowed down this process and indeed the US is the one country where confrontation (between the Republicans, and especially the right-wing members of the administration, and the Democrats) is increasingly entrenched.
15 May 2003
Other pages you might like to consider are:
hits
Copyright © 2005 Future Observatory