2023 FUTURE OBSERVATORY
5185 SINGLE ISSUE
POLITICS
Pluralism
- under threat from the more extreme politics of the 1980s - has recently seemed
to re-emerge in an even stronger guise; as the range of single issues on
which groups within the population have focused, to great effect. The commitment
to such focused politics can be more intense than that given to party politics -
since it is not diluted by all the issues about which they, or the individuals
within them, feel less strongly. Indeed, the commitment is often much more
intense; in terms of the numbers of individuals actively supporting such
movements and - especially - in terms of those especially highly motivated
activists running the campaigns. Their real power, however, arises from the
level of
individual commitment.
It is much easier to give such a high level of emotional commitment to a woman's
right to an abortion, or to an animal's right to live without pain, than it is
to have the same visceral reactions to the compendium manifestos adopted by the
traditional, national political parties.
One result of the disintegration of the traditional social
groupings and, accordingly, of the traditional group (party) politics is
therefore that single issue politics is now growing rapidly - to fill the hole
thus left. One conclusion might be that the ultimate outcome of these processes
could be just one 'traditional' party remaining to fight a range of single issue
groups! Indeed, it would seem that many of the individual voters are now
increasingly committing to a
portfolio
of single issues - which, in aggregate, define their overall political position.
15 May
2003
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