Comrades: There has been very recently a general election in the UK in
which the British Labour Party won an enormous majority in the House
of Commons and now forms the current government there. In the Irish R
epublic an election will more than likely take place sometime in June
of this year. Some reflection on the character of these elections is
opportune:
The general elections are a fight for the floating vote. The
election is generally fought and won over a minority of the
electorate: the floating electorate. This element within the
electorate tends to be fickle. It tends to vote this way or that for
the most fickle of reasons such as the facial features of candidates
or some such superficial characteristic. It is this element within the
elector ate to which the party political image industry has most
impact. The image and showbiz characteristic of modern elections is,
in a sense, a function of the need to win over this element within the
el ectorate.
Since it is among the least political element of the voting
electorate the floating electorate makes or breaks governments on the
basis of secondary and superficial matters. This tends to give elect
ion campaigns a more superficial character.
The elections are won or loss in the marginal constituencies. And
these marginals are won or loss on the basis of the how the floating
vote turns. In short a small minority of the electorate, in a se nse,
dictate the kind of government and even society we are to have. It is
to this minority that the official politicians direct most of their
attention. This minority increasingly determines the cha racter of
politics during the campaign and the character of media coverage
during it.
The floating vote appears to be increasing and is becoming a bigger
element in elections for a number of reasons. The shift of the main
parties to what is questionably called the centre is a factor i n
this. If there exists little difference between the principal
political actors on the electoral stage then clearly their success at
the polls will tend to be a product of secondary superficial fact ors
such as image, style and personality. Since the differences between
the contestants are marginal the contest tends to be grounded
increasingly on marketing, on creating the illusion of real diffe
rence. As a result of this the election is fought and won on the basis
of superficial issues. This means that election campaigns are
increasingly trivialised so that debate turns around superficial a nd
derivative matters while the fundamental issues tend to be
increasingly submerged under a mountain of trivia such as Tony Blair's
football skills in relation to Kevin Keegan (the logic being that if
you are good a football you are politically good). Instead of the
election contributing to the increased politicisation of the populace
the opposite dynamic takes place. Consequently politics tend s to turn
around superficial issues. People increasingly begin to think that
superficial issues is the meaning of politics. As the fundamental
issues retreat into the background superficial issues ar e, in a
sense, transformed into their opposite, fundamental issues. On the
other hand fundamental issues are turned into their opposite,
superficial issues. This is why it almost considered Neanderth al and
even kitsch to raise issues such as the need to eliminate market
relations. Politics then turns into anti-politics. Politics looses
becomes meaningless: the postmodernist's dream (buckets of w ee
signifiers emancipated from signification!). What is called politics
is no longer politics. Consequently the politicians elected into
government are less and less politicians but theatrical figur es from
puppitry. As this trend develops the real politics increasingly takes
place behind the backs of the people. The invisible figures in upper
echelons of the state and certain other capitalist i nstitutions makes
the real politics.
Consequently the difference between the political parties
continuously diminishes since they are constrained by the politics as
prescribed by the invisible cliques such as the invisible
administrator s of the state and parastatal bodies such as the
European Commission which are an expression of the objective
necessities of world capitalism. The official politicians are the
"frontmen" there to dis tract our attention while the significant
activity takes place behind the world stage curtain.
In short the election campaigns rather than contributing towards
increased politicisation forms part of a depoliticisation process: a
retreat form the Enlightenment tradition.
The above are but tentative observations on general elections in
Ireland, Gt. Britain and possibly elsewhere.
Karl