Our democracy is not ‘set and forget’
by Aruna Sathanapally
Democracy has been under sustained pressure worldwide in recent decades. Three-quarters of the world’s population now live in autocracies, and the quality of existing democracies, most notably the US, has declined, in terms of checks and balances on power, democratic freedoms and equality before the law.
Australia’s democracy remains a bright light in this darkening world.
We are one of the world’s healthiest democracies, on account of our electoral processes, the rarity of public sector corruption, our living standards, and our trust in each other.
But we are not immune to the viruses that circulate. In today’s world, our institutions face three intersecting global stressors.
First, the decline of traditional media and the rise of online and social media-based information sources is fragmenting our shared fact base.
Democracies across the world are increasingly threatened by misinformation, polarisation and extremism.
Second, anti-democratic forces are gaining power, and the international rules-based order is fraying. Globally, this is testing the liberal norms Australia has stood for since the post-war settlement.
Third, the heightened probability of economic, social, and environmental shocks increases the challenges democratic governments face to deliver the living standards their citizens expect.
We face a future of rolling shocks, which demands more of public communication, government preparedness, the public purse, and our collective willingness to make sacrifices for the greater good.
These global risks come at us on top of existing Australian fault lines – a housing market of haves and have-nots, an energy transition that still does not have bipartisan support, and an ageing population with high service expectations but not the tax base to match them – that place our social compact under pressure.
Fortunately, Australians’ support for democracy is consistently strong – in fact, more of us say today that democracy is preferable to any other kind of government than was the case in 2013. But our satisfaction with how our democracy is working is more fragile, and in absolute terms our trust in political actors remains low.
Australians aren’t brimming with confidence that our politicians are always acting in our best interests or able to tackle our biggest challenges.
In these circumstances, we would be wise not to treat our democracy as “set and forget”.
Rather, our system of government needs to meet the times we live in, where credible information, trust in our institutions, and social inclusion are paramount to our resilience as a society, our ability to make and implement the best-available collective decisions in a tougher world, and our ability to make necessary trade-offs as a society to build a brighter future.
Our parliament sits at the centre of Australia’s democratic system. We select representatives from every community across this vast country, through electoral processes (including compulsory voting, preferential voting, and democracy sausages) that lead the world.
But when they gather in parliament, we don’t make the most of it as a deliberative chamber, the place where we can work constructively to find solutions that are broadly understood and accepted.
And there are going to be plenty of big, tricky questions we need to answer in the years ahead. For instance, if the development of AI starts to change the structure of the jobs market and disrupt the channels by which economic benefits are broadly shared, we are going to have to work out a way forward without a clear road map.
Our federal politicians are expected to represent large electorates – larger than most of our peer countries. Our parliament has been slow to reflect the make-up of our population. And the behaviour of politicians is a driver of trust in political institutions.
Processes dominated by partisan warfare, rather than calm and reasoned deliberation engaging with the community and experts, compromise the experience of our elected representatives and the willingness of Australians to put their hands up for the job.
An independent review should consider how to improve the representative, legislative, and executive functions of Australia’s parliament. Increasing the size of parliament should be on the table to enable MPs to be better representatives, and doing so is an opportunity to improve standards of conduct, make better use of cross-party parliamentary committees, and make parliament more responsive to public ideas.
And in the meantime, lower electoral spending caps would reduce the fundraising arms race between parties and give parliamentarians more time to focus on their job rather than securing funds.
A democracy is government “of the people” and “by the people”. But it also needs to be for the people.
Our democracy needs to deliver. Citizens expect governments to tackle the big challenges. Many of ours have been brewing for decades.
If our system is stuck – if we cannot make sensible changes to move our energy mix durably away from fossil fuels, fix our housing system and our tax system, lift economic growth and ensure its benefits are broadly shared – then increasingly we risk losing the confidence, especially of young people, that our democracy can deliver long-term benefits, without being blocked by vested interests or inertia.
Over human history, liberal democracy is relatively recent, hard-won, and precious.
We need Australia’s democracy to perform at its best through the turbulent times ahead, and we should set aside our cynicism and roll up our sleeves to see that it does.