Photo credit: capitalistpreservation.blogspot.com
What is a Cartel Party?
A recent article by
Peter Oborne from the UK Telegraph is titled “Europe is slowly strangling the
life out of national democracy,” with the subtitle “Decisions affecting the lives
of voters are being taken by bureaucrats and unelected 'experts'.” But substitute “The U.S. Government” for “Europe” and his
report will sound painfully familiar [emphasis added].
A 20-page article in an obscure
academic journal. . . written by the political scientists Richard Katz and
Peter Mair, and called “The Emergence of a Cartel
Party” . . . immediately explained almost everything that had perplexed me
as a lobby correspondent: the unhealthy
similarity between supposedly rival parties; the corruption and graft that has
become endemic in modern politics; the emergence of a political elite filled
with scorn and hostility towards ordinary voters. [The late Peter Mair’s
book] Ruling the Void: The Hollowing of
Western Democracy, . . . is every bit as brilliant as the earlier essay.
The opening paragraph is bold,
powerful, and sets out the thesis beautifully: “The age of party democracy has passed. Although the parties themselves
remain, they have become so disconnected from the wider society, and pursue a
form of competition that is so lacking in meaning.
. . . Political leaders no longer
represent ordinary people, but are becoming, in effect, emissaries from central
government.
. . . On virtually everything that matters, from the
economy to immigration, decisions are made elsewhere. . . . This means that decisions which viscerally affect the lives of voters are now taken by
anonymous, unaccountable bureaucrats rather than politicians responsible to
their voters.
Progressive members in both parties in Congress
fit the description of the Cartel party, to repeat:
The Emergence of a Cartel Party . . . explain[s] . . . the unhealthy similarity
between supposedly rival parties; the corruption and graft that has become
endemic in modern politics; the emergence of a political elite filled with
scorn and hostility towards ordinary voters.
In this category would be the leadership of both
parties, plus most of the usual GOP suspects: Sen. John McCain, Sen. Lindsay
Graham, Rep. Paul Ryan, etc. It is indeed "self-stuffing," but hopefully not self-perpetuating.
