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Chapter 6: Pathways to Something New

Table of ContenTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1 – MAKING THE BEST OF THE SYSTEM WE HAVE
CHAPTER 2 – THE CURRENT DYNAMIC IS ‘PROGRESSIVE VERSUS CONSERVATIVE’
CHAPTER 3 – OUR CURRENT PARTY STRUCTURES ARE INEFFECTIVE
CHAPTER 4 – INDEPENDENTS CAN’T FORM EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT
CHAPTER 5 – BREAKING INTO THE CARTEL
CHAPTER 6 – PATHWAYS TO SOMETHING NEW
CHAPTER 7 – A POTENT POLITICAL FORCE NEEDS PEOPLE
CHAPTER 8 – PRODUCING LEADERS
CHAPTER 9 – KEEPING IT SIMPLE
CHAPTER 10 – DRAFT ORGANISATIONAL MODEL
CHAPTER 11 – PEOPLE
APPENDIX 1 – HISTORICAL COMMENTARY ON THE TWO-PARTY SYSTEM
APPENDIX 2 – AUSTRALIAN COMMENTARY

Coming Together, Not Fracturing Apart

People don’t have to agree on everything to be part of the same political party. The idea of bunching up in smaller political groups is something that we should resist. It is a path to political impotence. The fragmentation of the progressive vote means that there is no strong base to help win majority government through a functional organisation.

It is in our interests to work out productive ways to come together and work within a single large organisation. Society has gone through many changes, in a multitude of different ways for all adult Australians. People are interacting with each other in new and different ways. It is in our interests to create a scenario where many diverse groups of people and individuals, located in different parts of the country, can participate in the same organisation.

Umbrella Organisations

An umbrella organisation is broad and contains subgroups and factions that operate within it. It is the basic mode of operation for a successful organisation within a two-party system. It exists in all countries in the world with this system, such as the US, the UK, and Australia.

It means that different people in different factions work together within the same broad party. It does not exist to the same extent in countries with multi-party systems. In those systems, people are more likely to form other parties instead of being forced to work together. An umbrella organisation is going to contain different groups of people that can organise in open ways.

To get people under the umbrella, it must be a self-empowering mode of political expression. The organisation needs processes and structures that allow new or smaller factions and groups to be heard, and seek to grow and be represented. There needs to be a form of proportional representation across the organisation.

It would still be the rational choice for those holding a minority view to be part of such an organisation. They would have a better chance of being in the party that gets to hold power and could organise to seek representation and participation in government, while operating within the stability of the two-party system. The minority voice is still able to be expressed and is more likely to have real impact within an organisation that is able to consistently win government.

Ways of Participating

How people participate in 21st-century volunteer organisations is rapidly evolving. It is becoming distinctly different to participating in 20th-century organisations. There is likely no other point in human history where organisational methods have changed so quickly.

  1. Regular meetings no longer work for most people. The idea of dutiful citizens turning up to monthly meetings is no longer viable. They are
    not necessary
  2. Paying for membership is unlikely to be successful and more likely to limit participation. Studies have shown that paying for membership will stop party supporters from becoming members.[1] People are willing to donate to causes they believe in.

There are fewer dutiful citizens—people who see elections, government and being formally involved with political organisations as an essential part of life in a democracy. People are more selective about the actions they want to be involved in. How people behave is affecting all volunteer organisations—not just political parties.

This is influenced by their lifestyle, how sociable they are, and their personal habits. Politically active people are likely to be on social media, donate money to causes, go to protests on issues that they care about and so forth, rather than join a political party.

Functional ways of getting people to participate could include:

  1. making full participation easy, low-effort and cost-free
  2. simplifying and streamlining methods of communication used by the party
  3. making the times when people physically come together celebrations and festivals, rather than sober decision-making events.

The ideal would be for people to participate in ways that make the system accessible to them, and that meet their methods of interaction.

Transparency and Trust

Members of the party, and the general public, should be able to easily look into the organisation, and witness how its processes operate and how decisions are made. This does not mean that you automatically trust the people within it, but if you can see into the organisation—see how decisions are made, who has what power and why—you are more inclined to think that the organisation itself has integrity.

Transparency and trust could be improved by:

  1. making the party’s operations and processes easy to understand for the layman
  2. enabling the public to see and comprehend how the organisation’s power structures work, and why those structures exist
  3. ensuring there are no hidden power bases built into the party structure
  4. having clear processes for how people can be voted out and removed from positions of power.

It is not about seeing how different groups of people organise, but about seeing the processes of how the organisation makes decisions. It also means that the organisation is more accountable to those who support it.

Achieving Critical Mass

A new party would be best placed to spring into existence with a critical mass of people supporting it before it even exists. It would be better to have a planning and design process that can attract the people necessary to make critical mass possible. A party of this type—a large, broad, and functional umbrella organisation operating within a two-party structure—needs large numbers of people to work and be functional.

Critical mass would help with:

  1. attracting key people from the existing parties, both members and leaders
  2. making election success likely in a shorter timeframe
  3. having large enough numbers to prevent excessive influence from any single group that would affect mainstream accessibility
  4. validating candidate selection processes by involving more people.

Theoretical Tools

There are some easily understood theoretical tools that can be used as reference points to help in thinking about the construction of a new organisation.

These include:

  1. John Rawls’ thought experiment of the ‘Original Position’
  2. Bernard Crick’s ‘Political Virtues’
  3. Max Weber’s theory of ‘Ideal Types’.

John Rawls’s ‘Original Position’

John Rawls (1921–2002) was an influential American political philosopher. He worked primarily in the field of social justice, his major work being A Theory of Justice.[2] Rawls created a thought experiment called the ‘Original Position’. In it, people would have to design a society and make decisions without knowing what social position they would end up holding within that society. They would not know if they would be born into wealth or poverty, what gender or race they would be, or any other aspects of their identity.

These people are forced to make decisions in a state of social equity. They do not know what status or position they would hold. Their choices are made behind a ‘veil of ignorance’.

The result of this experiment, the society which participants create, is one that Rawls believed would be more likely to contain more equality and balance. The participants are more likely to select principles with as little bias and as much rationality as possible. When people are forced to remove themselves from the equation, they promote more equitable living and social standards. Apart from being a great way to think about how to make decisions in our society, it is useful for working out how to best design an organisation to which we all want to belong.

Bernard Crick’s Political Virtues

Bernard Crick (1929–2008) was a British political theorist. He put forward the view that ‘politics is ethics done in public’—the idea that politics should be about taking action and working in practical ways with other people, rather than only applying grand ideologies.

His major work, In Defence of Politics (1972), introduced the idea of political virtues.[3] These are universal virtues that people need to demonstrate if they are to work together effectively in politics, regardless of their own world view. Crick argues that ‘certainty’ through rigid ideology is anti-political, as politics is inherently uncertain and subjective. Looking for certainty is anti-political as it looks for an objective ‘truth’ that does not exist. Crick argues in favour of a more flexible and ‘human’ approach which deals with people, their interactions and coming to mutual solutions. He proposed six political virtues:

Prudence

  1. The ability to exist with behaviours and governance driven by reason rather than emotion
  2. Observing the effects of actions before making new actions.

Conciliation

  1. Attempting to resolve issues and come to solutions rather than arguing endlessly.

Compromise

  1. Coming to agreeable resolutions which are not necessarily perfect for all but allow for everyone to get something they want
  2. Giving up some things you want to get the more important things (considering compromise also helps determine what is most important).

Variety

  1. Observing the effects of actions before taking new actions
  2. Engaging with differing viewpoints and interests

Adaptability

  1. To govern flexibly and be willing to give ground when necessary
  2. Shifting governing techniques to suit changing times.

Liveliness

  1. Never being boring or complacent
  2. Being bold and taking risks.

Crick’s virtues provide the attributes that people require in working together to build an effective political organisation. It would be more difficult to work with people who do not share these virtues.

Max Weber’s ‘Ideal Types’

Max Weber (1864–1920) was a German sociologist. He developed several different social and economic theories and concepts. He is a key theorist on modern Western society and a major contributor to sociology, bureaucracy and thinking on culture and human organisation. His view of social science involves thinking about developing hypothetical and abstract concepts and theories, so as to make sense of the human world.

One of his theories is of ‘ideal types’.[4] It refers to the identification of the ‘ideal behaviour’ desired within an organisation or general social interaction. Ideal types are a subjective aspect of sociology, something to be discussed and philosophised about, rather than a concrete ‘fact’ used to declare right from wrong. Ideal types do not refer to perfect examples of behaviour, but rather point out behaviours which are ‘ideal’ or ‘preferred’. The concept of ideal types is effectively a tool to be used in the ordering and sorting of reality, boiling down chaotic and complex societies into more easily understood commonalities. The purpose of an ideal type is not to exist, but to act as a benchmark by which real life can be measured.

We can identify the key ideal traits necessary within a new organisation and construct the organisation with these traits in mind. As the organisation continues to develop over time, the traits can act as benchmarks for its evolution.

Key Traits of the Ideal Progressive Political Party

We can work out the key traits that we would want a new organisation to have. It is not about expecting to create the ‘perfect political party’, but about developing goalposts to work out how the organisation could be constructed and how to measure its success.

Modern Organisation

The ideal party has a 21st-century structure, based on how successful organisations work today. It takes advantage of 21st-century technology and organisational structures to encourage productive dialogue between supporters, members, leaders and the public.

Transparency

People want to be able to look into the organisation and see how it works. It is not about understanding every little decision, but about having a broad level of transparency. People are much more likely to support an organisation when they can clearly understand how it works.

Representing a Broad Cross-Section of the Community

We want everyone who does not identify as a hardcore conservative to be able to consider supporting a single progressive organisation.

Creating Leaders

The ideal progressive party gets the best people that Australia is producing and channels them into our parliaments. It has a streamlined and accessible series of pathways for people who are interested in getting involved.

Set Up for Electoral Success

The ideal progressive party has the ability to consistently win government and is a natural party of government. This is how we get society and Australia to move in the direction that we want it to.

[1] Gauja, Anika. 2017. “Party Reform: Where are Australia’s Political Parties Headed in the Future?”, in Papers on Parliament 67, Parliamentary Library, 19-41. https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Powers_practice_n_procedures/pops/Papers_on_Parliament_67/Party_Reform.

[2] Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. ­­­Harvard University Press, 1971.

[3] Crick, Bernard. In Defence of Politics. Bloomsbury Publishing, 1982.

[4] Weber, Max. Max Weber on the Methodology of the Social Sciences. Edward A. Shils & Henry A. Finch (eds.), Free Press, 1949.