Written By:
notices and features - Date published:
5:30 pm, July 31st, 2023 - 8 comments
Categories: Daily review -
Tags:
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.
Why are we so poorly served by our politicians?
Well, poor service could be due to incompetence. It could also be due to poor design. Would it be reasonable to expect that a social system conceived in the late 18th century and implemented in ad hoc stages during the 19th century is suitable for operation in the 21st? Of course not. Only a total effing moron would think so.
Which is the cue for all Nat/Lab voters to clamour loudly in disagreement, obviously. A good way to test their credibility is to poll them on the question "Does your representative actually represent your views in the parliamentary process?"
Any intrepid social scientist ought also to prudently ask a prior question: "Is your MP your political representative?" If most people respond in the negative, it can reasonably interpreted as evidence that the concept of representative democracy is no longer supported by public opinion. A statistical measure of the disbelief in the basis of our state would be helpful in evaluating the possibility of democratic reform.
If you stopped at the end of the first paragraph it would have been a powerful comment but, like many amateur artists, you didn't know when to put the brush down.
Do go on, by all means.
Easy to criticise, more difficult to elaborate. As proven by your neglect to ah forget it
Nationals "Moar Roads"…..funded by….wait for it:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300939736/national-announces-four-lanes-to-whangrei-not-quite
So…no free school lunches…and even bigger pot holes
You would have to be brain dead to vote for that lot….
Operating under an economic system which if I'm being generous – promotes psychopathy and greedy thugs.
How else can our politicians operate?
Expect at the whim of the corporations who run our world.
Priority to decisions and results that will see them returned to Parliament.
Evidence from a new report published by the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington—Foresight, Insight and Oversight—suggests parliamentary scrutiny of the quality of long-term governance in New Zealand is less than ideal. Put bluntly, it is limited, ad hoc and unsystematic.
This is unfortunate. Weak parliamentary scrutiny reduces the political incentives for good governance. It also means poor decision-making may go undetected while non-urgent, but potentially serious, long-term problems receive inadequate political attention. Future citizens are then left to pay the price.
https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/news/2019/07/taking-the-fight-to-short-termism-in-government
A very tongue in cheek bid for Palmerston North to hold the next Commonwealth Games
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/manawatu-guardian/news/dave-mollards-change-is-constant-how-palmerston-north-could-host-the-commonwealth-games/4IPRPPWLERHUBHGZ75RJLU2VQU/
Obviously not intended seriously – but there's a core of truth in it – bringing back the Games to an amateur level….