Defending Politics
Why Democracy Matters in the Twenty-First Century
Matthew Flinders
From Our Blog
The news this week that Jeremy Clarkson's contract with the BBC will not be renewed might be bad news for Top Gear fans but could it be good news for politics? Probably not... I wonder what Jeremy Clarkson is up to as you read this blog.
Posted on April 5, 2015
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With a General Election rapidly approaching in the UK, it's easy to get locked into a set of perennial debates concerning electoral registration, voter turnout and candidate selection. In the contemporary climate these are clearly important issues given the shift to individual voter registration, evidence of high levels of electoral disengagement and the general decline in party memberships (a trend bucked by UKIP, the Greens, and the Scottish National Party in recent months).
Posted on March 1, 2015
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In the wake of the Scottish referendum on independence the UK is undergoing a rapid period of constitutional reflection and reform. The Smith Commission has set out a raft of new powers for the Scottish Parliament, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has signed a new devolution agreement with Greater Manchester Combined Authority, the Deputy Prime Minister has signed an agreement with Sheffield City Council, and the Cabinet Committee on Devolved Powers has reported on options for change in Westminster.
Posted on February 1, 2015
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'London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down; London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady'. 'Oh no it's not!' I hear you all scream with oodles of post-Christmas pantomime cheer but Parliament is apparently falling down. A number of restoration and renewal studies of the Palace of Westminster have provided the evidence with increasingly urgency. The cost of rebuilding the House? A mere two billion pounds! If it was any other building in the world its owners would be advised to demolish and rebuild.
Posted on January 7, 2015
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Posted on December 3, 2014
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British politics is currently located in the eye of a constitutional storm. The Scottish independence referendum shook the political system and William Hague has been tasked with somehow re-connecting the pieces of a constitutional jigsaw that ' if we are honest ' have not fitted together for some time. I have written an open letter, encouraging the Leader of the House to think the unthinkable and to put 'the demos' back into democracy when thinking about how to breath new life into politics.
Posted on November 5, 2014
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By Matthew Flinders When reading this week's coverage of the independent report into the regulation of Morecambe University Hospital Trust by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), I could not help but reflect upon the links between this terrible episode in public sector management and Stanley Cohen's famous work on moral panics and folk devils.
Posted on July 3, 2013
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By Matthew Flinders I'd never even heard of Eastleigh, let alone been there, until a couple of weeks ago. When I did go there I wished that I hadn't. The fact that I am told that the 'notable residents' of Eastleigh include Benny Hill and Stephen Gough (the 'naked rambler' no less) did little to quell the stench of good-times-past that hung in the air. But last week the people of Eastleigh spoke - in record numbers - and their message was clear: 'sod off'.
Posted on March 6, 2013
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By Matthew Flinders One of the critical skills of any student of politics ' professors, journalists, public servants, writers, politicians and interested members of the public included ' is to somehow look beyond or beneath the bigger headlines and instead focus on those peripheral stories that may in fact tell us far more about the changing nature of society. Enter the story of the 'smart fork'.
Posted on February 6, 2013
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By Matthew Flinders New Year is ' or so I am told - a time to reflect upon the past and to consider the future. Put slightly differently, it is a time to think. Is it possible, however, that we may have lost ' both individually and collectively ' our capacity to think in a manner that reaches beyond those day-to-day tasks that command our attention?
Posted on January 9, 2013
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By Matthew Flinders Politics is messy. Period. It revolves around squeezing collective decisions out of a multitude of competing interests, demands, and opinions. In this regard democratic politics is, as Gerry Stoker has argued, 'almost destined to disappoint.' And yet instead of simply defining Obamacare as a good illustration of what is wrong with democracy in the United States it's possible to reject 'the politics of pessimism' that seems to surround contemporary politics and instead see the splendor and triumph of what Obama has achieved.
Posted on August 3, 2012
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'It is not the critic who counts,' Theodore Roosevelt famously argued: 'not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena'¦who spends himself in a worthy cause'. The arena in question was The Guardian's 'Rethinking Democracy' debate at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and my 'worthy cause' was an attempt to defend democratic politics (and therefore politicians) from the anti-political environment in which it finds itself today.
Posted on August 24, 2012
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By Matthew Flinders Satire is dangerous because some people just don't get it. They don't get it in the sense that they seem unable to grasp the fact that the role of a comedian or talk-show host is to get laughs by launching a barrage of cheap shots at politicians. Some politicians undoubtedly deserve it and to some extent standing for political office comes with a side-order of politically barbed jokes and insults and the link between politics and satire goes back centuries ' Aristophanes, Aristotle, and even Machiavelli understood the advantages of incorporating humour into political commentary ' but my concern is that not only has the nature of the audience changed but so has the nature of political comedy and satire itself.
Posted on April 30, 2012
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By Matthew Flinders
Politics appears to have become a 'dirty' word not for the few but for the many. Across the developed world a great mass of 'disaffected democrats' seem increasingly disinterested in politics and distrustful of politicians. My sense is that the public long for a balanced, informed, and generally honest account of both the successes and failures of various political parties and individuals but what they tend to get from the media, the blogosphere, most commentators, and (most critically) political parties is a great tsunami of negativity or what I call 'the bad faith model of politics'.
Posted on June 19, 2012
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By Matthew Flinders Nietzche's suggestion that 'When the throne sits upon mud, mud sits upon the throne' is a powerful phrase that has much to offer the analysis of many political systems in the world today, but my sense is that it is too crude, too raw, and too blunt to help us understand the operation of modern forms of democratic governance. It is certainly not a phrase that enters my mind when I reflect upon the election and presidency of Barack Obama. American democracy is, just like American society, far from perfect. Yet to see democracy as some form of social distraction or to define elections as meaningless risks descending into nihilism.
Posted on June 26, 2012
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