tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post6514076466097943642..comments2024-02-11T19:28:27.997+11:00Comments on Personal Reflections: Fissures and divides in politics - Europe and Australia: a comparison Jim Belshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10075614280789984767noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-59661516729765417692015-07-14T22:51:44.573+10:002015-07-14T22:51:44.573+10:00I think that's right, but it's not all bad...I think that's right, but it's not all bad, of course. Following the Greek crisis on the BBC live blog has given me a crash update course in European politics, the issues involved and the different views. That's a shortening process that is very valuable. Jim Belshawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10075614280789984767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-70155923564037106842015-07-14T21:40:35.429+10:002015-07-14T21:40:35.429+10:00Thanks Jim. It does seem that the lower cost of ma...Thanks Jim. It does seem that the lower cost of maintaining contact with like-minded people and expressing views is changing politics profoundly.<br />Winton Bateshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07383561940886657594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-61283259471473196422015-07-13T23:23:59.159+10:002015-07-13T23:23:59.159+10:00Hi Winton and at a slight apparent tangent When I ...Hi Winton and at a slight apparent tangent When I was writing my PhD thesis, one of the things I looked at were some of the psychoanalytical models applied to politics. One very useful model broke politicians and especially the creators of new movements into three groups: the agitator who captured the mood, articulated it and effectively created the movement; the theoretician who codified and structured the evolving beliefs and attitudes into a somewhat coherent whole; and the administrator who then provided the organisational underpinnings that allowed the movement to continue.<br /><br />In the particular case I was looking at, Page was the agitator par excellence; Drummond was the theoretician but also an administrator; and Bruxner was an administrator. <br /><br />In related work, Aitkin looked at the way the Country Party evolved. He showed how various different trends coalesced to form the Party. In doing so, he looked at communications and at the way the telephone speeded things up. If you look at group theory, you often have what is called a storming period in the formation of a new group followed by consolidation and codification.<br /><br />New movements may have links to the past but also represent a fracture point. That usually involves a mix of often conflicting ideologies and interests. The new political movements in Europe involve to some degree a rejection of existing dominant ideologies by those who perceive their interests to be neglected. Something similar happened in New England in the period I was most concerned with. These movements often take a populist radical cause based form because since this is the only way to reduce the grip of the established order. In some cases, too, they can take a very conservative form, an attempt to re-assert a threatened order. <br /><br />Modern communications and especially email and the internet has indeed speeded the process up because it helps shorten both the storming and initial organisation creation phases. <br /><br />Existing structures and dominant interest groups including the existing media have to respond to the challenge of the new as best they can to protect their position. In both Europe and Australia we have been in the new storming stage for a while. <br /><br /> Jim Belshawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10075614280789984767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24338064.post-84361466589839000202015-07-13T21:52:26.709+10:002015-07-13T21:52:26.709+10:00Hi Jim
It is difficult to know how to describe the...Hi Jim<br />It is difficult to know how to describe these trends. At first I thought it might be about interests dominating ideology. But it is not that simple. Some of the groups are characterised more by prejudice (discredited ideologies?) than by interests. We also see ideologists seeking to join forces with disaffected interest groups, which is nothing new. <br />The shifting coalitions seem to be made possible by modern communications.<br />Winton Bateshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07383561940886657594noreply@blogger.com