Chapter 2

Understanding Why Politics and Politicians are Impotant

In This Chapter

Looking at what politicians do

Examining some large issues politicians face

Participating in politics as an activist

Most politicians aren’t short on ego! They love the sound of their own voices, their names in the papers and their pictures on TV. But they do have, at least in part, good reason for their egos because, whatever you think about them, politicians are important. To name but a few of their jobs in a democracy such as Britain’s: politicians make the laws, negotiate international treaties and even decide whether to go to war. They’re also responsible for meeting the challenges of the major issues – from poverty in the developing world to fighting climate change – that affect not just the UK but the world. Yes, that’s a lot of power!

As for politics itself – it’s all around you, permeating your life. If you look out of your front window and see a road, that’s because a politician took a political decision to build a road. Turn on your lights; they work because a politician (perhaps the same one) took a political decision to build a new power plant. And, of course, discussion of politics – political events and political controversies – pops up on your television, tablet or in your newspaper all the time.

In this chapter I look at the reasons why politics and politicians play such an important role in everybody’s lives.

Looking at Different Types of Authority

I’m going to get all scientific on you for a moment. Don’t worry, not test tubes and lab coats but the wacky world of the political scientist, whose job is to see patterns in the way politics plays out, from tribes in the darkest, deepest Amazon rainforest to the inner workings of the US president’s White House.

One of the big names in political science and philosophy at the start of the 20th century was the German intellectual Max Weber. He looked at the world of politics and how politicians – and everyone in authority in the country – gained and held their power. He identified three types of authority:

• Traditional authority: People choose to obey authority figures because of national traditions and customs. The UK’s unwritten constitution is largely based on traditions and customs. For example, the monarch in the UK has many legal powers, but tradition and custom mean that in practice the prime minister (PM) exercises much of this power.
• Charismatic authority: Leaders have big personalities and qualities that make them stand out. This charisma persuades others to follow what the leader says, which in turn gives power. The fascist leaders Hitler and Mussolini are recognised as having drawn much of their power from charisma, although they used it in a destructive way.
• Legal authority: People generally respect the law, and so a person who gains office through legal means automatically has authority. For instance, the US constitution, which is a legal document, outlines much of the authority of the country’s government. Americans respect their nation’s constitution and as a result respect those who hold political office by playing by its rules. Presidents, for example, have to win their party’s nomination and then win the election to office. This process gives the president authority.

No country’s political system fits perfectly into just one authority model. The power of the UK prime minister, for instance, can largely be said to rely on a mix of traditional and legal authority – and occasionally, in the case of Winston Churchill during the Second World War, for example – charismatic authority too.

Political scientists draw a distinction between the exercise of authority and coercion. Put simply, coercion is when people obey because they’re afraid of the consequences of disobedience – dictatorships often rely on a heavy dose of coercion. Authority is when people obey because they regard who’s telling them what to do as having some legitimacy – traditional, legal, charismatic or a combination. People even obey when they don’t agree with what they’re being asked to do. Generally, politicians and political systems relying on authority last a good deal longer than those using coercion.

Deciphering the Ultimate Purpose of Politics

‘So, what’s the point of politics?’ is the sort of question you hear down the pub on a Friday night, normally followed by the statement ‘Politicians are all the same!’ In addition, falling voter turnout across much of the Western world highlights a general malaise around all things politics and politician. But understanding why politics exists is a serious question.

Political scientists have been busy coming up with reasons why politics matters:

• Politics determines who exercises power: In all societies someone, somewhere has to be in charge. Politics is the means by which the people decide which individual or collection of individuals should govern. In the UK, for instance, roughly 45 million people are registered to vote. These millions elect around 650 Members of Parliament and the party with the biggest grouping of these MPs goes on to form the government of the country. The daily cut and thrust of politics creates an impression in voters’ minds regarding which candidate and party they’d like to cast their vote for at the next election.
• Politics encourages compromise: Put ten people in a room and you’re unlikely to get any of them to agree about anything straight away; the only way they agree is through compromise. But how do you get people to compromise with one another? Politics is the best available answer to this question. People accept things happening that they don’t agree with because they respect the political process – its traditions or its legality. You may not think that’s the case when you see raucous scenes in the House of Commons, but politics encourages compromise.
• Politics accommodates different interests: It’s an outlet for pressure groups, which as I discuss in Chapter 9 are professional bodies that have expertise and policy objectives skewed to one particular area of society. For example, the British Medical Association has a keen interest in how the National Health Service is run. Pressure groups are important in society and their views find expression through politics.

Gauging the Role of Politicians

Whether you love them, loathe them or are just indifferent (and most people seem to be in the latter two camps), politicians exist for good reason. But despite the opinions of some, they do much more than sip taxpayer-subsidised champagne and complete their expenses claims down to the last penny. They can have a huge impact on the lives of individuals and the future of great nations and can even decide whether countries go to war or live in peace.

Making the law

The key job of politicians the world over is to make the laws that govern society. These laws can be big and sweeping, encompassing fundamental changes to the way the economy and society are run, or they can be small and technical, tinkering with existing laws to make them, hopefully, better.

Politicians introduce draft laws to be voted upon and speak up for them, but more often than not civil servants undertake the actual writing of the laws. Civil servants (whom I talk more about in Chapter 15) are also responsible for seeing that government policy is implemented and that it stays within the law of the land.

Politicians making laws is all well and good, but they also need a functioning court system to carry those laws out. In addition, a competent and hopefully honest police force is necessary to catch people who break the laws.

Changing the constitution and the way government works

Politicians can alter who does what in the country’s government by changing the constitution. The process of changing the UK’s unwritten constitution is a fairly simple matter. All that’s needed is for a majority of MPs to vote in favour of a new law changing what one part of government does, and for the House of Lords to approve that law and the monarch to sign off on it.

The UK’s unwritten constitution relies on a combination of written laws and unwritten traditions and customs. Changing the way government works is possible by changing the law or through a tradition or custom altering over time (for more details, see the nearby sidebar ‘Changing the constitution’).

Ensuring a more stable state

In essence, the politician, particularly in a democracy, has to act as society’s conciliator. A politician’s job is to listen to the opinions of business, groups of professionals and individuals, and to design government policy that best reflects these views and brings these groups into agreement.

In addition, politicians oversee the civil service. Politicians have the power to hire and fire underperforming civil servants or those who fail to work for the public good. In some countries politicians also control the judiciary and even religious leaders.

You can think of politicians as the string holding the elements of much of government and society together. The leadership of politicians is what prevents different groups in society from coming into conflict.

Galvanising the country in times of crisis

Cometh the hour, cometh the politician. Politicians are often responsible for helping to bring the people of a country together in times of crisis. When an epidemic breaks out or a major climatic event occurs people look to the politicians for leadership and to ensure that the government is 100 per cent focused on providing the right response to help those in need.

Political reputations can be won and lost in times of crisis. In late 1940, with the UK facing defeat at the hands of Germany in the Second World War, the great speeches and leadership of prime minister Winston Churchill inspired the country. Churchill’s reputation as a great leader was cemented forever. At the same time, in contrast, the French leadership crumbled in the face of military defeats at the hands of the Germans. The government disintegrated into factions and a disorganised rabble. This response destroyed the reputations of all the politicians involved. They failed the ultimate test of the politician – the crisis!

Listening to constituents

In the UK and many other democracies, politicians are elected by people living in a particular locality to represent that area. In the UK, even the prime minister is elected to parliament in this way. For example, David Cameron was elected to represent Whitney, Gordon Brown represented Dunfermline and before him Tony Blair was also the MP for Sedgefield as well as PM.

This close interaction between politicians and public is one of the strengths of the UK political system. MPs run a weekly surgery where constituents can come in to see them and discuss their problems. These surgeries are a good way of keeping politicians grounded in ordinary life and mean that the public feel that they have a hotline to those in power. One of the key jobs of politicians, in democracies, is to represent each and every person.

By convention in the UK, the prime minister must be an elected MP rather than an appointed member of the House of Lords. The last time a prime minister was also a lord was over 100 hundred years ago.

MPs aren’t the only ones representing the interests of constituents; thousands of local councillors across the country also do so. These councillors are elected by a few thousand voters living in a ward. Their job is to listen to the views of these people and ensure that local services are delivered efficiently. Most of the contact that members of the public have with politicians is with local councillors rather than MPs or government ministers. Flip to Chapter 17 for more on local government in the UK.

Working for the good of the country

Politicians are meant to do what’s best for the national interests of their country. At European Union (EU) summit meetings, for example, the British prime minister is meant to stand up for Britain’s national interests first. If a new EU law is proposed that may damage Britain’s economy or impair the civil liberties of its citizens, the public expects the prime minister and the government as a whole to oppose it.

In fact, along with ensuring the defence of the country, one of the absolute must-dos of government is always to represent the national interest.

Tackling the Big Issues: Current Challenges Facing Politicians

The world can be a dangerous, turbulent place and even countries with a long tradition of political and economic stability – such as the UK – still have to face up to major threats. In an increasingly globalised world, these threats seem more acute than ever; incidents thousands of miles away can suddenly snowball into massive global events.

Of course, lighting up the Bat signal or calling on Superman when problems happen would be great, but that’s the world of comic books. In the real world, the humble (and not so humble) politicians are the best thing society has for solving crises and ensuring peace and prosperity for as many people as possible.

The job of politicians is to negotiate with one another and co-ordinate so that government can meet the challenges and defeat the dangers facing the world. As well as day-to-day issues – big and small – politicians have to address some pretty big themes too. No single politician is expected to come up with a complete answer to problems alone, but as a collective politicians have to face up to and deal with the big issues I highlight in this section.

All the issues I outline are of epoch-defining importance. Day to day, most politicians deal with far more mundane fare, such as National Health Service waiting list times or whether a weekly or fortnightly refuse collection service is more suitable. However, many of the issues in this section – such as the economy and protecting the environment – influence decisions taken on what may seem like less important matters.

Keeping up living standards – it’s the economy, stupid!

When he was campaigning for the US presidency in 1992, Bill Clinton’s campaign famously posted the slogan, ‘It’s the economy, stupid!’ in campaign headquarters to keep everyone focused on that major talking point.

The economy is an issue in most elections, in most democracies, in most years. Electors like to see their standard of living – which is the money they earn and the goods and services available to them – increase year after year. Most of the time this scenario happens, but occasionally the economy goes into recession, jobs are lost and people get poorer.

Normally, governments up for election during a period of poor economic news are beaten by their opponents.

People see the job of politicians as being to ensure that the right conditions are in place for the economy to grow, but how do they do that? Well, although the government isn’t omnipotent as far as the economy goes, it can have quite an influence through the following methods:

• Setting tax policy: The government takes a certain percentage of people’s earnings and business profits through taxation. By adjusting the amount of money it takes in tax, the government can leave people and businesses with more or less to spend in the shops or invest. Generally, high taxes reduce economic growth while lower taxes increase it.
• Targeting government spending: Government spending is hugely important to the economy and accounts for around 40 per cent of the UK’s total economic output. By adjusting this spending up or down, the government can have a major influence on the economy.
• Deregulation: Most businesses the world over complain of government red tape. The argument goes that if you cut this red tape and allow businesses to do what they’re good at – doing business and making money – wider society benefits and everyone gets richer.

  The flip side to this argument is that business has to be regulated properly to ensure that the pursuit of wealth and profit doesn’t damage wider society. For example, despite the expense involved, chemical manufacturers have to dispose of their toxic waste safely; simply dumping it can cause environmental damage.

The government doesn’t try to create as much economic growth as it can, because doing so would have all sorts of consequences. For starters, high economic growth often leads to sharp rises in inflation, which can be especially harmful to poorer people. Likewise, a country focused purely on economic growth is likely to be polluted and to protect workers’ rights poorly. The government’s job – and thus that of politicians – is to balance the concerns of the few with the wider interests of society.

A country is deemed to be in recession when it suffers two consecutive quarters – six months in total – of negative economic growth; that is, the economy has shrunk in size rather than grown. The Office of National Statistics measures whether the economy shrinks or increases in size. Its job is to collect data on what’s going on in the economy and wider UK society so that politicians can make better-informed decisions.

The current governor of the Bank of England is Mark Carney. Carney, a Canadian, is the UK’s number one banker. As governor, his job is to head up the monetary policy committee, which comprises nine prominent economists and bankers and is responsible for setting the base interest rate. This rate is crucial because all the banks and building societies use it as a basis for setting their own interest rates on loans and savings. The governor, under instruction from the Chancellor of the Exchequer (a politician), also has to decide on how much new money to print and must increasingly oversee the activities of the banking sector as a whole. The Chancellor of the Exchequer appoints the governor who’s re-appointed or replaced by the Chancellor every five years. In the City of London – so crucial to the health of the British economy – the governor is the biggest of the big cheeses!

Saving the planet

Superheroes are always being charged with saving the planet, but in reality the normally suited, booted and middle-aged politician is the one who takes on the job.

The overwhelming scientific consensus is that the industrialisation of the globe, the explosion in the number of cars and increased modern air travel have the potential to kill the planet. The Earth is warming, the polar ice caps are melting and sea levels are rising. Scientists warn that all this is just the start of a process, which could have untold consequences for humanity.

As you can imagine, the issue of the environment is one of the biggest if not the biggest facing politicians around the globe. However, dramatic environmental change doesn’t occur in a short period of time – in 5, 10 or even 20 years. No, we’re looking 50, 100 or even several centuries into the future before the environmental doomsday scenarios scientists outline are likely to come to pass. The problem with developing a long-term strategy to deal with this environmental crisis is that politicians come and go relatively quickly – the longest-serving British PM for the past 100 years was Margaret Thatcher, and she was in Downing Street for just 11 years – and they also have their eye on the next election. Politicians have difficulty making unpopular decisions in the short term in order to help ease a problem that’s likely to start having a major impact only after they’ve long departed the political stage, or even after, to put it bluntly, they’re dead.

In relation to the environment, politicians are often accused of short-term thinking and policy choices. But in recent years the issue of the environment has steadily moved up the list of subjects concerning electors.

The steps politicians can take to ease climate change include the following:

• Make laws to limit carbon emissions: Governments have the power to pass new laws that cap the amount of harmful CO₂ emissions released by airlines and petrochemical companies, for example. Although prosecutions can be used to back up laws if necessary, at present the UK prefers to use persuasion and financial incentives to try to encourage businesses to emit less CO₂.
• Keep a lid on government emissions: One of the biggest polluters is the government itself through the actions of its bureaucracy, military and health service workers. In fact, the government in the UK accounts for some 40 per cent of all economic output. Therefore, it has the ability to cut a heap of the nation’s CO₂ emissions – and politicians make the policy for civil servants to follow to see that these emissions cuts happen.
• Co-ordinate a global strategy: Climate change is a global problem and therefore needs – you guessed it – a global solution. Governments get together every so often to discuss how each of them is facing up to the problem. The United Nations (UN) hosts annual global climate change conferences for politicians to meet, although these get-togethers have been criticised for being mere talking shops. But ultimately climate change is going to be eased only through politicians and governments around the globe coming to agreement, and crucially meeting the terms of those agreements.

UK politicians often say that, as a country, the UK can’t itself do much about climate change, and they have a point. The UK is home to about 1 per cent of the world’s population and is responsible for roughly 2.5 per cent of the emissions linked to climate change. However, the UK government has agreed to cut emissions and a key goal of British diplomats is to get other countries to do the same.

Blaming the newly industrialising Chinese or Indians for the recent expansion in harmful CO₂ emissions is easy. But the governments of these two economic super-powers make a simple point: all they’re trying to do is enjoy the same standard of living as the West has enjoyed for years and that, even now, the Westerners – and particularly Americans – emit more harmful CO₂ per head.

Bringing an end to world poverty

Read any history book and you discover that poverty has always existed. But nowadays politicians around the globe are more aware of the inequities of global poverty. They question the fairness of a situation in which a couple of billion people live in relative luxury – with adequate food, clothing and heat – while another couple of billion struggle for survival crippled by disease and poverty. Just look at the ultimate indicator of poverty and wealth: in wealthy Japan the average woman can expect to live well into her 80s; in civil strife-torn Zimbabwe the average man can expect to die before he reaches 40. Enough said!

But poverty – like climate change – is one of those giant issues that’s well beyond the scope of even the most dynamic of politicians or any single government. It requires a global solution, with many politicians coming together.

Only of late, however, through campaigns such as Make Poverty History, has the uncertain state of many countries and people in the developing world come to the fore. How poverty is best tackled is a matter of some debate, but in meetings of the G8 and G20 – the international bodies that bring together the world’s biggest economies – politicians have identified the following ways to help the developing world avoid the poverty trap:

• Cancel debts: Incredibly, some extremely poor nations, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, owe huge sums to international banks, foreign governments and the World Bank. In fact, until recently governments across Africa had to repay more in interest each year on loans than they gained through aid from richer countries. In effect, the developing world throughout the 1980s and 1990s was handing over more money than it was receiving from the wealthy – normally Western – nations. Doing away with these debts would significantly alleviate developing-world poverty.
• Target aid: At present, Western governments such as the UK contribute on average 0.5 to just over 1 per cent of their national income in aid projects for the benefit of the developing world. Now this figure may not seem enough, but when you combine all the monies flowing in from the G8 and G20 member nations it forms a tidy pile of cash. This money can then be given to the government of the country in need of aid and to UN agencies for spending on infrastructure investment in the developing world, such as clean water supplies, better hospitals, schools and transport links. Unfortunately, certain countries reneged to some extent on their aid promises and anti-poverty campaigners say that, long term, more money is needed.
• Promote good governance: One of the biggest problems facing the developing world is poor governance. Politicians and military leaders are often corrupt, incompetent or a combination of the two.

  Giving a developing world government lots of aid is pointless if it doesn’t have the means – through honest civil servants and government officials – to spend the money on the right projects. Trying to ensure proper governance is absolutely key to seeing that a combination of aid and debt write-offs leads to practical improvements in living standards.

Fighting terrorism

If you’d asked a politician from the UK or US to rank the importance of Islamic terrorism on 10 September 2001, they probably wouldn’t have put it very high on their list of must-tackle jobs. But on 11 September 2001, following the killing of thousands of civilians by Islamic extremist terrorists, suddenly terrorism became one of the most important issues facing politicians around the globe.

The ‘War on Terror’, as former US president George W Bush dubbed it, was a game-changing event. Subsequent US and UK foreign policy has been geared towards the elimination of the Islamic terrorist threat, with very mixed results. Invasions of Afghanistan and later Iraq proved unpopular and a source of disagreement between politicians.

Many years on from 9/11, politicians in the UK and elsewhere still face the massive problem of trying to stop international and domestic-bred Islamic terrorism while simultaneously preserving long-standing civil rights.

Reckoning with the decline of Western dominance

Western powers such as the US and UK have been the wealthiest, strongest militarily and most economically successful countries for the past few hundred years. In fact, just over 100 years ago even China looked set to be colonised by white Europeans and the British ruled India.

Oh, how times have changed! The economic powerhouses of the 21st century are likely to be China and India, and even America isn’t as powerful as it used to be (I talk more about the US in Chapter 22). How to manage this relative change in the global pecking order peacefully is a key political issue for politicians around the world.

For example, what role should China – which has a very dodgy human rights record – play in big international bodies such as the G20, World Bank and other UN agencies? Likewise, what about preserving economic stability in a world where massive trade imbalances exist between East and West (in short, the East produces most of the manufactured goods that the West buys)?

Becoming Active in Politics

Open distrust and dislike of politics and politicians seems a very 21st-century phenomenon. In the US, for instance, barely half the population of voting age take part in presidential elections, and in the UK the situation isn’t much better.

Lots of people do still care about politics, however, and because you’re reading this book I assume that you’re one of them. In fact, many people not only engage with politics and political discussion, but also want to get actively involved.

You can become politically active in numerous ways, from joining a party, forming a pressure group or social movement and demonstrating right through to redecorating the local school or tidying a nearby park. In a sense, all politics is social.

Playing your part

Placards and ballot papers at the ready; here’s how you can become active in politics:

• Run for office: If you can’t beat them join them is the idea here. If you want to change the law and the way people are governed, you’re free to stand for elected office from tiny parish council to full-blown parliamentary constituency. To have a good chance of winning, however, you almost certainly need to belong to a particular political party.
• Participate in public demonstrations: In countries such as the UK, groups and individuals are free to protest through peaceful demonstrations, carrying banners and shouting slogans. Protestors aim to get their views across to politicians and other citizens.
• Use the media: Carrying out an action, granting an interview or otherwise attracting media coverage are effective ways to publicise your views to a large number of people. Activists that get lots of media coverage can often be successful.
• Take part in direct action: Direct action is normally associated with forms of protest that can be violent at times. The idea is to show the public and politicians that you feel so strongly about an issue that you’re willing to take extreme measures. But a less confrontational type of direct action is aiming to assist directly the very people you’re asking politicians to help. For example, a pressure group looking for better rights for asylum seekers may have volunteer lawyers available to help fight their cases in court.

You can rarely make much of a difference as an activist on your own. Instead, you need to form or join a pressure group of like-minded people, something I talk more about in Chapter 9.

In democratic countries, activists sometimes do see their policy proposals make it into law. But for this to happen, they need to convince the politicians that what they’re calling for is the right thing to do and has the support of the wider general public. So, in reality, activists need politicians and often try to meet MPs and ministers to promote their causes.

Sometimes politics simply breaks down. Groups of people take to the streets with the aim of toppling the government, which is called a revolution. Although incredibly rare in Britain, violent street protests are far from unknown. Revolutions do occur, however, with surprising regularity across the globe. In 2011 for instance several Arab nations – most notably Libya, Tunisia and Egypt – erupted into violence and revolution with unpopular, oppressive governments being toppled in a matter of weeks, in an event that came to be called the Arab Spring.

From people having rants and arguments about politics on Twitter to demonstrators using Facebook and the like to co-ordinate protests during the Arab Spring, social media plays a huge part in political activism; turn to Chapter 11 for the low-down.

Taking up the paint brush: Political social action

In the UK and many other Western countries, traditional political parties are struggling to find new members. In fact less than 1 per cent of the UK population belongs to a political party. The parties try all sorts of wheezes to attract new members, from social events – lots of coffee mornings – to cheap membership deals. But their latest attempt to reach out deploys a new strand of activism called political social action.

Political social action involves showing how a political party can have a positive impact in the community. For example, if your local park is badly littered or a lot of graffiti needs cleaning up, you may see a group of volunteers from the local party turning up with brooms, brushes and refuse bags in hand and giving the place a thorough going over. The idea is not only to improve the environment, but also to show politics leading to real action – deeds not just words. Political social action may seem to be on a small scale – compared to huge topics such as the economy and fighting terrorism – but it can have a powerful, tangible effect on local communities and individual voters.