IdeaSpies
Peter Kronborg
Comments
Fascinating that "Australia and New Zealand are the only "full democracies" in the entire Asia-Pacific region, while the United States is among those that couldn't find its way into the top category."
Yes, it is fascinating and encouraging that Australia is in this top group. However, unless our politicians take the time to better engage with the electorate and work seriously to overcome inequality and the political 'trust deficit' we could slip backwards.
Yes Glenn, we are witnessing the erosion of these fundamentals. We have to keep calling them out and resist moves to a authoritarian state .
Hi Peter,
It is very concerning to realise the level of erosion that liberal democracy has suffered in recent decades. Unless communities who still live in liberal democracies, such as Australia, start to behave as a community (vs rigidly pushing philosophical, individual or sectoral interest) and participate in constructive deliberation and policy critique the erosion will continue.
Our PM has made some tentative moves toward pulling a broad group of political and community leaders into policy debates. However, he needs to find a means of drawing the broader community into the process, so that they feel all reasonable points of view have been considered and that any trade-offs are appropriate. The most challenging issue we face is embedded inequality of opportunity, which is corrosive on belief in the system and trust of government.
That’s right, democracy is a good thing. The most important thing is how to maintain democracy and how to ensure that this democracy is a ‘completely healthy democracy’ rather than a corrupt democracy deliberately controlled by authoritative countries or some leaders.
Jonathan Chrimes
