How The Third Way Turned Its Back On Democracy
The problem of democratic representation has always turned on the question of the ‘have-nots’ — that is, not only those without wealth and property, but also those marginalised on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, origin, religion, and education. Even in a world of fully-fledged democratic rights, the democratic game tends to break in favour of the ‘haves’. They enjoy an easy affinity with political elites who are not so different from them, and they experience democratic politics as a hospitable and responsive place. When in doubt, they can back-channel, mobilise proxies and networks, and exchange cultural influence and economic power for political voice, cloaked in the comfort that what’s in their interest is in everyone’s interest. None of this means the powerful always get their way. But it means they operate on the assumption that their way is likely to prevail.