Time up for political parties?

In Europe, scholars reached a certain stage whereby they are arguing whether Brussels’ technocracy is being replaced by local populism that sustains itself through people’s fear, especially due to the recent harsh austerity measures imposed on the periphery EU countries.

In Malta, we are still at that stage where we are trying to understand and accept fully the big challenges posed by EU membership on our Maltese political culture based on confessional politics and cronyism, on the political parties based on big and wide-ranging coalitions, and beyond.

Who said that the time for political parties is over? Historically, European politics, especially in Western European countries, has a long tradition of relatively well-organised and institutionalised political parties with clear constituencies and economic policy positions, moving along the left-right continuum. The same applies to Malta. The tradition of strong political parties is very present and they also manage to mobilise successfully the majority of their constituents to support them and vote.

In the 1970s and 1980s, mostly the Labour Party, often flanked by the General Workers’ Union, represented workers’ interests. Then, in the 1990s and 2000s, the middle and upper classes tended to support mostly the Nationalist Party as a conservative and Christian Democrat party. These parties were anchored more or less to ideological traditions that informed distinct policy positions: issues like the expansion of the welfare state, the focus on full employment, the defence on private property and the concern for price stability.

However, times change. Since Malta joined the EU, further centralisation of power at the EU level has taken place at a very fast pace. And it is expected to go further into more unexplored areas of regulation. As a result, the Maltese political parties have to operate in a completely different scenario. And this could make them scratch their head.

This means that the traditional lines of left-right political practices have to be redefined once and for all. I do not agree with those who argue that the left-right politics is disappearing from the political map. However, it is changing and moving towards the European level.

The scholar Jonathan Hopkin explains that as communism in Europe declined as an electoral force and European social democrats abandoned their commitment to Keynesian demand management, partisan competition over macro-economic policy disappeared from the electoral arena. Moreover, independent central banks and regulators became the favoured instruments of economic management.

As a result of the above changes, Maltese politics has no choice other than moving towards more managerial politics, where elections are won or lost on the basis of exemplary governance, the promotion of the rule of law and the generation of new policy ideas on how Malta can exploit all its comparative advantages to the full within a more limited political and economic space. This means that it is much trickier for broad-based political parties like the PN and the PL to stick to the status quo.

The recent speedy moves towards more centralised EU financial, economic and monetary policies, will eventually redefine whether the Maltese political parties are ready to accept less political relevance to the Maltese citizens in face of more technocracy and more institutionalised political parties at the EU level.

For this to be legitimised in the eyes of all party members, non-party members, apolitical persons and the Maltese electorate, there is no choice other than being discussed in the open, first within the political parties and then with all the Maltese electorate and the media.

The economic meltdown of Greece has erupted due to many causes. It could be argued that one of them is due to Greece’s malfunctioning political parties that played solely for votes in the name of big promises without being able to take the big decisions that mattered for Greek people to remain competitive relative to other economies in the EU and the world.

Other European countries are not facing the same crisis as that of Greece. However, this European financial crisis is challenging the identity and the future of all European parties, especially when it comes to dealing with the young generation who continuously demand political systems that are meritocratic, based on good governance and the rule of law.

The rise of populism across the EU in the form of the Italian Five Stars Movement (an anti-politics force) and Syriza (the radical left in Greece) has not happened by coincidence. Popular political parties are facing big challenges and they cannot stay relevant if the ideas of the new generations are suppressed and not represented accordingly.

It does not matter whether a party calls itself a movement or a party. What defines a winning political force from a losing one is its structural ability in dealing with the widest possible electorate spectrum over the legislative years.

The message is clear: discuss or disappear.

The author is lecturer in public administration at the University of Malta.