Foreword

Poli

tics is a messy and "least worst" sort of activity, but it is increasingly judged against the exacting standards set by modern consumerism. When making decisions through markets, individuals choose what suits them, given their private budget constraints. Politics, by contrast, is irreducibly collective and complex, with constraints imposed from outside. It is seldom an experience of "self-actualisation," or of getting what you want. If you don't like something in a shop, you go elsewhere ("exit"), but in politics the only way to get something is to make your views known ("voice"), which carries higher costs and may still result in you having to accept a decision you didn't support. Today's market economy has grown apart from the clumsy collectivism of politics and, argues Gerry Stoker, has infected people with a naive individualism that is a central cause of disengagement and frustrated activism.

Adjusting for this "consumerism effect," perhaps 2005 wasn't such a bad year in politics after all. The British election was uninspiring but produced an outcome that suited the national mood. The terror attack in London was shocking but the response was calm and the debate about Muslim disaffection and the balance between liberty and security has been relatively open and vigorous. There was plenty of frustrated activism in relation to Africa and development, but some useful new pledges were made by rich countries on aid and trade. Iraq had three successful votes and it became possible to start contemplating troop withdrawal. Adair Turner's pension report has vindicated the idea of the technocratic commission (see Nicholas Barr). Parliament showed it still mattered by voting down Blair's plans for 90-day detention without charge. More recently, Labour has got bogged down in shadow-boxing over an education bill that even its most partisan supporters say won't change much. But up popped David Cameron to enliven the scene by offering Blairism without Labour. Will he revive British politics? No, not in the sense that millions will rejoin political parties and start voting again. But no too in the more basic sense that, stripped of unrealistic expectations, it is not in need of revival.