Structural change in Australian politics

This looks like a good situation for the Greens, but they have their own problems. How much do they compromise principle to achieve policy influence? Should they focus on core environmental issues (such as global warming, energy and infrastructure policy), or should they present themselves as an overall progressive party (with policies on sexuality, drugs, euthanasia and the like). The first option, where they are undoubtedly electorally strong, would work best if they seek alliances with the major parties, but the second, where they are painted as extremist, would suggest they aim at eventual Green government. These are core dilemmas, and if they are mishandled the internal struggle could undermine the Greens at a critical time.

The world is changing fast. Global scale problems - and everything really important is global scale now - have shown up the inadequacies of political systems everywhere. To start with, politics is still national, not global (there are no global political parties), and the national governments that are still dominated by class-based parties, such as the Democrat-Republicans in the U.S. or Conservative-Labor in the U.K., have increasingly shown themselves to be fundamentally incompetent and corrupt.

There are alternative political forces emerging around the world, such as Green parties, the U.S. Tea Party, the Occupy Movement, and so-called extremist parties in a stricken Europe. This global change will increasingly affect Australia, especially as the economic boom subsides and the global economic crisis hits home, and an already creaky political system based in two-party rule comes under ever-greater pressure.

A key driver in all these changes is the dominance of political debate by ever more powerful media interests, and the concurrent spread of new technologies that enable greater information flows and interaction. This accelerating trend is as important as the rise of mass-industrial society and the associated social classes that in turn generated the main political parties of today.

In the end specific choices in regards to policies and personalities, not to mention luck, will play an important part in exactly what happens, but what should be clear is that major structural change is underway in Australian politics. As such, the current debate on the relationship between the ALP and the Greens is just the beginning of developments that will wake this country from its political lethargy.