Politics was once a term with an array of broadly positive
connotations, associated with public scrutiny, deliberation and
accountability. Yet today it is an increasingly dirty word,
typically synonymous with duplicity, corruption, inefficiency and
undue interference in matters both public and private. How has this
come to pass? Why do we hate politics and politicians so much? How
pervasive is the contemporary condition of political disaffection?
And what is politics anyway?
In this lively and original work, Colin Hay provides a series of
innovative and provocative answers to these questions. He begins by
tracing the origins and development of the current climate of
political disenchantment across a broad range of established
democracies. Far from revealing a rising tide of apathy, however,
he shows that a significant proportion of those who have withdrawn
from formal politics are engaged in other modes of political
activity.
He goes on to develop and defend a broad and inclusive
conception of politics and the political that is far less formal,
less state-centric and less narrowly governmental than in most
conventional accounts. By demonstrating how our expectations of
politics and the political realities we witness are shaped
decisively by the assumptions about human nature that we project
onto political actors, Hay provides a powerful and highly
distinctive account of contemporary political disenchantment.
Why We Hate Politics will be essential reading for all those
troubled by the contemporary political condition of the established
democracies.
