The Necessity of Change(continued)
Since the beginning of the 1990s, this pressure has been missing. As a result, internal conflicts and tensions have come to the fore with an intensity unthinkable in the preceding period. But these conflicts and tensions are very different from those which, in the nineteenth century, gave birth to the now existing western party systems. At that time, political parties were established to promote conflicting interests of clearly defined and rather homogeneous groups inside a given country (workers, entrepreneurs and peasants).
At the end of the 20th century, these interests have become to a great extent convergent rather than conflicting.
Firstly: It has become evident that prosperity is unattainable without free private enterprise. Both the capitalists and the workers (as well as all other members of the society) therefore have a common interest in the smooth functioning and maximum efficiency of the private sector. Plain common sense - not to speak of historical experience and economic theories - points in the direction of cooperation between entrepreneurs, workers and politicians as the most rational approach to achieve such an objective.
The spectacular economic achievements of Japan is a good illustration of this insight. Until 1960, the Japanese labour market was to a great extent paralysed by strikes instigated, as in other countries, by socialist propaganda. To cope with this problem, the Japanese invented an ingenious system. Large-scale enterprise guaranteed, in practice, life-long employment under State supervision and guidance. In other words, a sort of State capitalism combined with elements of social security was established. This model proved extremely successful. Strikes disappeared and Japan's economic potential is now second only to that of the USA.
During periods of economic recession in the West, Japan's economy continued to grow at a yearly rate of some 8%. Many observers have noticed that the whole Far East (i. e. countries pervaded by Confucian tradition) is the most dynamic area in our contemporary world.
There is little doubt that, in the 21st century, the long economic dominance of the whites will be broken and replaced by a preponderance of "the yellow race". Now, what is the leading principle of Confucianism? Certainly not conflicts among classes, groups and States. On thc contrary, coordination of society, cooperation, harmony are stressed. This is not to say that the Japanese model, such as it is, can be transplanted to the West, nor can it be expected to last for ever. But its success certainly shows that cooperation inside the economic system is much more fruiful than conflicts, strikes, lcckouts and excessive pressure on the part of Union bureaucracies.
Many Union leaders - as well as, probably, most entrepreneurs - in the West have begun to understand this and have become more cooperative than their predecessors. It has namely also become evident that management in any enterprise achieves optimum results if the employees themselves become share-holders and take a personal interest in the business. Modern managers are coordinators rather than bosses who give orders. Further developments in this direction are likely to take place.
Secondly, the traditional role of the State as the basic national and administrative unit is on the wane while other actors assume an increasing importance. On the one hand, we find NG0s (non-govemmental organizations), often operating on a global scale, outside the traditional party-political framework, and, on the other hand, regional and local communities whose interests often clash with the interests of the State (that is to say those of the national oligarchy) to which they are subordinated. These units tend to play an increasingly important role, pursuing policies of their own, at home and sometimes aven abroad.
This phenomenon ("regionalization" and "internationalization" to the exclusion of the State) is amply commented upon by contemporary political science. It manifests itself by a fractionalisation of the political system into a great number of small local parties and other organizations. Political organization - especially the party - still remains the only channel open for demands from the public. The system means that citizens must found new parties even if they only want to deal with a minor local problem or a narrow personal interest.
This development reveals more and more the absurdity of traditional party politics as such. Increasingly, people consider the system a mockery and make fun of it by founding or voting for fictitious parties like "the Donald Duck Party", "the Party of Friends of Beer" and the like. Others abstain from voting altogether. Participation in elections clearly tends to decrease.
Thirdly, the deteriorating environmental situation calls for cooperation between many different groups, administrative units, branches of production and transportation and, ultimately, all inhabitants of this planet. Ecological problems concem all people equally and cannot be satisfactorily treated through traditional party politics. Fourthly, other important problems also cut across the classical party political lines.
As an example, the referenda concerning membership in the EU, organized in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway can be mentioned. All parties in these countries became split over this issue and, in some cases, party leaderships took a stand differing from that of the majority of their members. As modern societies become more and more hetcrogenous and complex, issues of this type, that is to say those incongruent with the traditional party political pattern, become more and more numerous.
And last but not least, the stunning development of communication and computer technology enables the individual citizen to participate directly in politics in an unprecedented manner. In such a setting, traditional political organizations - parties and corporations - become ever more redundant. Political systems which lay decision-making in the hands of party political oligarchies, whose chief merit is allegiance to their organizations, are becoming increasingly incongruent with modem socioeconomic systems. To call party-based parliamentarism "democracy' is the greatest bluff in the history of mankind. A true democracy is yet to be established.
For the first time ever, though, this is becoming possible owing to the above mentioned changes and developments. The nature of the present day incongruence is easy to understand. Key concepts are cooperation and conflict. It is becoming increasingly evident that modern states should be run in a similar way to private enterprises, that is to say on the basis of cooperation among and inside different structures, economic, administrative as well a political and, ultimately, among all, or at least a vast majority, of the citizens. This idea is sometimes expressed in the media (c. g. by speaking about "Sweden, Ltd., USA, Inc." and the like).
