Why We Hate Politics: A New Twist on the Perception of Politics Essay

“Why We Hate Politics”: A New Twist on the Perception of Politics


Name: ******* ***







Professor: **** ******
Course: Political Science 1020E
Date: 18 November 2008
“Why We Hate Politics”: A New Twist on the Perception of Politics
Collin Hay’s “Why We Hate Politics” appears to be the new twist on the political environment of democracy or a democratic country. It renders some vivid portrayal of the political disengagement that shows how “neo-liberal ideas and public choice theory” (Hay) contribute to the alienation of a population from the democratic process. In his book, Hay attempts top draw arguments against the assumption "citizens get the politics they deserve" (Hay). He calculates the evidences in a convincing way to prove that the assumption should be "democratic policies get the levels of political participation they deserve" (Hay). He delves deep into the cause of the public disengagement from politics that is considered to be detrimental to zeal of democracy. Hay holds the reason of this disengagement of the public responsible that it is
“Resulted from the triangulating centrism of the main parties and their duopoly over a power hoarding political system that refused to adapt to the participatory expectation of new citizens” (Leighton).
Factors Perceived by Hay for Political Disengagement
Several factors that he finds responsible for this disengagement of the British citizenry, in general, of the population of a democratic country are something except the growing trend of consumerism, globalization of economy, citizens’ indifference. Indeed, these are the common factors that are conventionally held responsible for the growing disengagement of the public from the conventional democratic system. But obviously there are certain other reasons that evade the eyes of the political analysts. Hay attempts to filter them through the assumption that “democratic policies get the levels of political participation they deserve” (Hay). In his...