Politics: pass the salt, please...

Politics in Western democracies these days can seem like a somewhat insipid affair. Ideological cut-and-thrust is hard to come by, leaving political parties to argue about who is best placed to administer the state on the basis of a set of ground rules that are never seriously called into question. Lots of sound and fury masking a great deal of consensus.
Hardly surprising then, maybe, that electorates seem to have concluded that rather less is at stake than it once was and that election turnout continues to slip in many countries.
Ironically, a common complaint is that the truly contentious issues are left off the political agenda as being ‘too difficult’ for parties to handle. In Europe, the debate about continued EU integration is one that is often cited. Which MEP to vote for to voice opposition to the Lisbon treaty, for instance? And while at one level economic questions completely dominate the current UK general election campaign, and there are real differences of opinion between the competing parties as to the best strategy to adopt in the face of a ballooning budget deficit, there seems sometimes to be a conspiracy among politicians from the main parties not to talk in too explicit terms about the stark financial decisions facing the country and their consequences, for fear of giving too many hostages to electoral fortune.
Another ‘hot button’ issue is migration. The extent and effect of the inflow of migrants into Western economies is endlessly argued about, particularly within their popular media. But mainstream parties often try and steer well clear of taking too overt a position for fear on the one hand of alienating an electorate where anti-immigrant feeling is widespread, or on the other hand of being accused of ‘playing the race card’. The FT reported recently that votes for far-right parties were on the rise again in many countries, who find a ready audience for accusations that the mainstream parties are colluding to keep the issue off the agenda.
What’s clear is that the arguments advanced both for and against restricting immigration often rest not only on assertions about the relative value of immigrants to countries’ economies, but also to their culture. Those in favour of liberal immigration policies often argue that the exposure to other ways of life, value systems and beliefs that immigrants bring can be a huge benefit to a society and promote a sense of global citizenship. Our data suggests that, at the very least, opinion is sharply divided on this idea– our latest polling revealed that roughly equal numbers around the world see themselves as chiefly either global or national citizens, but that this isn’t strongly associated with numbers of immigrants – in largely monocultural China there appear to be rather more self-declared global citizens (70%) than in multicultural Britain (54%).
Whatever the truth, these questions of identity seem to be largely absent from political debate in most countries. The future health of democracy will surely be partly dependent on a braver generation of politicians who are willing to stand up and be counted, and tackle the issues that really define us all.