Greek Tragedy

The short answer is  - not much. Except for the flight to currency safe havens, and the impact that has on the New Zealand dollar , the direct impact on New Zealand is minimal.

However, the whole tragedy of the theatrics involved does raise an interesting question. Do we elect politicians to govern, or to be blown in the breeze of public opinion polls?

Democracy in a pure form would involve the populous participating in the decision making process of a community. But over time democracy has evolved into “representative democracy”. It’s not easy to get millions of people together to thrash out decisions, so the concept of electing representations to make these decisions on our collective behalf evolved. We elect representatives who we think will best represent our interests, and the interest of the community or nation, and let them get on with it. At times they will need to make tough decisions, and/or unpopular decisions, but that is part and parcel of being a representative. And if over time those decisions, and the standard of governance, prove inappropriate or unpopular or ineffective, then said representatives will be voted out.
 
But the playing out of the Greek Tragedy of recent weeks highlighted what has become a disturbing trend. Elected representatives are not actually representing their constituents. They are mere conduits for polls. Whatever the poll indicates will give them a better chance of being re-elected is the way they allow themselves to be blown.

If we really wanted this, it would be cheaper and more efficient to write an algorithm that translates the latest poll into policy. We could save ourselves the cost of politicians and parliament and elections and lobbyists.

The way the  Greek ruling party failed miserably in negotiating on behalf of their constituents, then went to the electorate to seek a further mandate via a referendum, and ultimately accepted a worse deal than they had originally been offered, is more than a contemporary Greek Tragedy. It shows that often politicians (and this is symptomatic of many around the globe) have lost sight of what the representatives in “representative democracy” should be doing.
 
Perhaps it is time for politicians to be reminded that developing a spine could be a real attribute. Actually governing is what they are elected to do – not lick their collective fingers and raise them in the breeze of opinion polls. If we really wanted statute decided by who shouts loudest, then we need to understand that it is not too great a step from that to having statute decided by who threatens more, or who has the biggest lobbyist or PR budget.

But then if I think about it, that’s already how it works in the United States.