Is it possible – and convenient – to reflect on democratic politics as an analogy between the commercial dichotomy of supply and demand? I think so, although some may find this irreverent comparison irritating. It is also essential and stimulating to think about alternatives to the challenges of politics. Let's see why.
Throughout history, the balance has remained tilted towards the supply side: ideologies, parties, programs and leaderships were articulated from a vision of the world that interpreted it and that fought with others for political hegemony. . Visions that also sought to lead the majorities, guide them or redeem them. The policy was prophetic, between redemptorist or almost messianic vocations. The citizens were towns or masses. The different political options were based on principles, values and ideas that shaped their vision and were materialized in a current project that citizens could choose, or not.
However, for several decades now (one-way) offers have come up against a wall of skepticism, disenchantment and disaffection, as Peter Mair explains in Ruling the void (2015). In this context, it is increasingly difficult to make and communicate policy only from the offer. Does the citizenry need to be guided or, rather, does the world need to be cared for, understood and represented?
Politics from Demand, on the other hand, implies, first, understanding the concerns, needs and aspirations of society and, second, building a project that responds to that social climate and is capable of including solutions to real problems. Politics on demand means listening, attending… and reacting. The development of new demoscopic techniques and tools and the microsegmentation capacity of connected public opinion, which allows us to deliver specific messages to small audiences, facilitate and encourage this way of thinking and understanding politics: permanent monitoring and appropriate dosage response. A two-way policy.
Furthermore, demand-oriented politics prepares parties and their leaderships for a series of attitudes and skills that train with better suitability for representation. In addition to the aforementioned capacity for listening and segmentation, we must add a political proposal capable of responding to the challenges of the square meter of people (their closest, real and demanding interests). A renewed capacity to react to new situations and scenarios. And, finally, a more porous and dynamic electoral muscle for the competitive phase of the fight for political power.
Now, this, in a scenario of extreme instability and volatility, requires a capacity for permanent tactical adaptation. The political project must constantly adjust to the circumstances and the evolution of events: “Events, my dear boy, events”, as Harold Macmillan, former British Prime Minister, once said. And there are risks, of course.
It is true that this approach feeds populism that is born, precisely, as shortcuts to challenges. Where tacticism devours and cannibalizes strategic options and underlying solutions that respond to ways of understanding the challenges of the planet and citizens. But it is increasingly necessary to reset of the political offer most connected to the multiple realities of the societies they seek to represent and govern. A policy as a public service that moves away from or self-regulates the ideologies that – for many centuries – were worth dying for, regardless of whether they were worth living for.
Does all this mean that the ideology no longer exists? Not at all. Mario Riorda and Marcela Farré, in a book which has just turned ten years old, defend that ideologies continue to fulfill a “mythical function” and give uniqueness to political options. This identity (whether it is more or less ideologized) is what can avoid the other great risk and bias of this on-demand policy: the homogenization of the supply. That is, they all end up looking too similar. Populist trivialization would be another undesirable drift.
The key, as almost always, would be to find the right balance. Ideas to change the world, yes; but above all solutions for everyday life and while, as Albert Camus said, “practice happiness so that the terrible taste of justice is sweetened.”
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