A new commission to examine democracy in Ireland will raise key questions on the dual lack of voter participation and equality, writes Paula Clancy.
Rising voter age and falling voter numbers are facts of life in developed Western democracies. In the US, George Bush was elected President by just 24 per cent of the voting-age population. Put another way, three out of four Americans who were eligible to vote did not vote for him. What's going wrong?
It can be partially summed up as the "can't vote/won't vote" phenomenon. For the socially marginalised, it's a belief that they have no stake in the political system.
After all, when you have been disempowered in almost every aspect of your life - socially, economically and culturally - you are unlikely to see the point in writing an occasional "x" on a ballot paper while being told on almost every issue that there is no real alternative except to comply.
On top of this, the young educated middle classes, a well-spring from which political parties have traditionally drawn, are rejecting what they perceive as outdated and irrelevant establishment politics. If such groups are political at all, it tends to be around single issues.
All of this adds up to a not very healthy prognosis for democracy. An inclusive representative democracy needs citizen participation. Political legitimacy derives from this participation with the accompanying ramifications of governmental accountability.
Ireland is no exception. As a result, tasc - a think-tank for action on social change - has started a process of holding our democracy up to scrutiny: a check-up on the body politic by initiating an independent commission which will examine obstacles to a participative and inclusive political system.
Former president and more recently UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, has agreed to act as international counsellor while David Begg, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, is to chair this new body.
The independent commission, sponsored by tasc and principally funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, fits in with tasc's overall mission. Think-tanks are more often defined by what they are not than what they are. The challenge for a new one such as tasc is to identify the space where it can add a new and valuable dimension to the effort of bringing about real social change based on equality.
We do not look to do the work of the media or government or the voluntary sector. We are aware, for example, that many voluntary-sector organisations undertake important and influential research, analysis and policy development work. All of these organisations have a particular remit, cause or constituency to represent. Tasc does not represent a fixed cause or group.
As an independent organisation, it is committed to giving voice and expression to a diversity of perspectives, but as an organisation it works explicitly from an equality and human rights perspective.
At first glance this might appear contradictory, but independence is not the same as value-neutral. Research analysis and policy prescriptions always come from a value context. Take stockbroker economists who give their opinions in the media - the world of numbers and trends might appear objective but there is a shared economic perspective underlying the analysis.
Tasc wants to pose the questions that people are asking about our political system. We want to challenge received ideas and to root policy conclusions in hard evidence. By highlighting issues, contesting existing agendas and creating a space for counter-debates, we aspire to deepening the campaign platforms and actions of civil society groups, trade unions, progressive political movements and others who are pursuing an agenda for equality.
As Peter MacDonagh, a special adviser to the Taoiseach, recently wrote of Irish political culture: "Bar-room gossip is often elevated to the status of accepted wisdom and the hard work of more subtle analyses is rarely undertaken."
Disengagement from politics means that the quest for social equality is held back. Lack of engagement favours the status quo, and the status quo in Ireland is one of unacceptable poverty for many people who suffer from a lack of basic security or access to opportunity. These same people are most excluded from participation in the political process and deprived of the ability to influence it. There are good reasons why a think-tank such as tasc has a particular urgency in the Ireland of today. Many people cannot come to grips with the paradox that Ireland has experienced a large increase in wealth over the past decade, but that somehow this prosperity has not resulted in better public services: our services in health, childcare and transport belong to the age when Ireland was among the poorest countries in Europe.
Inequality in Ireland - that is the gap between the richest and poorest - has increased. The challenges of a more fragmented, urbanised society have yet to be answered - whether by supporting care-givers of all kinds, guaranteeing the physical security of citizens or providing a respectful environment for all regardless of ethnic or racial status.
How do we take on these challenges when confronted with a disengagement from politics? How are we, as a society, to make decisions when significant sections of it cannot or will not take part? That is a question worth asking and answering.
Paula Clancy is director of tasc. She has held a number of top education administrative posts, including deputy director of the business research programme in the Graduate School of Business at UCD