Politics was once a term with an array of broadly positive connotations,
associated with public scrutiny, deliberation and accountability. Yet
today it is an increasingly dirty word, typically synonymous with
duplicity, corruption, inefficiency and undue interference in matters
both public and private. How has this come to pass? Why do we hate
politics and politicians so much? How pervasive is the contemporary
condition of political disaffection? And what is politics anyway?
In this lively and original work, Colin Hay provides a series of
innovative and provocative answers to these questions. He begins by
tracing the origins and development of the current climate of political
disenchantment across a broad range of established democracies. Far from
revealing a rising tide of apathy, however, he shows that a significant
proportion of those who have withdrawn from formal politics are engaged
in other modes of political activity.
He goes on to develop and defend a broad and inclusive conception of
politics and the political that is far less formal, less state-centric
and less narrowly governmental than in most conventional accounts. By
demonstrating how our expectations of politics and the political
realities we witness are shaped decisively by the assumptions about
human nature that we project onto political actors, Hay provides a
powerful and highly distinctive account of contemporary political
disenchantment. Why We Hate Politics will be essential reading for all
those troubled by the contemporary political condition of the
established democracies.
