A HEALTHY SIGN

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 32300, 16 August 1943, Page 6

A HEALTHY SIGN

THE COMING ELECTION NEW POLITICAL PARTIES (By AV. DOWNIE STEWART) The fact that so many candidate's are offering their services in the coming election and that some new parties are seeking to take root, indicates at least a healthy interest in politics. Everyone knows that a real danger to democracy arises when the electors become apathetic and indifferent.

Both in New Zealand and elsewhere various proposals are being discussed for the improvement of our system of Government, but none of these proposals has yet become a practical political issue. It is better, therefore, to discuss what is the best result obtainable under our present system. Two Parties Desirable What is most desirable is that out of all the turmoil of the election only two strong parties should emerge—on the one hand a Government with a working majority and on the other ahealthy and critical opposition. If a few Independents are elected they may add zest to the political scene, but if too many are returned they may hold the balance of power. If we have more than two parties and no party has a clear majority, then nothing but confusion, obstruction and instability can result. We had an example of this at the election in 192 S when Sir Joseph Ward’s Government lived a precarious existence only by constant concessions to the Labour Party. In France it was never possible to form a stable government out of changing groups and factions, and this was one of the causes of her downfall. Of course, the' two-party system has its defects, but so far it works better than any other. Abolition of Parties

Some people advocate the abolition of all’parties. Indeed, this is the chief plank of the People’s Movement at this election. They declare themselves to be a group with a. common basic policy—namely, the abolition of parties —but protest that they are not a party. Probably the electors will be puzzled to distinguish between “a group with a common, policy” and a political party. But. a one : party state is a contradiction in terms. For the word party means less than the whole and that its members are partisan or differ in opinion from some other party. “Precisely because it is a party it can only be partly right,” .and any party that takes root in the life of the na-

tion must reflect some views not otherwise represented.

The most serious objection to the abolition of parties is that a oneparty state is in effect a totalitarian state, which soon becomes tyrannical and supresses all criticism and freedom of thought.

It is true that many critics prophesy that all our democracies must end in the survival of only one party, especially as Government control and direction expands steadily both in war and peace. An American writer says it is daily becoming more difficult for any party not in power to put forward a distinctive policy. The Labour peer, Lord Eltou, says that party lines are fading out in England, and the recent Labour Congress in England showed how difficult it find it to plan its political future. The electors take little notice of official programmes, and every Labour Party when it gains power begins to move to the right or at least to the centre, to widen its basis of support. In our present mixed economy—partly Capitalism and partly Socialism —parties no longer differ in kind but

only in degree. Several Labour Ministers in New Zealand have declared that they have no desire to interfere with private enterprise so long as it does its job. Mr Churchill himself has expressed the hope that party strife will not be resumed after the war. “If no common ground be found,” he said, “on post-war policy between the parties, it will be a misfortune, because we shall then have to ask the nation to decide upon outstanding issues, and party government would be resumed.” However, I think his statement has in view the period of reconstruction which, like the war, calls for a National Government in a great crisis even though it curtails our normal liberty. The Sidney Webbs and Bernard Shaw also urge the abolition of parties. but it is to be noted that they fire enamoured of the Russian system.

If all these authorities are correct —if the party system must inevitably fade out —it would be stupid to keep it alive artificially. The great Scottish thinker, David Hume, long ago said that the world is still too young to fix many general truth, in politics. It may be that the change from individualism to a planned centralised economy is inevitable. But it is difficult to reconcile the independence of the indl”' idual with such a system.

I have no room to discuss here many new plans put forward, but we should be on our guard and hesitate before abandoning our present system, which has been. recently described by a foreign writer as “the most humane and efficient form of government the world has ever seen.”