DISCUSSION PAPER 2
From Decline To Dormancy: The Major Parties, Community Independents And Australia’s Void Of Democratic Participation
BY JAMES ROBERTSON, EMMA CROCKER AND JUSTIN RYAN
Our second discussion paper offers a constructive critique of the lack of candidate selection processes of the community independents movement, alongside its promise of a new era of representative democratic politics. It is becoming increasingly clear that today's major political parties are designed for an Australia that no longer exists. Despite adopting the rhetoric of community-powered politics, a new crop of independent candidates and minor parties have been even less democratic than the major parties in practice. New political movements must be built on democratic processes: the lesson of two decades of frustrated reform has been that the promise of change from above is never realised.
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