By: Keith Miles
In the United Kingdom there is the concept of a ‘Loyal Opposition’. This term is also used in Canada and New Zealand, although less often in Australia. The USA has a similar concept.
Key elements in a representative democracy are the acceptance by losers of an election result, loyalty to the country, and in a constituency based system the representative should represents all citizens even if they did not vote for the election winner.
A loyal and civilised opposition is part of the lifeblood of a democratic system. Opposition in this context is not that of an enemy seeking to destroy the government which is legitimate but through its adversarial practice testing the performance of the government and placing on record alternative solutions to policy. This legitimate opposition must be tolerated and not seen as a normal part of life in a parliament.
An authoritarian regime is not in the business of just winning more votes than its political opponents but denigrating its opponents and ridiculing them. There are various shades of authoritarianism and the worst examples are obvious. The Taliban is a severe example but close behind we can see Putin in the current war situation. Judges who insist on proper examination and journalists who investigate are routinely attacked in what might be called sub-totalitarian regimes. On the other hand there are those who go along with and collaborate with authorities or with politicians. This may be helpful to Putin and others but does not improve or maintain democratic norms. We have seen in many countries where judges and the media are too closely associated with one side or another. This in itself is wrong but also undermines the concept of civilised or loyal opposition. It can lead to a self-serving elite and we have seen all over the world the reaction against this. The Elite respond by calling the politicians that arise from this phenomenon as populists. Inferring that that must be a negative position. But populists only arise when there is no open recognition of the concerns of a part of the voting public. Of course it does not help when unelected people are parachuted in as ministers or even prime ministers as has been the case in Italy. Not a surprise then that Italy seems to spawn populist parties!
The benefits of the British and some other countries systems where a member of Parliament represents a given geographic area , a constituency, is that the member must represent all people in his or her district even if they did not vote for that particular representative. This is in a sense a continuation of the way opposition is considered. The member for that area does not look on those who did not vote for him as the enemy but as a part of the democratic structure. That representative may find it necessary to be in opposition to their own political party and that does not mean disloyalty but loyal opposition to any particular policy.
Unfortunately in many proportional voting systems this is not the case and in voting for party list there is not the direct contact with the voter. Countries like Germany have tried to solve the problem by having a dual system of lists and constituencies.
A normal mature democracy is in a way a battle or debate of ideas, and not about particular people or loyalties. The philosopher Karl Popper noted that democracy is the only system through which unpopular leaders may be removed without violence and bloodshed.
In the end if there is the concept of a loyal opposition it follows that it should not be the main target of the ruling party to undermine the opposition. Of course it is normal politics to point out the inadequacies of the opposition but not to the extent that it is demonised.
After all the ruling party may be the opposition one day.
Keith Miles is an academic, retired financier, and publicist. He is the honorary president of the Slovenian-British Friendship Association. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance, a master’s degree in philosophy (MA) and has worked for more than 40 years as a financial and auditor in both the public and private sectors, particularly in the UK.