Voters are to blame

A retiring Belgian politician and former Prime Minister has delivered himself of some uncomfortable verities. According to Certain Ideas of Europe

Jean-Luc Dehaene ...neatly traces a line linking society's growing individualism to its litigiousness (Belgium is very litigious), and the modern world's mania for passing endless new laws, that many like to blame on politicians. Forget it, growls Mr Dehaene. The nanny state is the fault of voters.To quote:

"I'm a politician from another age. An age when politics was more structured. In which citizens belonged to organisations. Nowadays, we live in an atomised society, made up of citizens living as individuals, let's say living emancipated lives. And who have this feeling that politicians are there to resolve all their individual problems.

You can really see it when you are a mayor. What people are most concerned by is dirt. In particular, dog mess. It's a real eye-opener. Inside their homes, their dogs have to be super clean. Once they're outside, they can do what they like. But when their owner sees another dog making a mess on the street, what does he do ? He calls the police or the mayor! And politicians are supposed to solve the problem, or otherwise, people - who seem to think there is a solution to every problem - will go to court. They'll sue over everything and nothing, even over noise from a playground! In other words, we, the politicians, we have to pass new laws and rules covering everything. Even when it makes no sense for me, the mayor, to have to pass some new rule banning dogs from doing their business on the road! But if I don't do it, it's a judge who is going to come up with the rule instead."

As for Belgium, so for Ireland too, I believe. All right, one does have to ask whether politicians deserve any blame for failing to provide leadership. However, even allowing for this, I strongly believe that voters' infantile attitude to their roles as citizens is a major factor. Politicians are too slow to object to the lazy casting of themselves as the scapegoats.