Douglas Carswell MP: The End of Politics and the Birth of iDemocracy

31/10/2012 - 31/10/2012

The Centre for Policy Studies presents a book launch

THE END OF POLITICS AND THE BIRTH OF iDEMOCRACY

By Douglas Carswell MP

It is over. The Big Government way of doing things, argues Carswell, is coming to an end.

For too long, Western governments have grown too big, living beyond their means – and ours. As a result, countries that were once considered prosperous now face bankruptcy. The West’s financial crisis means that Big Government has left us broke. 

It is not just the debt. Too much government has rendered democratic politics redundant. Throughout Britain, America, Europe and Japan, parasitical politicians have proved incapable of holding all the extra officialdom to account. As a consequence, an oligarchy of civil servants, technocrats and central bankers has taken over. Public policy is now made without accountability to the public.

The results have been disastrous: once innovative, Western nations seem doomed to slow-lane sclerosis.

Should we despair? Actually, no. Precisely because the West’s Big Government model is bust, things are going to have to change.

The West is on the cusp of a dramatic transformation necessitated not only by financial reality and the folly of her elites, but driven by technology. At the precise moment that Big Government becomes unaffordable, the internet revolution makes it possible to do without it.

Optimistic about our future, The End of Politics suggests that the digital revolution amounts to a transformation in human affairs on a par with the agrarian and the industrial revolutions. It will change the way that human social and economic affairs are arranged. Collectivism without government is going to be possible in a way that was previously unimaginable. The elite oligarchy will be overthrown.

Maths says that we need not just government cuts, but cuts to government. Technology means we will be able to thrive without all those layers of officialdom.

Be happy. The death of Big Government will give the West a new lease of life. The old political and economic order might be bankrupt, but it is about to give way to something vastly better.

6.00pm, Wednesday 31 October 

Westminster

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