The Hollow State

by Peter van Onselen

Paperback

Reviews

[Alex Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very depressing read. I've been in Australia (as an immigrant / citizen) since 1999, and van Onselen essentially traces the decline of the Australian polity over the 25 years that I've been here, from a vibrant democracy driven by a vigorous contest of ideas, to one of bland managerialism, caution (verging on cowardice), and an overwhelming sense that the highest sense of purpose of any mainstream politician is re-election. His book is no surprise, I've witnessed it myself - and his meticulous charting of how our political class has hollowed out, become devoid of purpose, how the mainstream parties have become essentially indistinguishable, how the bureaucracy has been subverted and outsourced, how the 4th estate has become essentially useless as a check (indeed, its now part of the problem) has contributed to the pursuit of power without purpose, and the disengagement (even disenfranchisement) of the electorate.

I've got little issue with van Onselen's meticulous observation and description of the hollowing out of Australian politics - I've observed it all myself, and wondered at the descriptions of passionate conviction politicians of the past I hear from my (few remaining) politically engaged friends - I've certainly never seen that. Where the book falls down though is van Onselen's failure to identify a prescription for fixing these issues - he makes a few fairly forlorn pleas for reform, for courage, for imagination and leadership within the political parties, and more engagement and education for the electorate - without remotely suggesting who might do this, or whether that is possible, let alone likely. He does refer to "entrenched interests" and the lack of courage or conviction - but seems to think of those as being political interests - rather than the reality that its financial interests, that really have no preference for Labour or Liberal as long as their interests (getting richer) are met by the party in control making no real structural reforms or changes that interfere with that. He correctly identifies many of the individual issues - while never making the intellectual leap to considering whether the issue is political (left vs right of whatever flavour) or structural (rich vs everyone else) and toys with the ideas of citizens participation, representative democracy and collective leadership - without acknowledging the Independents and Greens who are actively championing those things as the only real long term solutions.

I do agree with his conclusion that its only through citizens getting actively engaged that we will ever see real change - and probably also the sense that he conveys that its very late in the game, and maybe too late for Australia to fix the existing main parties.

[Sarah Loveday · Rating 1 out of 5]

This would have made a fantastic extended essay, but struggled to sustain itself as a full-length book. Many chapters repeated the same points without adding deeper insight, meaningful analysis, or discussion of practical solutions, resulting in a meandering narrative that was difficult to engage with beyond a handful of central talking points.