Polarization & Swing Voters
For any market place to work properly demand must be proportional to the QUALITY of that which is demanded. If we think of voting as an economic activity, then clearly we in Sri Lanka have a market failure, in that our preference for a political party (the demand) does not seem to be strongly tied to its performance in government (the quality of the supply).
Sri Lankans’ irrational loyalty to their preferred political parties, their blindness to the blunders committed by politicians of their respective parties while only finding issue with blunders of the opposing party, is hampering the proper operation of democracy. Sri Lanka does not have a sufficiently large swing voter base compared to developed nations. Where party loyalty is inelastic, an election does not make sense. Instead, you merely have to take one census of party loyalty and base all future political appointments based on that proportion. This is the value of swing voters. It is the swing voters who punish politicians who fail to deliver.
26 November 2007 at 4:03 pm
Mais Monsieur I think the proportion of (potential) swing voters have steadily been increasing, the problem being that many of them support Mahinda’s war, despite concerns about corruption and economic policy. This is why, for example, JHU kicked UNP butt in Maharagama, Kesbewa and Kotte, and Wimal Weerawansa got the top preferences for the Betel Coalition in Colombo.
The sort of irrational loyalty you speak of is a thing of the past my friend. It’s a pity for hornets of your particular hue though, because this sudden absence of loyalty mostly seems to affect your party.