Social Affairs'But, are you happy?" asked the Labour Party in the run-up to the last election. And in spite of the moans and groans and general disquiet about health, roads, public transport, time-poor lifestyles and high prices, it seems, as a nation, the majority thought "yes". Well, we voted for more of the same, after all (with a vague hint of Green and a gaggle of independents to prop it all up).
Edmond Grace's book Democracy and Public Happiness tries to thrash out the great challenges that this complicated, interdependent world presents for traditional politics, in an Irish context. Much of the discussion hangs on the American concept of "public happiness", defined as the "enjoyment of participation in public life".
The book is a considered, thought- provoking run through political theory, history, social thought, and democratic politics, interwoven with a desire to deconstruct power, to include the marginalised, to acknowledge the impact of globalisation and the much-ignored role of public servants.
Despite the breadth of concepts covered, their touchstone is Grace's own experience of working with some of the most excluded people in Dublin's north inner city and the victory against government and the larger political parties when the public said no to Nice.
There is much discussion of public fatigue with politics; how "public life is now an exchange of prepared scripts between well-rehearsed performers playing to the middle ground, which by definition excludes those on the margins"; how people perceive their relationship with government not as a Hobbesian social contract but as another part of life, like the weather or the landscape, over which they have no control. Yet, we have failed to come up with a better politics than democracy - the challenge now is to make it more relevant, to all the people.
The genesis of the book was a series of seminars entitled Dialogue on Democracy, where politicians, senior public servants, and leaders from the community and voluntary sector came together to discuss the chapters as drafted by Grace. The final product is a result of their deliberations, but ultimately is that of the author. Paradoxically, the very people with whom Grace is concerned; the public not the elite; the marginalised not the leaders; do not appear to have been involved in the process.
It is a broad tapestry of too many ideas and thoughts that don't always hang together and are sometimes contradictory but are worth reading nonetheless. It's also full of interesting facts - did you know that "election" means choice and "representation" means bringing into the presence of another? Grace's way with words provides some great quotes. The medley of areas traversed pose many challenges. And although it does not provide the difficult answers, particularly to the question that is of most interest to Grace - how do you ensure that people on the margins have a more effective say in government? - it does make one stop and think.
Unexplainably, the preface is signed by Bertie Ahern, Michael McDowell, Enda Kenny, Pat Rabbitte and Trevor Sargent, despite the fact that there was little in any of their election campaigns that reflected the thought and understanding contained in this little book. If they haven't already read it, let's hope it's on all their summer reading lists. If not, it should be.
Edmond Grace strikes me as a man with whom you'd like to have a long lunch. In the absence of that, this three-hour read is well worth the time.
Sara Burke is a freelance journalist and a social policy analyst
Democracy and Public Happiness By Edmond Grace SJ Institute of Public Administration, 145pp. €20