A chara, - "Globalisation, European unity and the death of left-right ideology have ensured that politicians have no differences about the issues politics is supposed to be about," writes John Waters (Opinion, February 2nd). From this statement I infer that Mr Waters believes politics to consist in the conflict between left and right in a sovereign state, a view with which I profoundly disagree.
Politics became an integral feature of human affairs long before the emergence of the left-right model and will continue to play an important role in human life after the demise of the said model.
The globalisation and European unity to which Mr Waters refers signal a new era in world politics.
The globalisation of financial markets, the ubiquity of information technology, and the emergence of ever more preponderant multinational corporations will impose enormous pressures - political, social, economic and cultural - on governments around the world. These developments have implications for national sovereignty and restrict the freedom of governments to pursue policies they might otherwise like to apply.
To counter-balance these forces politicians will be charged with the formidable task of building institutions, processes, and agreements to safeguard the interests of those whom they represent as a new and uncertain world order takes shape.
Regardless of the death of leftright ideology, therefore, and of the undermining of the sovereign nation-state, politics, imperfect and all as it is, shall remain a central pillar in the evolution of liberal democracy as we enter a new millennium. - Is mise, Ciaran McGuinness,
Ballintra, Co Donegal.