> download the June 2013 edition of the Public Sphere newsletter (PDF, 282KB)
EDITORIAL
I became a paid-up member of a political party this week. With my $25 fee, I seamlessly joined the clunking machinery of a parliamentary party. My hope is that by becoming affiliated with this particular political party I can
learn how the wheels of power work in our area. However, after a little reading I was surprised to learn that less and less people are doing the same.
It seems that actual membership to political parties has been in steady decline across the developed world since the 1950s and 1960s. This has been seen most dramatically in Western Europe where party members now make up less than two per cent of the voting public in the United Kingdom, France and Ireland. In New Zealand, it’s only a little better—party memberships have dropped from around 24 per cent of voters in the 1960s, and now sit at just under three per cent of the electorate.