Two interesting editorials from the tail end of the year: the first is the less interesting one, from the Guardian on democracy; the second is from the Economist on liberalism.
Both detect the failings the year found in their chosen strand of political philosophy and understand that changes are needed to restore vitality to them. The Guardian editorial tries to put the tension between democratic passions and reflection into a historical context and correctly identifies both the resurgence of political engagement in Scotland as a result of the independence referendum and the broader lack of engagement in turnout and politics beyond niche area campaigning.
Sadly it doesn't offer much in the way of suggestions for correcting this. One thing I felt was important from 2016 was the disconnect between popular democracy and the first past the post system of electing MPs. UKIP's failure to turn their popular vote into parliamentary representation was a bad outcome for both their supporters and their critics. While that Alternate Vote system was rejected for general elections, the fact that it is used so widely for other forms of elections means that it would be worth finding a vote system that might find general agreement. One that might avoid the curse of safe seats and wasted votes. If the government is decided by tens of constituencies not by all of them then we should expect a cynicism about the value of turning out to the polling station.
The Economist on the other hand is full of fight and proposals, it points out that the early challenges to liberalism resulted in universal suffrage and education. It is worth thinking big and trying to genuinely tackle the hard problems of our times rather than reheating a Cold War capitalism to ever diminishing returns.
Distribution of wealth, opportunity and a better understanding of the consequences of global equality are worthy problems. Looking at what the future of education should be and how people can genuinely reskill and retrain rather than be deskilled is of real social value.
Reversals of progress are disappointing but inevitable, it is when the will to respond with new answers fails that the rot truly sets in.