ESTADO DEL ARTE

There've been numerous reviews and inquiries into election losses and this new theme of volatility, this has happened many times. And every single one of them, from what I can see, has talked about a lack of philosophy and values: Where is the big idea? What does the Coalition want to be in power for? In the end, philosophy and values are what's missing here and people are on to it. The parties' own reviews and inquiries have found that time after time after time, but there's something in the psyche of the political professionals that makes them incapable of learning.502

In the previous chapter, I looked at the disciplines and systems approaches that should be considered in any integral project using a Policy Tryptic. In particular, I focused heavily on the Planet, the objective and interobjective behavioural and systems theories which have large and rigorous Communities of the Adequate. The ecological and climate sciences of Antarctica are well delineated. But as we saw, because scientific activity in Antarctica is implicitly linked with sovereignty, territoriality, and general global political issues, the influence of Antarctic science on relevant policy and politics is perhaps more significant than in other areas of science. Hence the analysis of the exterior of national and global political, ecological, or social systems is critical; beginning with these methods as part of the Planet gives us a good robust base for understanding. When it comes to Antarctica then, the Planet is well accommodated. As I showed in Chapter 4, the efficacy of this approach could also be usefully boosted by the adoption of some behavioural science approaches. As we will see in Chapter 6, the Person aspect can be dealt with through self-analysis and adoption of particular personal, policy, political and business processes and practices. However, I believe that the next aspect of the Tryptic, the Polity, the "we" or the Terrain of Cultures, is a more difficult to map than the Person and Planet. As we will see in this chapter, through focus on the work of Robyn Eckersley and John Keane, the state is unable to form, or at least be sustainably maintained, without the communications and cultural interactions that give rise to interobjective understanding of - and general agreement on - policy goals, societal laws and mores, and the legitimacy of political and other institutions. As we saw with Antarctic policy, the future is predicated not only on the materials and structures of governance and societal institutions, but on the types of normative discourses that exist in relation to Antarctica.503 The development of an integral ecological norm is therefore required; this is the broad aim of the Polity. The nature of such norms is that they are fleshed out at a general level, then given more practical effect through specific applications, in this case Antarctic policymaking. The key theoretical-level data used for the Polity aspect of the IPT are Eckersley's critical political ecology (underpinned by an ecological adaptation of Habermas), her theoretical "green" state , and John Keane's monitory democracy. By interpreting the near-integral nature of the

502

Anne Tiernan, http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/theminefield/election-2016-are-the-voters-to- blame/7578166, retrieved 13 September 2016.

503

120 work of Eckersley, Habermas and Keane, I hope to provide a base integral philosophy that will provide a normative discourse for ecological politics in general. As we have seen, when Antarctica is our policy and political subject, its sustainable future is likely to require the teasing out of a broad base of integral values which will need to be inculcated into national and global institutions and organisations.

The online Oxford dictionary defines polity as "a form or process of civil government or constitution", or "an organised society; a state as a political entity."504 These are clearly useful objective and interobjective descriptors of what a polity is, the word coming from “mid-16th century: from obsolete French politie, via Latin from Greek politeia 'citizenship, government', from politēs 'citizen', from polis 'city'."505 While democracy has evolved past the city-state, the word recognises coherent political units or entities which now may span continents rather than Athenian metropolises. The definition is useful in that it also recognises polity as a process, involving complex cultural interactions between subjects. By itself, it does not necessarily invoke democratic processes, but it certainly points to a central political, legal (and/or religious) text or constitution in accordance with which a nation-state operates. However, one other term for Polity could be used and that is the "demos", those citizens involved in the processes of democracy, the "people" as outlined by Keane.506 Another useful definition is that adopted by Craig Carr, who notes that the idea of a polis or polity springs from the ancient Greek meaning of the term for a wall:

Walls enclose and exclude, and this is a good way to understand politics. Politics brings some people together to form a group, and it leaves others outside the group. It brings into being a

sense of "we", and by so doing it necessarily also gives rise to a sense of "they." 507

The Focus in the "Polity" component of the Integral Policy Triptych, then, is on understanding the cultural interactions and shared meaning that makes the "we" and the "they"; those essential cultural interactions that underpin the nation-state or other smaller political units such as electorates or "states" within nation-states. It is hoped that this greater understanding will help shape integral policy, integral politics and a broader integral political philosophy or philosophy of democracy. We want to particularly understand the "we" of the policy equation or political situation, or the Terrain of Cultures. Key to this is the use of Zone 3 and Zone 4 ecomodes (for example, hermeneutics and ethnomethodology).508 However, we also want to at least imagine what an

504

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/polity, accessed 4 May, 2015. 505

Ibid. 506

Keane, op. cit., p. xi. 507

Craig L. Carr, Polity: Political Culture and the Nature of Politics, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, MA, 2007, p. 2, emphasis mine.

508

121 integral polity might look like more broadly, from the inside and outside of culture as described above, to the objective behaviour of its citizens, the inner organisation and outer manifestations of its interobjective political and economic systems, and the individual beliefs and experiences of the citizen herself. Therefore, rather than focus on more "narrow" intersubjective perspectives that might be related specifically to Antarctic policy, I wanted a higher-order intersubjective approach that could inform policy and politics in general. To provide this foundation, I focused on the excellent intersubjective-based disciplines outlined by Robyn Eckersley in her examination of the use of the modern liberal democratic state to move towards an ecological state, and her more recent works analysing the impacts and opportunities of globalisation.509 In the following example the beginnings of a broader integral political philosophy and politics are sketched out. It is based on an integral adaptation of Robin Eckersley's The Green State and one of the key philosophies underlying that work, the critical theory-inspired - but expanded to include non-human nature - critical political ecology. An Integral Polity assumes the presence of at least a reasonably healthy democracy, albeit democracy in the "unfinished" sense, as described by John Keane in his comprehensive "Life and Death of Democracy," where:

what we mean by democracy changes through time...democratic institutions and ways of thinking are never set in stone; and...because they are the most power-sensitive polities ever known to humanity, democracies are capable of democratising themselves, for instance by inventing new ways of ensuring equal and open public access of citizens and their

representatives to all sorts of institutions previously untouched by the hand of democracy.510

It is precisely the invention of new ways and new institutions - or the populating of old institutions with new ways - where the "Polity" aspect of the integral Triptych has utility. Polity focuses on shared political morals, mores, and communications; the "inside" of culture. Thus it is an ideal place to articulate what an integral political philosophy would look like from the inside, from the perspective of the social holon that is a polity (nation-state, electorate). What would its shared political mores look like? How would they appear in the intersubjective world of culture? What would the complex external manifestations of social holons or institutions look like? How do we move towards establishing such a culture, an integral political, economic, social and environmental holon? This examination will not answer all of these questions in full and the moving feast that is democracy will likely escape exact prediction. But some broad strokes, a general orienting map, may still prove useful for policymakers, party members, advisers and politicians alike. Beyond Antarctic policy, an integral political philosophy could potentially point out a useful ecological way forward that could find a broad fit within progressive, or, even, conservative parties - the latter perhaps in

509

Christoff and Eckersley, Globalization and the Environment. 510

Keane, The Life and Death of Democracy., p. xxix. Of course, there are many who would argue that democracy may not be too healthy at the moment.

122 balance of power with sound-minded independents or "bright" greens; for an integral approach would not necessarily discount such a parliamentary or congressional arrangement.