Local Politcal Politics

Robert from Bryndwr

As a postgraduate political science degree candidate, I am sometimes quite disappointed with the internal politics and outcomes of local political Party groups. In part, over the years, due to critical academic study and writing schedules and also due to the internal issues within some localised political groups, I now tend to avoid them.

A couple of years ago I was considering doing a post graduate Dissertation about these groups, their composition, longevity and effectiveness. There may well now be a Ph.D. thesis in it for some much younger candidate.

I refer mostly to those local electorate branches or committees that represent various Parliamentary Parties though local government groups can sometimes suffer the same problems. With some exceptions, they can often tend to fail or, effectively, become inactive or non-existent. shortly after their formation.

Since my own participation started in 2006, with one of the three major Parties, I have seen a few of the various Parties' local electorate committees founder on the basis of their idealistic naivety and personal power ambitions involving themselves as committee members.

A very few local political groups are fortunate to have people serving on committee who do have the necessary leadership and management skills enough to anticipate and circumvent the internal problems. Many of the committee members enter the local electorate committees and see it as a path for personally campaigning for selection to their Party's list.

They can also hope they can be selected as contenders an election year candidate for Parliament. They can tend to forget their local members who might only want to socially and politically participate in their Party's community activities and social events. Some recent years ago, in one Party's Parliamentary candidate selection process, the Chair person selectively eliminated all other perceived and contending persons from the selection meeting date and time mailing list. The intention was so that they, as the Chairperson, were the only possible choice for members to nominate.
 Issues like Party members being selectively deleted from their electorate committee mailing or emailing lists, being selectively and, even punitively, uninvited to local Party social events or meetings. Members game enough to want to actively participate find they are not permitted to participate or even vote at meetings.

Other issues are that their committee members have quite naive expectations about what would attract or encourage members to want to attend monthly meetings because those meetings are often just about committee membership machinations but with no social or entertainment content.

Over several years, I have been at several meetings where their 'committee' decided that, because the members weren't now coming to the monthly meetings, they naively decided to close down their monthly meetings. The committee, usually by then, comprising only about three people, would simply call themselves the "Executive Committee' and discuss their local Party business between themselves on the phone excluding all other members while still representing themselves as a branch or committee of their particular Party.

With the recent Elections, a particular Party's local members were selectively uninvited to their Party's election party celebrations or commiserations event where the results were being broadcast on TV.
 
The politics of their internal power behaviors are the very reasons why their local Committee and monthly meetings can fail. Too much personal, power laden, interpersonal behaviors and ambitions will fail their group. Not enough altruism and caring for the social needs of others in their groups is the problem.

Some, fortunately only a few, have substituted those politics as almost a born-again card-carrying Pentecostal religion in their lives.

Notwithstanding the above issues, it IS DEFINITELY worthwhile joining a local political Party branch or group. You can then actively participate in the formation of NZ political policy and legislation even in helping to send it to the Parliamentary Bills or Select Committee level. Your local MP for your preferred Party will tell you where their local political party branches meet.
The social life, on its own, can be enormous fun and wonderful friends can be formed there.

I hope it helps.... Robert.
zl2rob at xtra.co.nz