BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN
Ask anyone but politicians anywhere around Europe what they think of politicians, and you’ll get groans. You’ll also hear words like “low calibre” and “disconnected”. You’ll receive whingeing about “short-termism”, “career politicians” and “reacting only to polls”.
There is no coincidence in this. In the Internet age we are all interconnected as never before, and politicians, under far too much scrutiny, are too reactive to irrelevances like Twitter trends and peripheral nonsense like celebrity and social credit – too dependent on nudge units, lawyers and virgin think tank spads. But are politicians of a lower calibre today than they were in the past?
The Historian Tom Gallagher certainly thinks so. His book ‘Europe’s Leadership Famine’ argues that representative democracy endured in Europe in the past because its political leaders’ deviousness and self-advancement were balanced by altruism, fortitude and civic virtue. However, in this century, the reputation and ability of politicians have slumped in country after country, as fads, image, process, triviality and spin are promoted over experience, prudence and long-term outcomes.
Gallagher’s book examines the careers, formative experiences, outlooks and intentions of twenty European leaders, from Tito to Macron, from Merkel to Zelensky, in five thematic sections, from The Cold War through identity politics and renewed war in Europe. He argues that most of these leaders left their countries weaker. A small number at times sought to defy networks of power or patterns of thought that diminished Europe and corroded democracy.
Gallagher argues that today’s politicians have been given a difficult hand but nonetheless they suffer from a lack of preparedness, indifferent ability, and prefer a depoliticised regime of technocratic governance as opposed to aspiring to ideals.
Describing the indifferent calibre of politicians, Gallagher does not hold back. He explains how today’s politicians tend to herald from ‘the hot house atmosphere of academia, journalism, public relations and full-time political activism’, arguing that ‘such a stunted background deprives them of the hinterland needed to display authority and nerve in the sudden crises which are erupting with increasing frequency.’
Gallagher’s inference is scathing, that ‘in not a few cases, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that ambitious politicians, keen to benefit from their careers and give little back, simply do not like human beings very much.’
Gallagher makes the very valid point that potentially great leaders are put off politics by the current crop of pipsqueaks. While this is undoubtedly true, he fails to mention that many are put off by the lack of politicians’ pay – and, presumably, the lack of desire to have nosy journalists prying into the contents of their knicker drawer.
This book constitutes near 400 pages of erudite history-writing and its detailed descriptions of leaders past and present make for fascinating reads. Gallagher’s conclusion, that “many politicians have lost the ability to communicate easily because their contact with the wider society has shrivelled” seems ironic given our aforementioned increased interconnectedness, but he has a point and argues it repeatedly and, often, brilliantly.
The chapters on some leaders, notably on Sturgeon, Rutte, and the chapter on Macron and Johnson are painful to read at times. One wonders if they have heard of Machiavelli, let alone read him.
After reading about him in Chapter 2, and despite his various brutal repressions, you cannot help but grow increasingly impressed with Tito as the book progresses towards modern day mediocrity
While there can be no doubt that our modern-day leaders – one thinks of Truss, Johnson, Scholz and François Hollande – have apparently plumbed new lows, one wonders whether mitigatory factors are missing from Gallagher’s book? The rise of the power of the banks, global institutions and the politicisation of the civil service do get a mention to be fair but maybe their rise in some way explains away the demise of leadership – their powerlessness when in office? The blurring of the lines between business and geopolitics, and the rise of global corporate behemoths – with levels of power that outstrip many states – means incredible influence is wielded over European leaders today, perhaps not since the age of empire, when such companies as the English and Dutch East India Companies ruled the roost.
Gallagher does admit that much of scholarship today aims to “take the individual out of recent historical accounts of Europe after 1945” and recognises instead the importance of “impersonal structures and forces.”
His focus on personality in this book makes for a refreshing change, actually.
As the book progresses, with the exception of an obscure Finnish leader, the leaders Gallagher chooses come across as increasingly inept, thus winning him his argument.
Mr Gallagher has written an excellent book on European politics, on the backs of the careers of twenty politicians of different hues and flaws. After reading it, one wonders if the political parties of today should not fast revise their recruitment policies.
Let’s hope that the lessons to be learnt from this book are taken on board and that they do not make for mere footnotes to a period of peace before another large-scale European war. This book is well worth buying and sticking under the noses of your children or grandchildren, even your MP if you think they’re tough enough to handle its hard truths.
Europe’s Leadership Famine – Portraits of defiance and decay 1950-2022 is available on Amazon.
Tom Gallagher is a Scot who pursued an academic career as a historian in England for over three decades and is currently Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of Bradford. He lives in the Lake District and travels widely in Europe and further afield.