Your assessment of the fractious condition of America's political parties concluded that "it is impossible to imagine a big democracy staying healthy without them" ("The party declines", March 5th). But the current state of many large democracies suggests exactly the contrary. The polarisation of politics in America; the entrenchment of party whips in Britain; complete dysfunction in Italy; and institutionalised corruption and class prejudice in India: all of these result from the misplaced importance accorded to political parties.
America's Founding Fathers focused on representation, not parties. This year's presidential race shows how the parties have become so out-of-step with that ideal. The parties now represent the various interest groups they have cobbled together to justify their existence and have become part of the "establishment", whose raison d'être is self-preservation. It is little wonder that voters are swayed more by the superficial emotional appeal of simple anti-establishment rhetoric than by serious consideration of the issues facing the country.
Where, for example, is the debate on the role of education when it come to competing with the surging skills of India and China? Where is the serious analysis of how best to return the economy to surplus and manage the crushing burden of national debt on generations to come?
Ultimately voters get the representatives they vote for. Sadly, too few give too little thought to this crucial right and duty.
MIKE RAVEN
Buffalo, New York
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