A thriving middle class feeds democracy, so why does the PM want to break it?

Much has been made this week of the prime minister’s decision to dump two payments into the bank accounts of aged care workers, rather than support their case for a permanent wage rise of 25% being heard in the Fair Work Commission.

It’s cynical politics, with the first instalment paid immediately and the second at the start of May, just weeks before the last possible date the Morrison government can go to the polls.

To state the obvious, one-off payments are not wage rises. They are gifts or donations that, while nice, don’t change the life chances or choices of their recipients by allowing them to buy a house or a car because they are confident they can pay the mortgage. They do nothing to lift the mostly female workforce of aged care staff from their meagre annual wage of $44,124.08 to anywhere close to the median annual salary for Australian women of $71,760.

This isn’t just sad for these workers, who deserve a lot better. It’s a problem for us all because middle-income earners need to be comfortable — and comfortably in the majority — for Australian democracy to survive.

The link between a thriving middle class and democratic survival has been known for thousands of years. At least since Aristotle, who noticed what happens to a democratic society when the distribution between haves (a few rich elites) and have-nots (the dirt-poor majority) gets lopsided. It becomes unstable.

The elites, fearful the masses will use their votes to take away their wealth, do all in their power to destroy democracy and return to the kleptocratic rule they’ve enjoyed since the dawn of human existence. The poor, enraged by the unconscionable hogging by a minority of most of society’s wealth, want the governance system that allowed it destroyed.

With no loyalty to democracy and a single-minded focus on gaining the upper hand and subjugating their opponent, bitter factional conflict erupts and remains a constant, occasionally breaking out into civil war.

If you’re hearing echoes of recent US history, you’re on the right track. While the source code of the violence of Donald Trump supporters is complex, it includes the rage of those who once enjoyed a secure middle-class existence but don’t any longer and see the same opportunity-free future stretching out before their kids.

In Australia, while political violence of the type seen in Washington DC on January 6, 2021, is not part of the picture, a range of demagogic authoritarian political figures like Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer stoke the grievances of those whose middle-class aspirations were damaged by globalisation and other macroeconomic decisions in which they had no hand.

This includes young adults without occupations — especially those with a university education and high expectations — who research fellow and columnist William A Galston describes as a “classic source of political instability”.

The answer to this is a large and prosperous middle class. While it’s nice to think that citizens have an intrinsic loyalty to democratic governance, most don’t. Instead democracy is valued for the benefits it delivers. Which means the greater number of citizens for whom democracy delivers the means to a “peaceful, commodious, ever-progressing” life, the greater number who have a stake in its survival and support it.

This is not a Western phenomenon, but a universal one, with data showing that as world citizens enter the middle class, their values become more like those seen in advanced economies. For example, members of the emerging middle class in developing countries assign more importance to democratic institutions and individual liberties than their poorer compatriots. In other words, when incomes rise, democracy becomes more valued in every place in the world.

So, the next time you hear someone bemoan the hollowing-out of the middle class, or the trend in Western democracies of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, remember to care. Not just about the well-being of your fellow citizens, but also about the health of your democracy.

Take that concern to the ballot box, too. Because unlike many of the knotty problems facing advanced democracies, we know how to solve this one. All we need is the will.