Malta is a fascinating place for looking at some underlying issues of democracy and government.

 

Malta is 201st in the world’s list of countries by physical size, its area of 316km2 (one fifth the size of Greater London) just ahead of the Maldives and just behind Grenada. Its population (some 420,000 people) is comparable to that of Manchester, making it 171st in the world’s population rankings

 

The fascinating thing about Malta’s political life is that there is just so much of it. Voluntary participation in general elections soars to giddy heights of 95% or even more – the highest in the free world. Elections are won on national majorities of a few thousand votes, with two main parties slugging it out, the Labour Party and the currently ruling Nationalist Party. Party loyalty is very strong. If you are born into a Nationalist or Labour family, that helps shape your personal dentity. 

 

Hence you do not need much by way of maths to realise that if only several thousand people do decide to change their vote, the election results can be very different.

 

Which makes for vivid public life. Examples:

 

  • If a voter is unhappy with the government’s work, s/he may gather together voting slips of other disgruntled friends and family members and dump them unceremoniously on a Minister’s desk as a sign of withdrawing support: “We have been waiting months for that planning application to go through. Where is it?” Since a typical Maltese extended family may have well over a hundred people, this dramatic gesture tends to focus Ministerial minds on helping that unhappy voter in a very practical way – a few more family ‘swings’ like that could literally lose the next election.
  • As every Maltese citizen is likely to be firmly associated with one or other of the main political tendencies (and known to be so), ideas of loyalty and professional neutrality within the civil service are not what we in the much larger UK expect. Ministers have to think hard about best to work with their own Ministries, as officials from the ‘other side’ may be seen (fairly or unfairly) as likely leakers.
  • A lot of Western political thought is built on the idea of the ‘separation of powers’ – parliament, government, judiciary, police, local administrations all having clearly defined roles ands responsibilities. Fine when it works. But how far can it work in the classic sense in a much smaller polity where everyone knows everyone else’s business and large family networks linked to political loyalty are so dominant?
  • Likewise public appointments and official tenders. Opportunities for patronage and ‘clientelism’ are pervasive. Not that other, bigger polities necessarily do better.

All this and much more combine to make Malta an intriguing example of micro-accountability. Nonetheless, even on such a small island there is plenty of scope for things to go on in a less than clear way. Now lively local bloggers like journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia are hard at work bringing some new transparency to procedures which previously appear to have been less than satisfactory:

Malta is tiny and its judiciary is far from numerous. Yet in the last few years we have had this track record: one appeals court judge and a chief justice jailed for bribery, one failed attempt to impeach a magistrate (Labour refused to cooperate), one failed attempt to impeach a judge (Labour refused to cooperate), at least two magistrates who appear to have been relieved of most of their duties because of personal problems, one of which is said to involve alcoholism, and now the latest shenanigans involving Magistrate Herrera – though quite frankly, there is nothing ‘now’ about it at all.

That’s very impressive.

It’s quite clear from this mess that the entire system needs a rigorous overhaul. The first thing to go should be the discretionary approach to the appointment of magistrates and judges. Nominations for these positions should be made public and subject to public scrutiny.

Malta. Never a dull moment.