Australia is experiencing its usual run of disasters and tragedies this summer. The ruinous flood in Townsville and the threat that Cyclone Katrina now poses to North Queensland, twenty-five people drowning at surf beaches across the country, the death of four NSW volunteer fire-fighters in bushfires; all are a reminder that we live in a land with more than its share of natural hazards.
But despite the pain and hardship that follow from such calamities, they also draw attention to something fine about our nation. The thriving voluntary associations that Australians have developed to deal with these threats are evidence that a basic decency still prevails.
And perhaps more unexpectedly, the way we have responded to these recurrent natural crises may also help to explain why, comparatively speaking, Australia is well governed, with deeply rooted democratic sentiments and institutions.
How are these two matters connected? In Making Democracy Work, a book that quickly became a classic when it was published five years ago, Robert Putnam, a Harvard professor of politics, offered a straightforward answer.
The introduction of a new set of regional governments throughout Italy in 1970, all with the same formal structures and powers, had allowed Putnam and his colleagues to carry out a unique experiment. They began a twenty year long study of these new governments, and found that some proved to be inefficient and corrupt failures, while others had turned out to be great successes.
Putnam considered a number of possible reasons for this difference -- wealth, education, party politics, and so on -- but none offered a satisfactory explanation. Finally, he discovered that one characteristic provided a correlation that was "virtually perfect". Regions with the most effective and well-regarded governments were invariably those with the strongest networks of voluntary associations.
By belonging to such groups people learn the importance of civic obligations and accept a degree of personal responsibility for the welfare of their communities. The groups also enhance their ability to co-operate with and trust fellow citizens, people who would otherwise be strangers with whom they had little in common. This forms a "virtuous circle", creating a community whose values encourage individuals to join voluntary associations, which in turn reinforce the values and skills on which public-spiritedness depends.
Many kinds of organisations seem able to do this successfully, and Putnam stressed the contribution of mutual-aid co-operatives, sporting clubs, and cultural societies. He did not specifically discuss voluntary groups set up on a permanent basis to provide various rescue and emergency services. But these groups are probably more effective than any other kinds of associations at fostering the values and attitudes that lie at the heart of a good society. I think there are two reasons for this.
Firstly, unlike organisations that are formed around particular philosophical or ideological views, such as political parties or lobby groups, members of service associations do not see themselves as promoting an interest or cause that might be opposed by others. They genuinely work on behalf of everyone, not just those who are sympathetic to their views. Of course, this applies to many kinds of charitable organisations as well.
But there is a further consideration that applies to associations such as volunteer fire brigades, emergency service units and surf life saving clubs. The potential dangers that members of these groups may face makes it particularly important that they can trust each other. So the skills which enhance their ability to co-operate effectively with the people of many different backgrounds from which membership is usually drawn form an important part of their training.
Australia is very well endowed with these kinds of voluntary groups, to the envy of many other countries. About 50,000 men and women across the country are active members of State Emergency Service units, the voluntary organisation which has carried a major burden of helping people affected by this week's Townsville flood.
These highly-trained units, which work closely with local government structures, were established in different states at various times over the past forty years, and developed from post-war civil defence organisations. SES members are on 24 hour call to respond to cyclones, floods, search and rescue emergencies and other crises.
Around 260,000 Australians -- and 52,000 Queenslanders -- are volunteer fire-fighters, belonging to local Rural Fire Brigades and similar organisations, which in some states go back to the middle of the last century. As the tragic deaths in NSW remind us, these are the men and women who face possibly the greatest dangers of any volunteers, and like SES members, they are on 24 hour call.
80,000 Australian men and women belong to over 260 clubs affiliated with Surf Life Saving Australia. The first of these clubs were formed in the early years of this century in NSW and Queensland, and the movement as a whole has a distinguished record with around 350,000 people saved from drowning. In Queensland, no-one has ever drowned in an area patrolled by volunteer surf life savers.
But these membership figures understate the actual support such groups receive. The intensive training requirements, and the demands that voluntary duties can make on time and personal safety means that it is not just their own commitment that is necessary -- active members must also have the backing of their families and employers.
Why do people join these kinds of associations? There are a number of reasons, and not all of them are altruistic. For many, a desire to meet a physical challenge, to prove one's courage in the face of nagging doubts, to enter into the camaraderie that these groups usually generate, or even to meet members of the opposite sex, may be just as important a motivation as the desire to perform a public service.
But in an important sense, the initial motivations don't matter much. It is the social consequences that count. For quite apart from the direct rescue and emergency services that these voluntary associations provide, they play a vital role in perpetuating the values of citizenship on which a free, democratic society depends.
ADVERTISEMENT
No comments:
Post a Comment