A new economic paradigm is required to win the votes of an electorate which is increasingly being alienated by the current ideology accepted internationally and by our major political parties. The existing paradigm is based on a belief in markets, privatisation, and competition. However, this ideological framework is not based on any economic theory. Economic theory in fact supports a contrary view that firms exist because markets fail to govern transactions efficiently.
Markets fail because they only provide information in the form of a price which is simply a number.
To efficiently organise the production of goods and services, much richer qualitative information is required. This demands far more complex communication in the form of signs, symbols, words, and language rather than just numbers. A corollary of firms existing because markets fail is that markets exist only because society has not adopted the most efficient forms of social organisation. The political result is that the electorate feels exploited by business, alienated by insensitive bureaucracies, depressed by environmental degeneration, powerless to take control of their lives and cynical about the interest, or the ability, of politicians to make things better. To make things better, a new political architecture is required, not just new policies and programs.