"This was the election in which our political leaders declared, very loudly, that they weren’t here to fix the nation’s deep and evident problems."

"[T]his was the election in which our political leaders declared, very loudly, that they weren’t here to fix the nation’s deep and evident problems. They were here to ensure that things remained broken and they were prepared to go against the nominal values of their own parties to do so. ...
    "My contention is that this government was simultaneously too centrist and not centrist enough and I predict the next government will be the same. Instead of an economy that is built around either an interventionist state or free markets we have a hybrid of private and public sector solutions that never seem to solve anything; they deliver little value to the public, vast profits to private sector providers and high salaries to the senior public servants provisioning them, who seem to be completely unaccountable – no matter how dire their performance....

    "New Zealand is a liberal-democratic-free market-social welfare state – Francis Fukuyama’s 'End of History' model. But – as Fukuyama pointed out – all of the institutions that make the model work are vulnerable to oligarchic capture. Over time the people who manage them reorient them towards their own self-interest."

~ Danyl McLauchlan, from his post 'Notes towards an alt-centrist manifesto'