Originally published 11 February 2008. This article is retained from the tCI archive. Law, policy or practice may have changed since publication.
Those who wish to influence detailed aspects of these new policies have till 20th March to comment. But, although they apply only to England, the underlying principles raise interesting questions which extend to all public bodies, or even to private firms or third sector organisations – in fact any that operate in the public domain.
This is because these new ideas are based on an assumption that accountability matters and that responsiveness to the public is “empowering”. There is now broad consensus on the need to re-invigorate democracy, and that one of the ways to do it is to provide more tools or levers that people can use to make things happen. The political rhetoric today even talks of “devolution to the doorstep”! On the one hand, what effect will there be if we have a duty on local authorities to respond if, say, 250 signatures are appended to a petition? Let’s leave aside the obvious inducement to cheat if there is a magic number that becomes a trigger for action; just imagine the volume of work which could be generated, much of it questioning issues that have already been democratically determined. Will it create a never-ending appeal mechanism whenever residents dislike contentious decisions? Is the Councillor Call to Action nothing but a troublemakers’ charter – a device for maverick Councillors to undermine the slow but painstaking search for consensus in “place-shaping”?
On the other hand, our existing methods of taking decisions are pretty opaque, and scarcely accessible to the general public. Web-casting Council meetings has not proved wildly popular, and Dame Jane Roberts’ recent Councillors Commission has predictably failed to find a magic bullet that makes the tedious and time-consuming so stimulating and riveting that everyone wants to join in.
MORI/Audit Commission research shows that the proportion of active citizens is from 2% to 5% whereas 50%+ are sincerely apathetic. It is the group in the middle – the vast 45%+ of probably-voting and occasionally-interested individuals that, Ministers believe, can be galvanised into greater involvement if the right environment can be created.
So the theory is that signing a petition will mean more to people if they think that something will happen in consequence. Similarly raising a Call to Action will help a Councillor convince the electorate that he or she is acting on its behalf. Fundamentally, however, these are mechanisms to place items on an agenda rather than provide solutions.
They cannot, of themselves generate more money or re-allocate resources. But they can initiate or influence debate. They can do it in three ways:- • By raising its profile. Petitions and/or the Call for Action will be newsworthy and local media will probably provide reasonable coverage. • By widening participation. Contributions to the dialogue may come from outside the traditional decision-making structures • By increasing urgency. A duty to respond prevents organisations from kicking subjects into the long grass or burying inconvenient issues in a bureaucratic labyrinth.
Underpinning it all is an attempt at greater transparency. Whether it is nepotism in the House of Commons or cronyism in contracts, all public bodies face a world where they have to be beyond reproach in the way they do business. To do so means subjecting themselves to challenge, and these new proposals are just the latest iteration of a form of challenge that is embodied in the principles of overview and scrutiny.
Consultation is also another form of challenge, and works best where the arguments for or against policies or options are openly published and subject to the cut and thrust of informed debate. The extent to which petitions and calls for action can help is certainly worthy of detailed debate - and the department of Communities & Local Government needs to hear from you!
Trigger points
- CLG’s consultation paper on Local petitions and Calls for Action can be found by clicking here.
- The Institute is organise a Roundtable consultation session on the proposals
This is the 103rd Tuesday Topic; a full list of subjects covered is available for Institute members and is a valuable resource covering so many aspects of consultation and engagement