Originally published 9 December 2008. This article is retained from the tCI archive. Law, policy or practice may have changed since publication.
We’re in danger of getting into something of a tangle about the different kinds of democracy we want. The old tried-and-tested representative version is thought by many to be creaking; the Power Commission a few years ago, and the more recent Councillors Commission have both produced ideas that might resuscitate the beast.
Others believe that society has changed beyond all recognition and that an internet-informed, educated public is no longer happy to limit its public engagement to the occasional visit to a ballot-box and hence the trend everywhere towards a more consultative democracy.
You can see both in last Friday’s Local Democracy, Economic development and Construction Bill that implements some of the proposals in July’s “Empowerment” White Paper. The duty to promote democracy tries to reinforce “representative democracy”. Whitehall estimates that this will need two extra officers for upper-tier Councils, and half of one person in Districts; it also seems to have allowed about £20,000 per Council for publicity. Now, in these straightened economic times, it may be possible to work wonders with few resources, but we’re not sure if this is remotely enough to counteract the sweeping tide of indifference that engulfs our local political environments. If it’s worth doing at all, it’s worth doing properly .....etc etc
The duty to respond to petitions is quite different. Here is a mechanism for citizens to table their concerns without having to go through an elected member – a “Councillor by-pass” if we like. One can imagine assiduous campaigners making great use of this facility, especially online and, at worst case, possibly clogging up the arteries of a Council with dozens of petitions in the coming years. In its amazingly low estimate of £3m for the cost of this proposal, CLG seems to be assuming very few petitions......maybe it forgot about the duty to promote!!
Consultative democracy is a dangerous concept unless it is fully integrated to existing representative structures. It is by no means clear that this essential “glue” is being deployed. At recent Conferences on empowerment and related issues, elected members have been notably few and far between, and there is a danger that some Conservative Councillors see some of these initiatives as a party political New-Labour style agenda, despite the support of the Local Government Association, academics and some of our most experienced municipal leaders.
Securing the active participation of communities in what happens to them should, of course, command cross-party support, and never more so than in anticipation of savage public expenditure constraints. If public bodies have to cut back on cherished commitments, it will be more important than ever to carry their public with them. In short, budgeting will need to be more participative – whether Councils adopt PB or not. And asking people their views on priorities need not always be prohibitively expensive.
In future, neither representative nor consultative democracy will flourish in isolation, and it is not a choice between one and the other. Many public bodies that have no direct line of accountability to citizens (e.g. NHS Trusts) are already required by statute to consult extensively, and are, in many ways, more open to their policies and plans being influenced by stakeholders than if they had an elected person on their Boards. What matters is having mechanisms and safeguards to ensure that alternative ideas can be considered and a process to ensure that the impact of decisions on people and their communities are transparently taken fully into account.
The Bill is just another staging post on a journey towards more responsive public services, and forward-thinking organisations will soon need to turn their minds to how best to take advantage of these new initiatives.
Trigger points
- The Institute has prepared a Briefing Paper on Public engagement aspects of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill.
- Hit the ground running in 2009 by attending the Institute event on Empowerment on 15th January in London. It’s called Cost-effective public participation in challenging times – and the emphasis is clearly on achieving results with fewer resources. The agenda is being strengthened to ensure proper consideration of the issues raised by the Bill.
- Our new one-day training course – Implementing the Empowerment Agenda runs in London and covers issues raised in this Topic.
This is the 125th 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