Everyday Democracy by Tom Bentley, on Revitalizing Democracy Through System-wide Civic Participation

“However complex the system, the simple truth is that these shared problems will only be solved when people are persuaded to accept a share of responsibility for them – when the public value of their being solved is internalised, rather than externalised by markets and then ignored by individuals.”

“The essential lesson of democratic history is that unless the maintenance of political structures is combined with deepening cultures of democratic participation, democracy will fall apart. The solution is not simply to create more direct democracy, or to set up an ever-growing array of consultative processes divorced from the exercise of real power, but to embed both these principles – direct and deliberative – in the range of institutions through which people can express their concerns, their needs and their identities…. Democracy can be a source of dynamism and creativity when it distributes power, responsibility and initiative widely across different communities and organisations and makes it possible to compete and collaborate over a wide range of possible solutions.”

“The process of deliberation – of public discussion among citizens – is fundamental to the possibility of democracy, and 15.5 million daily conversations suggest that it has strong roots.”

“Without more direct citizen participation, the legitimacy of our political institutions will continue to decline…. To make politics work, political leaders must be able to focus on problems that they do not know how to solve, and mobilise people to generate long-term solutions…. we need to explore and promote the democratisation of other sectors and institutions, and to an extent de-monopolise the role of political parties in channelling candidates for democratic representation into institutional life…. we should be investing in the evolution of new democratic institutions and practices which, in conjunction with revived constitutions, can underpin sustainable, self-organising societies.“

REPORT SUMMARY

Overview

The text reflects a perspective on where our democracy is, and why it matters. Its purpose is not to define the answers, but to open up a wider conversation about how we govern ourselves and our world, and how we can learn to do it better.

Democracy is facing a crisis, but simply reforming the structures of governance will not lead to democratic renewal. The public needs to take an active part in the renewal process.

Everyday democracy means increasing public participation in the formal and informal institutions that shape our daily lives. People should be able to make individual choices in ways that contribute to the common good.

Renewing democracy through public participation increases our collective capacity to tackle major problems facing society, such as the pensions shortfall and climate change. Many of these problems can be addressed only by changing the way we live our daily lives.

Demos is committed to building everyday democracy. This essay concludes with some principles for building everyday democracy that Demos uses in its work with organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors.

We get the politicians we deserve

Our confidence in political leaders is declining, but when we opt out of political processes altogether we make their leadership less legitimate. In Britain, poor voter turnout and reduced party membership have created the conditions for political instability.

Without a working democracy, we will be unable to adapt to the social and economic pressures of globalisation.

Britain?fs 2005 general election did not renew the legitimacy of the prime minister, and both main parties are moving towards selecting a new leader. But too much faith is put in individual leaders to restore the legitimacy of their parties and the health of democratic politics as a whole.

Politicians need to renew their own parties and help to increase wider political participation if our democratic institutions are to work effectively. But if we, as citizens, choose not to play a part in this process of renewal, we will get the politicians we deserve.

Everyday democracy

Liberal democracy combined with market capitalism has reinforced the tendency of individuals to act in ways that reduce our ability to make collective choices. This is the underlying reason for the crisis in democracy.

Democracy should be a way to balance personal rights and shared responsibilities, with political institutions mediating between individual and group interests. But political institutions seem irrelevant to people?fs daily lives, so their ability to mediate is reduced when we need them most.

The solution is to reconnect democratic choices with people?fs direct experience of everyday life, and to extend democratic principles to everyday situations and organisations.

Crisis? What crisis?

Faith in political parties is declining across Europe and trust in politicians seems to be at an all-time low. Political campaigning is now conducted largely through the media. Politicians are in the public eye but politics are not part of people?fs everyday experience.

There is pressure on politicians to act as they try to convince sceptical voters to support them. Creating consensus about tackling major problems, such as the pensions shortfall or climate change, which require public behaviour change, has become very difficult.

Where are the leaders?

Our political culture perpetuates the myth that strong leaders can bring about change single-handedly. But the developed world has few examples of leaders who have successfully converted their formal authority into a process of democratic renewal.

Rather than relying on the authority of office, real leadership means motivating people to solve problems for which there are no easy answers. These principles for leadership could help societies adapt to new challenges:

• Acknowledge the limits of existing solutions.
• Allow solutions to emerge from different sources.
• Distribute power to people who can solve a problem most effectively.
• Refuse to be diverted and learn from failure.

Where are the citizens?

People are too busy for formal politics, though many are involved in informal political activity ranging from volunteering to NGO campaigns. Participation is distributed unevenly across the social groups, creating a sliding scale of citizenship.

In Britain there have been several recent responses to this gathering crisis in democracy. They include:

• the POWER Inquiry, which is looking at ways to increase participation
• a renewed interest in electoral reform, including a campaign for proportional representation by the
  Independent newspaper
• the Hansard Society?fs commission on parliament and the media, which called for greater transparency.

However, these responses may focus too much on reforming political institutions. Constitutional reform is only part of the solution. Democracy must also be embedded in the everyday reality of people?fs lives.

The role of deliberation

Most of us form our views based on our own experience. Institutions that are not connected to the everyday experience of people are unlikely to have much popular support.

Conversation, or deliberation, is an important influence on people?fs views. When institutional decision-making fails to connect with people?fs experience, they do not feel ownership of the process and are less likely to take part. The European Union is the obvious example of this.

The challenge for democratic renewal is to create opportunities for deliberation that relate to both people?fs experience and collective decision-making.

Markets and democracy

The triumph of markets at the end of the twentieth century is widely misinterpreted as meaning that the state struggles to create public goods or influence markets.

However, the idea that markets and the state can be kept separate is misleading. For one thing, markets depend on legitimate governance to work effectively. And for another, good governance depends on the interaction of many institutions ? including ones that are part of neither markets nor the state.

Most importantly, though, people do not experience any separation between state and markets in their daily lives. For people to make choices that are not purely consumer choices, markets and the state need to be more integrated, not more separate. Institutions that govern markets should be more democratic.

Choices and commons

Commons are resources which are freely accessed and shared, but are often essential to private interests too. Many of the problems we face in our society stem from the fact that we do not see a connection between our personal choices and the commons on which those choices depend.

Using plastic bags at supermarkets or driving children to school are everyday examples of personal choices where the wider consequences ? social, environmental or economic ? are not properly acknowledged.

So governance exists in part to protect commons. But our argument about democracy reaches further: democratic legitimacy is itself a common good that enables us to solve problems together as a society.

We will solve shared problems only when people are persuaded to accept a share of responsibility for them and the public value of collective problem-solving is recognised.

The role of institutions

We need institutions to help us see personal choices in relation to the common good. Elected governments are just the tip of the iceberg. Traditional institutions commonly grouped under the heading of civil society are also part of the picture.

But non-traditional institutions also contribute to the common good. Parental childcare networks and book clubs are two everyday examples. For these self-organising institutions to play a different role in mediating democratic choice, their development must be combined with the uses of state power.

The most practical way to link individual choice to collective responsibility is to participate in the institutions that influence our lives. Formal and informal institutions should be democratised, and given more responsibility for exercising state power.

Building everyday democracy

Demos has committed itself to building everyday democracy by applying the principles set out in the above analysis in its work with organisations from all sectors. There are four main ways to develop institutions as the basis for everyday democracy:

• Develop public services and local governance as platforms of self-governing communities.
• Recognise membership and campaigning organisations that can play a clearer role in mobilising political issues and mass participation.
• Support institutions that can enable cultural learning and collaboration between cultures.
• Spread institutional power more widely and seek to align power, initiative and responsibility more closely.

These challenges cannot be met through existing structures of government. But the British government could stimulate more everyday democracy by developing the local roots of democratic self-governance. This could be done by:

• creating a local government financial settlement which localises a significant proportion of tax-raising power and matches powers to responsibilities
• embracing neighbourhood governance which delegates management and budgets across key areas
• embedding public deliberation in institutional development such as trade negotiations, scientific research and innovation programmes, and land development
• reshaping public services to make co-production by citizens as important as professional knowledge and
  performance management
• involving citizens in local government budget-setting processes.

(This entry is a summary of “Everyday Democracy – Why We Get Politicians We Deserve” by Tom Bentley of Demos – The Think Thank for Everyday Democracy, which is made possible by the Demos Open Access License)

Keywords: ecosocial crisis, beyond left and right, reforming politics, democratic democracy, participatory democracy, civic participation, self-governance, decentralizing power and responsibility, global is local, institutional diversity, policentricity, resilience, global governance, life-sustaining civilization design