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A deeper democracy By Angela Eagle MP EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. Introduction • Despite many achievements in office, there is a widespread sense among Labour’s supporters that it has yet to fulfil the promise of social transformation implicit in its May 1997 landslide. 2. The Thatcherite legacy • 18 years in power allowed the Conservatives to entrench their market fundamentalist ideology throughout British political life. Labour’s lasting success requires that it be displaced. 3. New Labour’s political style • New Labour was shaped by its years in opposition. While its defensive and accommodationist approach may have helped it back to power, it is insufficient for effecting a radical transformation of Britain. • Methods of centralisation and discipline, deliberate confrontation with the party, and a retail model of political positioning and communication, have outlived their usefulness and are now becoming counterproductive. 4. New Labour’s triangulations • The simple tactic of splitting the difference between political alternatives to attract maximum floating voter support precludes a more strategic vision of real political possibilities and opportunities. • New Labour has made unnecessary concessions to the conservatism of the tabloid media and its Third Way rhetoric denigrates a caricature of social democracy while failing to challenge market fundamentalism. 5. Escaping the old dogmas • Our thinking is still constrained by simplistic economic models and a mechanical view of the role of the state in effecting social change. • We need to move to an understanding of society as a complex and unpredictable web of networks whose members are influenced by each other’s behaviour. 6. Beyond the market mechanism • Our goal must be one of deepening democracy, achieving “bottom-up” social and political change that mobilises the experience and commitment of activists and citizens. • Experiments in participatory budgeting show how the active involvement of voters in informed debate and deliberation can produce better decisions and socially progressive outcomes. • Similarly, regeneration programmes have more legitimacy and lasting effect if their direction and administration is in the hands of the communities on their receiving end. • The renewal of the public sector must go forward on the basis of worker and user empowerment within a public service ethos, not the further extension of market mechanisms and business models of organisation. • We need a vibrant democracy in the Labour Party that values and utilises the perspectives of the membership and the trade unions and uses innovative organisational methods facilitated by modern communications. • Society is becoming more fluid and relationships and living arrangements more diverse. Public policy needs to recognise and engage with this new reality if it is to be effective. • The grip of market fundamentalism on the institutions of global economic governance needs to be loosened, and replaced with principles of international fairness, transparency, and real democratic accountability. 7. Conclusion • Our aim must be to take this debate forward in the most constructive and inclusive way possible. It is on this basis that we will be able to turn a good Labour government into a great one. |
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