We are about to invent a whole new regional tier of government and we need to talk about what that means for our democracy.
Mayors are not bureaucrats. They are democratically elected politicians, and those in office already have significant and far reaching powers. This influence grows exponentially when we have universal coverage of the country.
Huge parts of local government are currently focused on and running at pace towards the twin opportunities offered by devolution and local government reorganisation. Here at CfGS, we want to make sure that as we support government and local government through this huge change we are also thinking about what this means for our democracy. Without that, governance is technocratic and government is just bureaucracy.
It’s worth taking a moment to reflect on what the recent elections told us about our democracy. Professor John Curtis really nailed it when he talked about the fact that we’re trying to fit the five parties into a two party system. The public are going to see perverse results if we don’t start to think about a democracy that’s got more space for plurality and is able to accommodate a wide range of views. We are seeing a system built for a linear left / right axis come under pressure from a multi-dimensional and complex world.
There is so much we can do to address this. Here are some of the areas we have been actively exploring:
- Our work on Place Governance is exploring how best to use the tools of scrutiny to hold these new and complex mayoralties to account as well as to help support decision making
- Innovation in constitutional design to create a more relational democracy which includes people at all stages of the process. Read our provocation paper.
- Deliberative methods provide the tools to address complex issues and can be built in as part of the way of working. (Methods other than citizens assemblies are available!) Speaking from personal experience, at Adur and Worthing, we are building this into the work the council is doing to develop a future vision to underpin our local government reorganisation work.
A big opportunity is in considering a move to a more inclusive voting system for the mayor, the Electoral Reform Society make the case for proportional representation and given what we are seeing we should be listening.
For many of us who have been working and thinking in the space of democratic innovation this feels like a time of large scale change and turbulence for democracy. We are seeing that left / right axis stretch further and further with ‘other’ voices not feeling heard or seen. Colleagues in the EU are already thinking about this with a sense of urgency and you can read more in Mel’s earlier blog and the thinking behind the Democracy Shield.
I want a democracy that bends rather than breaks under the weight of the complexity it’s trying to deal with and most importantly a democracy that feels inclusive and of the people.
Local government is local democracy. Let’s not reinvent one without reinventing the other.
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