Rethinking democracy: Power to the People

Grenville Mills looks at ways to empower communities in the face of a democratic deficit.

There is an ugly, seamier side to our political administration. We all know it exists but like zombies are meekly accepting it as part of our culture in a frightening Orwellian sense. What I’m talking about is abuse of power; power wielded by those we have (in most cases) elected into high office.

When exposed, it makes depressing reading not least because it drives home how ineffective we are in preventing it from taking place.

For example, at the highest level we seem powerless to prevent Government pressing ahead with their NHS bill while they flout public opposition and legal orders to publish the Risk Report, and at a Borough level, we cringe after reading Andrew Gilligan’s constant revelations concerning Tower Hamlets’ Mayor, summed up in ‘Lutfur Rahman; all his controversies in one place‘’. The reality is, we have little influence over politicians once they are in office.

Our politicians all too often assume an air of unaccountability and permanence once they’ve wormed their way into office. I personally rather warm to the more current expression eloquently delivered by Dame Judy Dench in the James Bond thriller, ‘Quantum of Solace’ when she referred to an unwholesome rogue as a ‘slimy bastard’.

I put to you; the mother of parliamentary democracy has reached an age at which it is no longer fit for purpose. It is based on an unwritten constitution that was suitable for a country of just over 4 million people with all its historic social inequalities of the time, coupled with quill pen and parchment paper communication.

Democracy as a civic duty

Society has changed dramatically over 400 years yet we cling to a political system that operates much as it did in the 1600’s. It’s time for the mother of parliamentary democracy to become the mother of community assembly democracy.

What if….

….we were able to replace political parties and career politicians at all levels with best-in-class professionals, hired (and if necessary fired) under professional performance contracts, and selected using best practice techniques, by regional and central assemblies formed from community representation?

In outline, consider a ground-up example of how such a system could work in practice. Take the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and a Ward of say 10,000 registered electors. With 17 Wards across the Borough that computes to 170,000 electors (the actual figure for Tower Hamlets as of 12/2011 was 172,092, so pretty much in line with official statistics). Using the existing electoral register, 30 assembly men/women would be selected from the 10,000, in a similar way to the selection criteria for Jury Service. The 30 would form the Community Assembly for the Ward.

As with Jury Service, attendance on the Assembly would be a civic duty.  This would represent a representation radio of approximately 1:333. Current local government representation is 1:3374, and central government representation is a staggering 1:74956. Keep in mind that even at these levels, current elected local and central government representation is focused on party political expedients -strategic issues – above community concerns.

Two members from each Ward would be selected by the Assembly to sit on the Borough Assembly. Assembly service would be for a 6 month term with 5 members rotated each month to ensure dynamic continuity and a rolling ground-up representation process. Using the same approach, London’s (32) Boroughs would provide representatives to a London Assembly, and all UK’s Counties would provide representatives to a central Council of State. At each level, executives would be hired (as referred above) to best represent the interests of their respective Assemblies.

The principle is simple – no political parties, no politicians, no adversarial politics in a parliamentary chamber of government versus opposition; a nation truly administered by the people for the people. But, are we prepared to make the commitment to be directly involved in administering our own society? Are we as individuals – nation builders? or do we still need to be led like lemmings, nurtured on a culture of leadership?

We can start now

There is an interim measure we can apply to test our resolve. Paradoxically the vehicle for this has been launched by David Cameron and Nick Clegg. Their White Paper, ‘Open Public Services’ advocates decentralising and devolving power to the lowest appropriate level. In practical terms this means the ability to establish local community councils as a statutory body. In Tower Hamlets they could be established within each Ward of the Borough. The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) web site states, ‘NALC offers a bursary scheme for London campaign groups that want to create a new local council in their area. Campaign groups can apply for funds to cover reasonable costs incurred for their meetings’.

With this ‘leg-up’, a Borough wide campaign can be started to install ground-up representation at local government level. As I say this is only a starting point, and is no quick fix to the abuses of power we have to witness on an almost daily basis. But it will have an impact locally and be the foundation for non elected Assemblies in the future.

A longer version of this piece appears here.