At the Together we Can launch the other day David Miliband was speaking about the 'extension of citizenship,' and those of us with an interest in neighbourhood governance trotted off to a workshop to see what could be done about it. We heard from the ODPM's Mark Hitchen, who was responsible for the Why neighbourhoods matter paper. And here's Ed Cox of Community Pride, whose facilitation of the session required each group to write key points down on paper plates. Part of what bothers me is that many people have a very unsatisfactory experience of democracy in their personal lives; and indeed unstaisfactory appreciation of what it means to participate in the decision-making processes that affect them. I worry a little about the assumptions of enhanced local democracy from the perspective of people for whom democracy has always been a part of day-to-day experience. Similarly, as I have said often enough, it doesn't help if we keep using the term 'community' as if it implies consensus. We may be storing up problems if we imply that people who live in the same locality will naturally agree on what needs to be done, or even that they wish willingly to contribute to the processes of reaching consensus. Thirdly, I'd want to make a point which emerged from the governance game we ran in Bath last week: there is a need to ensure that the representatives are genuinely representative. This is not so much about the electoral formalities of democracy, it's about behaving in representative ways.
I'm fairly sure none of the plates was spun. Plenty of talk about parish councils, delegated budgets, and the variability of the goodwill of local authorities. Meanwhile a few points have crossed my mind.
In other words, as with the slightly weary e-democracy debate, it's really about enhancing the culture of democracy as much as its processes.
