Renewing Britain will be difficult and divisive – politics as usual won’t work
4 min read
“The fight for trust is the battle that defines our political era.”
These were Keir Starmer’s words at the State Opening of Parliament. He zeroed in on one of the defining issues of the election and the age – the breakdown of trust between citizens and politicians.
With crumbling public services and growing inequality, and little fiscal headroom, the government has tough choices ahead. They are going to have to take on challenges which are difficult (like building 1.5 million new homes), divisive (like immigration) and require personal sacrifice (meeting net-zero targets).
Demos polling indicated only 43 per cent of people believe politicians act in the their best interests, so it’s more important than ever that the government takes the public on this journey with them. A disenfranchised and disengaged population is a perfect breeding ground for populists.
Alongside delivering on promises and upholding high ethical standards, we need ministers to use new ways to tackle the policy challenges we face – from national missions to everyday policy-making. We need new ways to understand and negotiate what the public will tolerate. We need new ways to build back trust between citizen and state.
The Citizens’ White Paper, published in July by Demos in partnership with the public participation charity Involve, sets out some of those new methods. Participatory policy-making leads to better outcomes for more people. By harnessing the collective considered judgement of a wide range of citizens impacted by an issue or trying to tackle it on the ground, the policies developed are much less likely to fail at first contact with reality. It gives ministers and policy makers greater information about how the public works through difficult issues and trade-offs to reach an agreement that the majority can get behind, leading to more robust and evidence based policy making.
There are a range of participatory methods which can be adapted depending on the scale and problem to be addressed. Citizens’ assemblies can be used for large-scale issues like considering how to pay for the social care we want as a country, or moral questions like assisted dying. Deliberative workshops can be run faster and more cheaply to address more narrow questions, like working through a local planning application. The Citizens’ White Paper sets out nine practical, costed recommendations for the government to consider that will enable citizens to participate in the policy decisions that affect their lives.
Immediate steps include setting up flagship Citizens’ Panels to feed into each of the government’s new mission boards, helping to refine priorities and work through difficult trade-offs. And creating a central participation hub to provide support for policy teams across government to build participatory approaches into everyday policy making.
Short-term actions include normalising participatory policy-making and building a culture of participation across government. Announcing a programme of at least three national citizens’ assemblies to tackle politically and publicly salient issues in the first term would be a great start.
In the longer term we should embed these new ways of working deeply in policy-making systems and Parliament. This could include a ‘Duty to Consider Participation’ to hold bill teams to account for demonstrating how they have involved the public before a bill can be introduced in Parliament, citizens playing a stronger role in post-legislative scrutiny, and independent oversight of standards.
It’s good to see the government already moving in this direction. For example, Steve Reed’s announcement about holding water boards to account via citizens’ panels; and a major public and staff participation exercise around the creation of the NHS 10-year plan. Across government there are civil servants already using participatory methods.
Hopefully this is just the start. There is much that the government can do to enable people to play an active role in our democracy between elections, to help rebuild trust in politics, move stuck or contentious issues forward, and create policies that lead to better outcomes for more people. This is what’s needed to create the governing mandate needed for change and mean that citizens can partner with the government to deliver on the actions needed for national renewal.
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