Daniel Leighton (London, Power Inquiry): A new constitutional moment in the nation's political life has been opened - one of those defining moments when the status quo has broken down and the way power is managed is opened up for contestation . But in whose interests and by what principles will power be shaped? What replaces the old order is not necessarily a more just or democratic one...
Yet there are grounds for hoping that Brown has ushered in a genuinely democratic moment, rather than another archetypically British attempt to devolve power in order to retain it. He has set out proposals to humble executive power, and as a political incumbent is heeding the call from those outside, recognising, as it were, that democracy is part of the solution to the ills of democracy. Democratic reformers should never cease quoting Brown's Jeffersonian inspired words back at him and remind him of the path that he has set out today; "the best answer to disengagement from our democracy is to strengthen our democracy".
Will this constitutional moment lead to a sustainable solution, one that not only meets long-ignored needs, but forwards the democratic ideal itself? The tone and priority Brown has given to the relationship between citizen and state, as well as to executive and parliament, has given us reasons to be hopeful. Yet what is required is not only the holistic institutional reform outlined in the Green Paper, but a process of citizen inclusive change not owned by any party, or even by the political class as a whole, but by the people themselves. The challenge is how to let 'the people' in all their diversity speak in a way that links their voice into a fair and sustainable constitutional settlement. It's now time for democratic campaigners, philosophers, historians and practitioners to illuminate, contest and construct the mechanisms and processes that can turn the democratically desirable into the practically feasible.
Moderator Dan has also published a comment on the Compass website.
