Democracy and the public realm

Neal Lawson (London, Compass): The left has played fast and lose with democracy. It still sees it as a means to achieve the capture of state power, a purely instrumental view. This must change, especially now as Gordon Brown's premiership seems set to call for more democracy in new, deliberative forms. All very welcome and principled but he needs to avoid the dangers of being instrumental. Democracy has to be valued for its intrinsic contribution to peoples everyday lives and not just for the opportunity it provides to control the state. For someone like me on the left this is crucial because of the tension between our competing desires for equality and diversity. A modern left must encapsulate both. Democracy in the full sense, from entrenched minority rights to fair-voting , but especially the culture of democracy, allows people to make practical trade-offs themselves and in the process become empowered as humans. At Compass we have just published the final part (opens as pdf) of our Programme for Renewal trilogy. It is on democracy and sets out this case. Part 1 was on the good society and part 2 on a new political economy. Democracy brings the whole together. It is both means and ends. However, the understanding of how this works and of how process shapes outcomes remains very weak - the concept of democracy needs to move centre stage.