David Beetham (Manchester, Democratic Audit): I agree with most of the substance of David Marquand's critique of Gordon Brown's constitutional reform agenda. It is based on his opening comments to the recent Rowntree seminar (see post by Stuart Weir and Andrew Blick) that I also attended. But I take issue with the terms he uses when he argues that we should embrace a wider campaign for democratic renewal. Concepts like ‘governance' and ‘sovereignty' belong more to the seminar room than the public forum, and are unlikely to arouse enthusiasm or wide support in the contemporary age. Better would be to take at face value the July 2007 Green Paper's claim to be ‘reinvigorating democracy', and make ‘democracy' the starting point rather than the afterthought of any reform programme. Democracy begins with the people, not with institutions, and with the equal rights of citizens to involve themselves in social and public life, both directly and through representative bodies and organisations of all kinds, whose authority derives from below.
Who precisely constitutes ‘the people' has always been a contested question since the idea of popular rule was invented, but today any definition of ‘the people' has to be inclusive and multi-layered, embracing different levels and dimensions of identity. Equally contested has been the precise list of rights which are necessary if citizenship is to be enjoyed and exercised equally by all. But it is now widely accepted that it should be based on the two UN Conventions, economic, social and cultural as well as civil and political. The current international discourse of a ‘rights-based democracy' or ‘human rights-based democracy' emphasises that the active engagement of citizens in social and public life, and the responsibilities to them of government and representative bodies, need a firm underpinning in a charter of fundamental rights and freedoms.
So I propose that in the current UK context this concept of a rights-based democracy is the best one we have. It can unify the campaigning of both the human rights advocates and those exploring the different institutional means through which the greater empowerment of citizens can be realised, by demonstrating their essential interconnectedness. This connection was after all central to the work of Tom Paine (Rights of Man, First Principles of Government), whom David Marquand rightly identifies as our forebear, and whose invention of a popular language for political reform and agitation provides a model for our own time.
