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Published in: openDemocracyUKTen Big Questions about the Open Public Services White PaperThe government's approach to public services prompts many questions. But one thing is clear: this is about markets...
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Published in: openDemocracyUKCan we become 'happy citizens' in a climate of insecurity?
We are told that a healthy happy citizen must enjoy "meaning, mastery and autonomy". Cameron's Big Society requires...
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Published in: openDemocracyUKAfter the march, what now?: International lessons for the UK anti-cuts campaign
It is time for coalitions and collaboration in the UK. These must be strong in order to build an alternative,...
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Published in: HomeWhat can the ‘Big Society’ learn from history?
Governments can do little to build civil society directly but much more to strengthen the conditions in which civil...
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Published in: openDemocracyUKThe absented centre: Middle England, the 'squeezed middle' and the Big SocietyIf the Big Society is in the middle of everything, where are state, the people and England? David Martin asks in...
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Published in: openDemocracyUKAssociation: the answer to both Cameron's Big Society and New Labour's Big StateModern democracy does require something more than a cynical set of operators negotiating with corporate power while...
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Published in: openDemocracyUKThe dangers of illiberalism call for a pluralist statePaul Hirst explored one particular cause for the creeping authoritarianism of the liberal democratic state that he...
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Published in: openDemocracyUKTime to revisit Associative Democracy?
Revisiting Associative Democracy, an e-book, draws together the ideas and thoughts of a group of people who met last...
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Published in: openDemocracyUKRenewing democracy through associationsParticipants in the Revisiting Associative Democracy seminar organized last October by Andrea Westall and Stuart...
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Published in: 50.50The 'Big Society': filling the breach
If Prime Minister David Cameron’s 'Big Society' brings religious groups to the fore even more than Tony Blair’s...
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Published in: openDemocracyUKThe Coalition needs to be honest about the Big Society
The Big Society must articulate its vision and define its expected outcomes, or face fading from the political landscape.
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Published in: openDemocracyUKCivil society rejects invitation to 'build the Big Society'
The government wrote an open letter to civil society in November, inviting them to be part of "building the Big...
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Published in: openDemocracyUKThe Left and the Big Society VII: Hilary Wainwright of Red PepperIn this latest interview in our Big Society Challenge series, Hilary Wainwright, co-editor of Red Pepper, contrasts...
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Published in: openDemocracyUKCameron's 'empowerment' scam
Can the government's Big Society idea foster genuine community empowerment, or is it merely a smokescreen for...
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Published in: openDemocracyUKBig Society Dilemmas: a challenge for Tories as well as Labour
The Burkean appeal to the organic 'little platoon' implicit in the Big Society idea rests uneasily with the...
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Published in: openDemocracyUKTalk of "localism" is a sham without real constitutional power to local government
All three UK political parties talk of "localism", but this is meaningless so long as local government lacks proper...
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Published in: openDemocracyUKHow should Ed Miliband respond to the Big Society?As Ed Miliband shapes his opposition strategy, he will have to respond to the Conservatives' Big Society. In a...
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Published in: openDemocracyUKA Big Society needs republican values
Instead of rejecting the Conservatives' Big Society outright, the left should endorse its values but argue that the...
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Published in: openDemocracyUKThe Left and the Big Society VI: Rachael Maskell of Unite
How will the left respond to the clear challenge of the Conservatives' Big Society project? In the latest in our...
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Published in: openDemocracyUKThe Left and the Big Society V: Tessa JowellHow will the left respond to the clear challenge of the Conservatives' Big Society project? Tessa Jowell MP, former...
