Big tech should pay for local groups that build democratic muscle
4 min read
Those that profit from apps that undermine trust and so civic health have a duty to repair it
Parts of the country headed out to the polls for the local elections earlier this month. Except, many people in those places didn’t. They stayed at home. Turnout for most of the mayoral elections barely scraped above 30 per cent. With both Labour and the Conservatives receiving a drubbing, it is fair to say those who did turn out were not best pleased with our traditional parties of government and were expressing discontent with mainstream politics.
These results fall upon a wider backdrop. Trust and confidence in government and political parties is at an all time low. At general elections, turnout has failed to return to levels seen between 1922 and 1997 since it dropped in 2001. In this context, answers to this democratic discontent that rest solely on delivery or demonstrating competence as avenues for rebuilding trust are insufficient.
We need to think about how to reconnect politics to ordinary people
In his work, Ruling the Void, the late political scientist Peter Mair describes how political parties – through their social roots being eroded and their own choices – have moved closer to the state and government, and away from citizens and wider society. This has created a void in our politics where citizens are mere spectators.
You can sense this void in the aforementioned trust and turnout figures, as well as the fact that over 80 per cent of people feel they have little or no control over the decisions that affect their lives. Speaking to family and friends, or knocking on doors for a political party, will bear out this story too.
At the same time, a rich associational life exists under the nose of traditional politics. Whilst there has been decline, these associational organisations do still exist. It is here that people build their democratic muscle, developing habits like co-operation, skills like public speaking, and civic virtues like reciprocity – all of which work to strengthen democratic participation. These organisations can also negotiate difference and aggregate interests which – if fed into political parties and policymaking – would make it more representative than it is currently.
In our new paper, Power to Change, we set out to see whether this held true. By and large it did. Polling by More in Common for the paper found that people who are involved with associational organisations – from book clubs, to community businesses, to working men’s clubs – are more trusting in government and political parties than those who are not. People who are involved in multiple organisations, or deeply involved in one – being a leader or organiser for example – are the most trusting.
In focus groups with people involved in associational organisations, we found that they saw this both as a different way of doing politics and as a means to reconnect to traditional politics. In-person, respectful relationships with people – think the opposite of social media – helped to manage disagreement, and ensure people felt their voices were heard and listened to. This then encouraged people to engage in politics, both listening to elected representatives and holding them to account.
As many worry about the state of our democracy, this is an untapped resource that should be better supported and reconnected to political parties and government. In that vein, we have put forward concrete proposals for how government, political parties, and associational organisations can help close the void and reconnect politics to associational life. These include taxes on big tech companies to establish a Democratic Trust Fund to support associational organisations, putting political parties’ budgets towards community organising efforts, and ensuring associational organisations consciously create space to bridge lines of difference.
There is no silver bullet to rebuilding trust in politics, but a good start would be strengthening our existing democratic muscles, and reconnecting them to where they might be weaker.
Josh Westerling is policy manager at Power to Change
