This Progress Purple Book chapter on empowerment and transparency in public services contends that future challenges will be met only if Labour seeks to rebuild confidence in an empowering state. Incompetence and bureaucratic centralisation erode trust not only in political parties, but in institutions and the role of government as a force for good. That requires the next Labour government to prioritise the decentralisation and redistribution of power in the name of a fairer and more equal society. The most fundamental assumption that should guide the party’s programme is that power must be located at the lowest possible level consistent with the public good. This animating vision must drive the next phase of institutional adaptation and reform.
The chapter begins by addressing the case for ‘empowerment’ in public services, located within the communitarian and pluralist strands of the British Labour tradition. Decentralising power in order to emancipate citizens and local communities has deep roots in Labour’s history, exemplified by Thomas Paine, Robert Owen, William Morris, R.H. Tawney, G.D.H. Cole, and latterly Paul Hirst. The participatory socialist tradition has always valued self-government and bottom-up action, instead of relying on monolithic national institutions to uphold and sustain the common good.
The empowering state transcends both free markets and centralising government, ensuring a decisive shift in the balance of power towards individual citizens and communities.
Nonetheless, the chapter argues that an agenda of empowerment is insufficient given the range of challenges facing public services as they seek to square the circle of rising expectations and rising costs in conditions of austerity. Too often the debate about public services has detached the structure of provision from how they should be financed. This chapter argues that Labour has to reframe the debate about financing in the context of the fiscal squeeze and the long-term structural challenges confronting the British state.
The centre-right has succeeded in casting the size of the state as the central issue in British politics, but it is imperative to reframe the terms of debate concerning the quality of public goods and public infrastructure. The connection between tax, public services, and economic and social cohesion needs to be restated as an essential component of a dynamic and solidaristic society. Proper debate about the nature and scope of taxation including how to fund public services will be critical to the legitimacy of British democracy and the vitality of the public domain. This includes the question of local taxation, the connection between tax and local democracy, and the future of council tax, which remains deeply regressive and unfair. The general principle is that empowerment and public investment must go hand in hand.
Patrick Diamond is Labour Councillor for Newington Ward, Southwark and a former policy adviser at Number 10
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