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The Big Society was the flagship policy idea of the 2010 UK Conservative Party general election manifesto. It now forms part of the legislative programme of the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement. The stated aim is to create a climate that empowers local people and communities, building a "big society" that will take power away from politicians and give it to people. While some have responded to the policy favourably, its aims have been queried and disputed by other commentators. It has been described by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams as "aspirational waffle designed to conceal a deeply damaging withdrawal of the state from its responsibilities to the most vulnerable."

The Big Society concept applies to domestic policy in England only. These policy areas are devolved in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and are therefore the responsibilities of respectively the Northern Ireland Executive, the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government in those countries.

Background

The idea was launched in the 2010 Conservative manifesto and described by The Times as "an impressive attempt to reframe the role of government and unleash entrepreneurial spirit". Nat Wei, one of the founders of the Teach First charity, was appointed by David Cameron to advise the government on the Big Society programme The plans include setting up a Big Society Bank and introducing a national citizen service. The stated priorities are:

1. Give communities more powers (localism and devolution)
2. Encourage people to take an active role in their communities (volunteerism)
3. Transfer power from central to local government
4. Support co-ops, mutuals, charities and social enterprises
5. Publish government data (open/transparent government)

It is supported by a Big Society Network, which says it "exists to generate, develop and showcase new ideas to help people to come together in their neighbourhoods to do good things."

The Big Society has some similarities with the Stewardship ideology of Dutch Christian Democratic party CDA.

July 2010 launch

Following the 2010 general election, David Cameron relaunched the initiative on 19 July 2010 with a speech at Liverpool Hope University, accompanied by screenwriter and television producer Phil Redmond.

Vanguard areas

Four initial 'vanguard areas' were selected:

• Liverpool, Merseyside (withdrew from pilot in February 2011)
• Eden, Cumbria
• Sutton, Greater London
• Windsor and Maidenhead, Berkshire

Developments in 2011

In 2011 major UK banks agreed to add £200M to the funding of the Big Society Bank in addition to the money from dormant bank accounts. David Cameron wrote that he would 'prefer to see more positive headlines about the "big society", but [was] very upbeat about the torrent of newsprint expended on this subject.' and that 'The big society is about changing the way our country is run. No more of a government treating everyone like children ...let's treat adults like adults and give them more responsibility over their lives.' The UK government reportedly plans to unlock £78bn in charitable assets for big society and hand over up to 25% of public service contracts to private and voluntary sector. But Ed Miliband suggested that the Big Society is a "cloak for the small state".

Nat Wei, who was appointed "Big Society Tsar", resigned on 24 May and Shaun Bailey and Charlotte Leslie were moved into the Cabinet Office to work on the project.

Sir Stephen Bubb welcomed the idea of the Big Society, but was concerned about cuts to government money going to charities and later described the idea as a "wreck", whereas Brendan Barber said it meant that David Cameron's "ideal society was Somalia".

Response

Simon Parker, Director of the New Local Government Network, argues that although 'there is little in the coalition government's agenda that is entirely novel, what is new is the scale of change required. This isn’t just a few interesting partnerships with the voluntary sector or a neighbourhood planning pilot – it’s a system shift.' Ben Rogers, in an opinion piece published in the Financial Times, suggested that 'the most interesting thing about [Cameron's] speech [to the Conservative Party Conference] were its sections on the “Big Society”', and that "Most of the political problems Mr Cameron faces, from cutting crime to reducing obesity, can only be met if residents and citizens play their part". However, Rogers went on to state that "the state has so far invested very little in teaching the skills that could help people make a contribution", highlighting what he perceived to be a fundamental flaw in the programme.

Negative

The concept has received criticism from all sides of the political spectrum.

Labour's Ed Miliband said that the Conservatives were "cynically attempting to dignify its cuts agenda, by dressing up the withdrawal of support with the language of reinvigorating civic society".

Two days after the initiative's launch in Liverpool, an article in Liverpool Daily Post argued that community organisations in the city such as Bradbury Fields show that Cameron's ideas are already in action and are nothing new, and that groups of community-based volunteers have for many years provided "a better service than would be achieved through the public sector".

In July 2010 Anna Coote at NEF wrote that "If the state is pruned so drastically ... the effect will be a more troubled and diminished society, not a bigger one". In November 2010 a report by NEF suggested that "There are strong, sensible ideas at the heart of the ‘Big Society’ vision... [but] for all its potential, the ‘Big Society’ raises a lot of questions, which become more urgent and worrying in the light of public spending cuts" The Telegraph's Ed West concluded that "The Big Society can never take off," placing the blame on the socialist ideology held by some of the British public. Also writing for The Telegraph, Mary Riddell said "the sink or swim society is upon us, and woe betide the poor, the frail, the old, the sick and the dependent" whilst Gerald Warner felt that "of all the Blairesque chimeras pursued by David Cameron, none has more the resonance of a political epitaph than “Big Society”.

The national office of Unite the Union for the community and non-profit sector, suggested that "The ‘Big Society’ is smoke and mirrors for an avalanche of privatisation under the Tories". And Dave Prentis, General Secretary of UNISON suggests that "The Government is simply washing its hands of providing decent public services and using volunteers as a cut-price alternative [...] Public services must be based on the certainty that they are there when you need them, not when a volunteer can be found to help you".

Of the political weeklies, the left leaning New Statesman said "Cameron's hope that the Big Society will replace Big Government is reminiscent of the old Marxist belief that the state will 'wither away' as a result of victorious socialism. We all know how that turned out. Cameron has a long way to go to convince us that his vision is any less utopian". Also referring to Marx, the award-winning political cartoonist Steve Bell in the Guardian on 21 January 2011 and the Guardian Weekly newspaper on 28 January 2011 adapted Marx's slogan "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" for the Big Society: "From each according to their vulnerability, to each according to their greed".

Dr. Lorie Charlesworth, an academic from the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, compared the system to the Old Poor Law, and suggested that "any voluntary system for the relief of poverty is purely mythical".

Anna Coote, head of Social Policy at the independent think-tank New Economics Foundation, interviewed in Channel 4's investigative programme Dispatches (broadcast on 14 March 2011), stated the Big Society is about "privatising the welfare state on a massive scale". The programme explored the increasing degree to which the companies Serco, G4S and Capita are being paid to carry out work previously performed by central and local government authorities, in competition with local charities and the voluntary sector; the latter are unable to compete with these groups, which are making large profits from such outsourcing contracts.

Approaching the two-year anniversary of the Coalition, commentators have noted the lack of big society thinking across the policies of the Government. The lack of employee-owned mutuals and social enterprises in public sector reforms and the changes to tax relief on philanthropic donations in the 2012 Budget have been especially noted. This has been seen by some as vindication of the view that the big society was little more than a cover for cuts. Some other previously more positive commentators have seen the first two years of the Coalition as a missed opportunity for the big society agenda.

The Big Society envisions a greater role for faith-based organisations in the provision of welfare services. Research has cast doubt on the likelihood of this being successful.

Positive

The Spectator said that "Cameron hoped to lessen financial shortfalls by raiding dormant bank accounts. It’s a brilliant idea in theory".

Ben Brogan in the Telegraph thought: "We demand vision from our would-be leaders, and here is one who offers a big one, of a society rebuilt from the ground up".(31/03/2010)

See also

• Coproduction of public services by service users and communities
• Great Society
• Thousand points of light
• Community Politics

External links

• Big Society at CabinetOffice.gov.uk
• Big Society at Number10.gov.uk
• David Cameron's Speech - The Big Society - November 10 2009, (Conservatives.com)
• [1] community (non-government) website
• BBC - Have Your Say - a moderated public discussion on The Big Society
• Our Society Community-based network, focusing on big society sharing and practice that is already taking place
• The Big Society information and discussion at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations
• Modèle:Guardiantopic
• Big Society Series Series of articles on Big Society from EthosJournal.com
• Big Society at VAHS Blog: articles from historians and voluntary sector analysts with a long-term perspective