Let's bring the magic back

LIKE a grand wizard of good governance, Eberhard Bort, or ‘Paddy’ to his friends, has wise counsel for those who seek a new and better democracy in Scotland. 

Academic and expert in all things political, he spoke to the Network from his Edinburgh University den, deep in Chisholm House, surrounded by ceiling-high piles of many beloved books and papers, and traced down via what seemed like a labyrinth of paths and passageways.

Paddy is a lecturer in politics, the Academic Co-ordinator of the Institute of Governance and a founding member of Nordic Horizons, a group that promotes Nordic models of governance as seriously worth considering for Scotland.  You can hear his February 2012 panel-member contribution to an event held at Holyrood called McKommunes (proposals for Scottish municipal councils like some European ‘communes’ -- that could come with a kilt): http://www.nordichorizons.org/mckommunes.html

He is also co-writer of ‘The Silent Crisis’, a seminal paper published by the Jimmy Reid Foundation in April this year. It comes with a foreword by Scottish journalist and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch in which she refers to community councils (CCs) as an example of why the crisis is real.

She writes:  “ . .  the near zero budget for Scotland’s ‘community tier’ of government (averaging £400 for most CCs) matches its near zero powers and near zero number of contested elections.  This is not local democracy.” 

The Silent Crisis calls on the Scottish Government to set up a Commission to study the critical state of the ‘least democratic country in Europe.’ Indeed, the writers note that some say Scotland is probably the least democratic country in the western world.  You can find the paper here: http://reidfoundation.org/portfolio/the-silent-crisis-failure-and-revival-in-local-democracy-in-scotland/

These are astounding claims, but Paddy says that it’s astounding in itself that so few Scots are, first, aware of this terrible record, and second, hardly troubled at all if they do know of it. He backs up the claims with hard facts.

                                                        Reality check   

COMPARED  with other European countries of equivalent size and population, this nation that is home to only 5m plus in population, living in an area of diverse communities spread over huge distances in some cases, comes right at the bottom of league tables for participatory democracy (one councillor for every 4,000 plus citizens) and voter turnout (39% Scotland wide).  Paddy says there is ‘no time like now’ to start radically overhauling these indicators of a democratic system that is ‘fundamentally flawed’. (In France the ratio of councillors to citizens is one to 400, in Iceland one in 500, in Finland one to 500 and in Denmark, one to 2000).    

“In the UK we have completely alienated people from the governance of their communities,” says Paddy. “And in Scotland there is something very wrong with our democracy.

“The public don’t know how to participate politically because it has been so long since they have been included in significant decision making that directly affects them.  They are separated from the process by an over-emphasis on managerial targets and a hollowing out of democracy.  We need to shift the process back to political participation and get a better balance.

“Even now when local authorities talk about implementing change, the focus is only on streamlining the delivery of services.  Of course this is important, but the focus and debate needs to be much wider than just this single issue.

“Local government is dying, yet the case for local democracy in a global environment is greater than ever. Democratic engagement of the people is crucial for the nation’s future health and well-being.  We need thriving local communities that have a voice, dynamically demonstrating civic engagement and civic pride.

“When so much current debate is about the forthcoming referendum on Independence, there is no time like now to bring the public alive to politics again by offering them a chance to redefine how we do democracy in Scotland. Surely talk about the two must go hand in hand.”

How to do this?  Does this mean a messy rebellion?  No, says Paddy.  It would be ‘counter-productive’ to embark on a costly national restructuring of current local government, which is on the whole efficient, he says.  But there must be fundamental reform to enable more citizen representation and participation. 

“Let’s be evolutionary and incremental and build around the 32 regional councils currently in place across Scotland,” says Paddy.  “More local councils could be created by school catchment areas, or by communities of say 5000 people. Then the democratic process must be followed with contested elections between quality candidates.  After that it’s up to the people in those areas how they make the important decisions based around structure and funding.

“There has to be a paradigm change away from mere service delivery to customers, to participation of citizens who are willing to take responsibility for decision making.”

                                                Nothing else will do

THE wise counsel concludes with a warning against substituting increasingly popular Development Trusts as an alternative to participatory democracy.  “Though Trusts may be set up by capable and talented people who can work very hard indeed,” says Paddy, “ They can also morph into small groups of people responsible for sizeable budgets who have not been elected by democratic process and are not accountable to anyone except small boards with minimal influence.  They have their place, and in some circumstances make tremendous contributions to local communities, but they are no substitute for democracy.”

No-one wants to see a return to the small-time politics which has in the past gone hand in hand with small-mindedness, what some call a contrast between ‘localism’ that tends to look inwards, resisting change and protecting its own interests, to local control, which celebrates participation as a matter of course while retaining an open-minded dialogue and co-operation with other regions and points of view. 

There’s only one way forward from where Paddy is standing. It follows an open road away from the ‘control freakery’ of obsessive centralisation to a much greater participation for all its citizens in the Scotland of tomorrow.  And that’s whichever way the referendum goes. Paddy Bort calls on Alex Salmond to hold a seminar on the topic as soon as possible.
                                                                                                 © 2012 JENNY MACKENZIE