In Praise of PledgeBanking: A way to engage citizens in improving their communities

PledgeBanking is something designed to help people get things done. It is based on the premise that a lot of good things don’t happen because there aren’t enough organised people to do them. So PledgeBanking allows people to set up pledges and then encourages other people to sign up to them. A pledge is a statement of the form ‘I will do something, if a certain number of people will help me do it’. The creator of the pledge then publicises their pledge and encourages people to sign up. Examples have been such things as

‘I will start recycling if 100 people in my town will do the same’; ‘I will organise my child’s school play if 3 other parents will help’; ‘I will build a useful website if 1000 people promise to contribute to it’

You can start a pledge for almost anything you like (as long as it is not illegal) and see if you can get others to commit to it. Tony Blair started a pledge himself, to become patron of a community sports club if 100 notable figures will do the same, which succeeded.

I have written about the ongoing movement in public services, local government and public administration towards a collaborative model where citizens and government are partners in service development and delivery. There is no one specific way to achieve this but PledgeBanking is another example of how this is ongoing. Engaging citizens in local decision making, service development and delivery as well as additional civic action to improve the area they live in.

Visit the website at pledgebank.com

In Praise of the New Zealand Government: Where citizens’ are making the Law

Over in New Zealand there is a new initiative to increase collaboration and participation with citizens. The Government have asked the people to make the new Policing Act with a wiki where people can edit and is part of an ongoing public review of proposed changes to the act. The BBC reported it here and the New Zealand Police report it here.

New Zealanders are not new to a more open and participatory form of government as they launched ParticipatioNZ Wiki in 2007 to engage the people in how to create a more open and collaborative way of the government doing business. In a world where those who are at the forefront of creating a more dynamic government through greater partnership with citizens is key, small steps like this can teach us a lot:

In an age of empowered citizens, governments will be under increasing pressure to find increasing room for the authentic voices of citizens in just about everything they do. Policy-makers are advised to start thinking about how they can do so in way that diminishes the risk of mob rule and promotes fair, inclusive and well-informed debate instead

Obama Administration taking steps towards collaboration and partnership with citizens

Beth Noveck is director of Obama’s open government initiative. In March 2009 the government held a session with various different agencies to see what they could offer the government and she said the following

we invite you to talk about how your organizations can contribute to fostering civic engagement in connection with crafting the recommendations and to supporting the goals of transparency, participation, and collaboration

In a previous essay she has said that

Our institutions of governance are characterized by a longstanding culture of professionalism in which bureaucrats – not citizens – are the experts. Until recently, we have viewed this arrangement as legitimate because we have not practically been able to argue otherwise … groups and communities who, working together, can be more effective at informing decision-making than individuals working alone

Her focus is on using technology to involve people in decision making processes for government and has written a book called Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful. However, the focus is essentially the same as the one I have advocated for. That for a more democratic system and society we need collaboration and partnership with citizens (and other social players).

It is interesting to see the Obama Administration taking this stand considering other solution focused initiatives his administration has taken (see here). So we should look at this initiative with a keen eye on what we can learn.

In Praise of the Third Sector: Leading the way to collaboration

There is much that has been written about the efficiencies of business and how government can learn from the private sector. While this is true, there are other areas which offer an unparalleled effort in achieving collaboration and partnership between those who hold power and those who don’t in attempts to create a more democratic service.

Involve are a not-for-profit organisation who are public participation specialists:

bringing institutions, communities and citizens together to accelerate innovation, understanding discussion and change. Involve makes a practical difference by delivering the highest quality public participation processes possible

They have taught a thing or two to Shell International, the OECD, Ministry of Justice, and the BBC amongst others. While business may be good at producing efficiency, democracy is not always efficient. Making something more democratic therefore does not necessarily mean it will benefit from efficiency measures; hence private business going to someone else to seek how to achieve this.

In the pursuit for a more democratic society, services where we are able to have more say and effect change, and communities where we feel more involved and valued we need to look to how to achieve this. The third sector has produced some good results and Involve is an organisation which is leading the way for other organisations.

They have a sister site called people and participation which provides practical information for those working to involve people. Government agencies can learn a lot from the work going on in the third sector about involvement, collaboration, and partnership to make a fundamental change in the way government business is done in this country.

Unlock Democracy is looking to bring these issues to the political parties and people will join them, other organisations already exist to achieve this or will be formed and follow them. It is an idea in its infancy but one which will move quickly.

The Liberal Democrats should take note and learn these lessons as it will provide a significantly different policy direction which will be genuinely interesting to the public. Giving people more say, more power and ultimately feel more involved and valued by the government and the country is something which will appeal to everyone (once we get beyond the fear it will create).

Tory, Labour, Lib Dems: who really wants power in the hands of the people?

Politicians of all colours speak of giving more power back to the people and people taking more responsibility in society. Yet little power is given away by central government or local government to the people. There have been some equally positive and negative signs by the coalition government to date and it is unsure how things will pan out in the future. Not that long ago Tony Blair was advocating a similar change in the power relationship between the government and the people.

The quest for productive partnership by citizens, state administrators, politicians, and other social players such as the media and academia is the holy grail of the next big step in politics. So what did the manifestos say about partnership and collaboration?

The Conservative Party starts well with David Cameron saying “Collective strength will overpower our problems. So my invitation today is this: join us, to form a new kind of government for Britain”. But the only real mention of any partnership was on page 24:

“We will give councils and businesses the power to form their own business-led local enterprise partnerships” which says nothing about moving power back to the people.

The Labour Party  mentioned a few times about forming partnerships but nothing about one with citizens:

A renewed partnership between business and government p.1:5

we will work in partnership with the private sector p.1:7

We will consult on putting the Compact Commission – which sets guidelines for effective partnership working between government and the third sector in Britain p.7:5

The Lib Dems had very little but at least it was focused in the right direction; that is government agencies working with citizens to create the service.

“encouraging local authorities to provide youth services in partnership with young people and the voluntary sector”

This is exactly what is needed not only in youth services but in all services. So it is worth noting that the section in the Conservative Party manifesto on the Big Society was an interesting one. A seemingly half baked idea with many strands thrown in which don’t seem to make up a consistent narrative of the exercise. However, there were some encouraging signs:

• Fund the training of an army of independent community organisers to help people establish and run neighbourhood groups
• Launch an annual Big Society Day to celebrate the work of neighbourhood groups and encourage more people to take part in social action
• Lead by example, transforming the civil service  into a ‘civic service’ by encouraging civil servants to volunteer and participate in social action projects
• Empower communities to come together to address local issues; including enabling parents to open new schools, letting neighbours take over local amenities like parks and libraries that are under threat, giving the public greater control of the planning system, and enabling residents to hold the police to account in neighbourhood beat meetings;
• Use the latest insights from behavioural economics to encourage people to donate more time and money to charity

Some good ideas which were highlighted by Vigoda and written about in my previous posts. However, none of this is possible due to the rest of the manifesto restricting power to the same power structures.

Until and unless the bureaucratic power structures are changed giving the power to the people means nothing. There is a growing activity in the third sector which is perhaps the most positive signal in the direction of partnership and collaboration with citizens. There is also a rapidly growing academic interest and practical ventures in the area, which will lead to promising potential of reciprocal linkage and collaboration between Government and citizens.

This idea is yet to be fully taken on by any party. But it is this idea which represents a real power shift to the people.

Moving to collaborative services: Vigoda’s thoughts

Moving to a different way of running the services that we own and use means we need to know what this means. Vigoda has excellently put together his thoughts on the subject which are worth highlighting. He states that in this new era people have a duty to become engaged in collaborative activities with Government & Public Administration (G&PA) but more importantly that G&PA has the greater duty to create conditions for such involvement by all available means. He has outlined his thoughts on the roles of the different players as follows:

Role of Government & Public Administration:

• Volunteer programs in the fields of health, welfare service, education and security need to receive national support.
• Adequate training programs for volunteers as well as volunteer leadership and management need to be developed and implements by professionals
• Governments will be responsible for coordinating cooperation among different voluntary groups and institutions.
• Governments to establish public volunteers’ committees to coordinate voluntary activity at the local and national levels.
• G&PA to maintain advisory position, providing citizens with sufficient conditions and experience to work out their spontaneous ideas.
• Transform goodwill into effective operations. Investment in the spontaneous behaviour of the people is low cost and economical compared with other reform efforts and thus must be encouraged.
• All programs of citizen’s involvement will benefit from obtaining continuous evaluation by unbiased professionals.
• Educational efforts that emphasise the importance of individual-level and organized entrepreneurialism may start in the very first years of school and create awareness in the very young of the high values of citizenship involvement.

He states that citizens, like other social players, serve as socialization agents of partnership. He has put together a diagram of where we are now and where we should be moving towards by having more formal collaborative and partnership links which can be seen in this diagram:

Role of citizens:

• Active participation in running their lives and managing their communities by individuals, groups or institutions though:
• • Participation in neighbourhood associations or voluntary groups to aid the young, the elderly, or other sections of the population
  • Active involvement in citizens’ committees
  • Involvement in parents’ committees at schools
  • Donating money and time or effort for charity or equivalent social goals
  • Development of community services in various manners
  • Encouraging others to take part in such activities
  • Voice constructive criticism of the public system to encourage a culture of accountability and to provide feedback for politicians and public servants – increasing responsiveness and sense of responsibility
  • Original civic journalism
  • Letters to newspapers, public officials and politicians, radio and television programs
  • Use of computerized media to spread knowledge and attitudes
  • Educational teach youngest to become more involved and to use these methods extensively

He believes that moving to collaborative government/services will be calmer and more effective when the media and academia join in the effort. The positive elements of democracy cannot be achieved without an active, independent and responsible media.

Media role:

• Effective and reliable communication channel between citizens and governments that promotes collaboration and partnership
• Power of media can be used to encourage people’s attitudes and opinions towards citizen involvement and participation in a variety of ways but also to consult on relevant policy decisions
• Encourage public recruitment to collaborative activities by means of educational programs.

Academia:

• Pointing out theoretical considerations, conceptual grounding and practical means for cooperation, managerial science promotes the understanding of mutual social efforts
• Isolating and cultivating the benefits of partnership (and highlighting the advantages over simple state of competition i.e. responsiveness-based interaction)
• Discussion on collaboration takes priority over other issues in social affairs
• Public agenda becomes more sensitive to issues of partnership and their growth value. Managerial and administrative sciences also promote legitimization of cooperation and encourage more individuals to participate in public management enterprises.

Next Big Development in Politics: Which side will the Lib Dems be on?

We are formal owners of the state by all democratic and business criteria. So ask yourself how involved do you feel in the running of your local police force, school, hospital etc. or national decisions on where tax is spent or even if we go to war. We, as citizens maybe unwilling, and even incapable, of becoming practical owners of the state, yet do we want to continue to be treated as subjects or even as simple voters as is accepted by the current political system?

I do not want the government and its agencies to take on the sole role of managing our lives, even from a businesslike standpoint. We need to make clear that we want a new settlement between the government and the citizens, and one which treats us as equal partners. It is called collaboration. This will be resisted by the old political orthodoxy and embraced by the public.

The leadership of the Coalition government has made some attempts to involve the public but this has not been taken seriously by the ministers who are responsible for utilizing this involvement. After 9500 people gave their opinion on proposed government policy, all voices were ignored. The current administrative-government relationship will lead to growing and serious risks of citizens’ alienation, disaffection, skepticism, and increased cynicism towards governments as this exercise shows. Equally Nick Clegg’s launch of the Your Freedom website poses the same risks.

To turn it into substance will mean being able to show that such a welcome exercise in crowd-sourcing public opinion actually leads to influential input into government policy. This will demand a lot of work, clout, authority and follow-through.

Yet the following quote highlights the difficulty the political class has in seeing public involvement as important:

Although many public administrators view close relationships with citizens as both necessary and desirable most of them do not actively seek public involvement. If they do seek it, they do not use public input in making administrative decisions… and believe that greater citizen participation increases inefficiency… delays and red tape

The Lib Dems have made some headway in the direction towards partnership, as I believe the Liberal philosophy of devolved power fits best with this development and so the movement for people to have some control over schools and police forces are welcome but do not go far enough to develop collaboration and partnership.

There are many challenges facing the development of collaboration and partnership in government and public administration so understanding it is key to being able to change the spirit of government to implement it. Collaboration and partnership is what people will demand once they realise it is a possibility. It is not only key to developing what we as citizens want and need, it will be a valuable political resource for whoever is able to champion and communicate its cause.

In understanding it, questions arise:
1)      What does collaboration and partnership actually mean?
2)      Whose responsibility is it to make partnership possible?
3)      How can this collaboration be achieved?

These will be looked at in further posts…