February 17, 2006, Jude
It happens rarely but you know those wonderful moments where you discover that there other people, even better a group of people, out there are worrying about the same problems as you, pretty much in the same way - but you know you might be able to help them and they can almost certainly help you. That was the feeling after 60 mins with the RED team discussing public service reform.
I'm chair of the democratic left pressure group Compass (www.compassonline.org.uk) and I think about the future of public services and was asked to discuss some thoughts at RED. Mostly I worry that we are entering a mono-culture where public services become indistinguishable from private services, where the realm of the public gets so distorted by competition, contestability, consumerism and choice that it's really a private realm. I know that I don't want this, in part because it reinforces inequalities but mostly because its such a miserable view of human nature - that we can't be motivated by anything except greed and possessive individualism.
The hard bit is knowing what the alternative is. There is no going back to the old days of statism. Thank God. People rightly want and demand more. Services can and should be personalized and more responsive. But does that leave only the market? What we need more than anything is a 'new collectivism' which describes the architecture, process, ethos and culture of solidarity in today's world. How can producers and citizens design and redesign services for themselves on the principle s of voice and loyalty not just choice and exit? A lot of thinking exists, some good case studies and a political space to fill. Churches, trade unions, progressive businesses, NGOs, charities, community groups, public services, political parties and many organizations more depend on collectivism to work. But it needs re-inventing.
We have never been freer to consume and shop, to buy what we want to change ourselves. But we have never been less free to change the world around us - something by definition we can only do together. We go on seeking individual answers to collectively induced problems. We need to design a new collectivism for our new times. RED seems up for this. Compass is. Who else is?
CATEGORY: INTERESTING READING
