We need better democracy. Standards in public life have declined, populists have won influence and power and inequality has risen. A democratic deficit has grown while trust in our institutions and civic engagement has reached an historic low.
Our political system is proving unfit for purpose just as a new class of intractable problems that demand urgent resolution are being addressed by people whose decisions are often their cause.
Exeter faces a cluster of such challenges but if reality is to match rhetoric profound change must take place. However, local responses are determined and delivered by multiple authorities with overlapping jurisdictions and often conflicting political perspectives and strategic interests.
Other actors and organisations also significantly influence decision-making which affects us all.
Two years ago Exeter City Council became what the Electoral Reform Society calls a “one party council”, after being dominated by the same political party for a decade. Devon County Council has been in this state since 2009.
Research shows this greatly increases the likelihood of corruption, cronyism and spending decisions which offer poor value for public money.
“News organisations that deploy resources to really gather information are essential to a functioning democracy. It just doesn’t work if people don’t know.”
The city council has outsourced governance to unelected boards and policy-making to unaccountable organisations, undermined decision-making scrutiny and defied transparency legislation.
It has spent millions of pounds of public money on loss-making subsidiary companies and vanity projects, cutting budgets and selling assets to cover its losses.
The county council has come close to bankruptcy following serial failures in children’s services provision, sown division by bungling pilot projects and public consultations and is also cutting budgets and selling off assets while championing a devolution deal that will create an unaccountable new tier of local government.
Both produce a stream of public relations spin, alongside other key local institutions, that presents counterproductive choices as positive change or blames externalities instead of admitting responsibility for mistakes.
This misdirecting and misleading material is then presented as news in most local media channels.
The local democracy we need instead depends on people being sufficiently well-informed about what is taking place to actively engage in the interests of their family, friends and communities.
It doesn’t work without ready access to relevant, accurate, timely reporting on who is deciding what on whose behalf and what the costs and consequences of those decisions will be.