‘Depoliticising infrastructure’: can a strategic approach enhance public engagement?
In a recent seminar co-hosted by Dialogue by Design and the UCL Transport Institute a simple question was posed: when Government plans to invest £375 billion in infrastructure projects up to 2020, how can this be done with local communities, rather than against them? Here Morgan Wild discusses the prospects for depoliticising infrastructure, the challenges this raises for democratic accountability […]
Book Review: Good times, bad times: The welfare myth of them and us
Two-thirds of UK government spending now goes on the welfare state and where the money is spent – healthcare, education, pensions, benefits – is the centre of political and public debate. Good Times, bad times says this debate is dominated by the myth that the population divides into those who benefit from the welfare state […]
Sub-regional devolution and the effects of austerity are combining to draw councils further away from communities
The local government sector has come under sustained fiscal pressure following the election of a Conservative-led Government in 2010, and is set for more after the election of a majority Conservative government in 2015. Alison Gardner argues that this, and the introduction of sub-regional levels of governance such as the reforms being rolled out in Greater […]
The line between secrecy and openness cannot be done away with, but where it is drawn is of crucial importance
In May 2013, an obscure contractor for the US National Security Agency, Edward Snowden, released information regarding the scale and breadth of US surveillance operations. This has had ramifications in Britain, too, where similar practices have been employed by UK GCHQ. Here, Bernard Keenan breaks down the different elements of the concept of “secrecy” that were highlighted by […]
Poor visibility and design flaws are hampering the participatory potential of the European Citizens’ Initiative
The European Citizens’ Initiative was introduced with the Treaty of Lisbon with the aim to improve and expand participation in European Union policy-making. Sergiu Gherghina and Adriana Groh argue that its potential is being hampered by poor citizen knowledge of the initiative, and multiple design flaws. Introduced in April 2012 as the world’s first element of transnational participatory […]
The Scottish Parliament is leading the way on the issue of lowering the voting age to 16
The voting age for UK elections – with the exception of the Scottish Independence referendum – is fixed at 18, however many campaigners and experts feel that the time has come to lower it to 16, in order to enfranchise young people while they live in settled communities, and to prevent a situation in which […]
David Cameron may have to emphasise the partisan consequences of a divided Tory party to his MPs if he is to get through this Parliament
David Cameron won a General Election majority against seemingly insurmountable odds in May 2015. But given the recent history of the Conservative Party, it looks possible that divisions over Europe and other issues could make the road to 2020 a bumpy one. Christopher D. Raymond argues that given the nature of the issues at stake […]
Time will tell whether the ousting of Mayor Lutfur Rahman has restored or denied democracy to Tower Hamlets
The ousting by the Government’s Department for Communities and Local Government and an independent commission of lawyers of Lutfur Rahman, who was twice Elected as Mayor of Tower Hamlets suggests that we expect different levels of behaviour from Bangadeshi politicians and those of the general white British political culture, argues Paul Thompson. Now the general election […]
The European Parliament’s transnational party groups are surprisingly cohesive, but don’t underestimate the potential for national divisions
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) do not sit in country blocs, rather they sit in pan-European ideological party groupings. But how cohesive are these groups? Rory Costello and Robert Thomson argue that they are remarkably so – but that the potential for divides along national lines is great, particularly with MEPs who share a […]
Birds of a feather flock together: why EU party and interest group alignments reflect the left-right political cleavage
The role of lobbying in the EU legislative process has been the subject of numerous studies, but to what extent do party political lines affect the nature of the relationship between interest groups and parties in the European Parliament? AsJan Beyers, Iskander De Bruycker and Inger Baller write, there is generally an expectation that business […]
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