‘The market is bust but so is the state’

April 7, 2009 by matthewtaylor
Filed under: Credit crunch, Public policy 

This is the headline of Philip Stephens’ piece in today’s FT. The intriguing thing about Stephens’ discussion of the relative merits of state and market solutions is that he fails to make any mention of the third – or civic sector. The growing economic and social crisis will turn into reality the warning we have been given by many social and political theorists: state and market alone are not sufficient for sustainable progress – indeed both state and market rely on the civic sector.

 The big question for the coming decade is this: in the face of a depressed market and an indebted state, how can we enhance civic capacity? Unless we are individually and collectively more able to develop and to meet our own needs then it is difficult to see how we face anything other than a decline in the quality of our lives and the fabric of our communities.

 But this issue is still only at the margins of debate. There are now more examples of new and reconfigured public services which draw on capacity outside the state:

  • The Youth Opportunity and Capital Fund provides money which young people control and decide how to spend on activities and facilities in their area. An amazing variety of processes have developed to engage young people and an even more impressive list of initiatives in areas ranging from community cohesion and sport to culture and environment.
  • Direct payments enable social care clients and carers to access payments directly and decide how to spend them. In just a few years this revolutionary idea has spread from the disability movement to being rolled out in councils across England. As more and more people sign up, so new ways for people to collaborate on buying and providing services are starting to emerge.  
  • In March 2009 the Government announced the £30 million Community Assets Programme. This allows local third sector organisations to apply to gain control of and refurbish underused local authority assets.  This initiative, recognises the impact that has been made by community organisations like ‘friends’ of local parks who have worked with councils to revive dilapidated and under-used public spaces.

Arguably, the single biggest example is domestic refuse recycling where responsibility for managing domestic waste has shifted from being primarily the responsibility of the local authority to being a shared responsibility between householder and council.

Yet still this is at the margins. Every public service manager needs to have an account of not just how they provide an efficient service but how they contribute to civic capacity. And the private sector too faces searching questions about its impact on our social resilience and well-being.

When it comes to the ability of Britain to survive and grow from adversity, statists and free market absolutists are like Jorge Luis Borges’ ‘two bald men fighting over a comb’. In this new world, the state cannot succeed and the market cannot thrive unless we attend to the civic foundations upon which both edifices rest.

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Comments

7 Comments on ‘The market is bust but so is the state’

  1. Alan on Tue, 7th Apr 2009 12:33 pm

    2. “Arguably, the single biggest example is domestic refuse recycling where responsibility for managing domestic waste has shifted from being primarily the responsibility of the local authority to being a shared responsibility between householder and council.”

    Not by choice though. EU directives (and the potential fines) on sorting rubbish were the driving force.

    Too much of your ‘third’ sector is funded by taxpayers without our consent.

  2. Indy on Tue, 7th Apr 2009 1:19 pm

    3. It seems to me that we have made progress on working how to get the state to encourage “civic capacity” – the main battle is getting the state to carry through across various activities.

    (For myself, some of the most positive examples I’ve seen tend to come under the “co-production” label regarding health services.)

    However, I think we need more ideas on the role of the private sector in “civic capacity.” Most volunteer organisations report that employers find it increasingly difficult to justify enabling employee involvement in the “civic” arena (through flexibility of hours or contribution of resources.)

    As someone from the private sector I suspect this has the attributes of a “collective action” or “race to the bottom” problem, but I can only think it will get worse in the current recession. We need to think this through, old work patterns are changing, employers no longer have that “empty room you can use every Saturday morning” and can no longer say to employees “we definitely won’t need you that day, you’re free to go do your “civic” thing.” (Rather, flexible working reflects an ever more unpredictable market demand.)

  3. matthewtaylor on Wed, 8th Apr 2009 11:27 am

    4. Hi Alan

    But how would we give consent apart from using the routes already open to us – such as voting. And on recycling, it might have been mandated but we wouldn’t have agreed to do it unless most of us saw the point and shared the objetives. Few people in my experience resent recycling

  4. George Osborne: new ideas and new questions | Matthew Taylor's blog on Wed, 8th Apr 2009 11:38 am

    5. [...] echoing my blog yesterday, I asked how economic policy might contribute to building civic capacity; how can we [...]

  5. matthewtaylor on Wed, 8th Apr 2009 12:24 pm

    6. Thanks Indy. This is a really important point. I mention this in my final point in today;s blog. Of course, companies will claim that they are protecting their civic and CSR programmes and the truth will be hard to get at. It needs someone brave from within business to raise the issue if we are to get a good debate. Any ideas?

  6. Indy on Tue, 14th Apr 2009 10:10 am

    7. Matthew – I do have some ideas brewing, but I need to do some background reading before I make some (possibly controversial) statements. Is there a good source (book/papers/etc.) you’d recommend on the history of “civic capacity” or “civic engagement” in the UK?

    I have a sense of the history and it propels my ideas, but to make the argument needs some evidence on when “civic capacity” increased and declined – correlation is not causation, but in social history it’s all we’re going to get as pointers to what is happening and how to fix it…

  7. matthewtaylor on Tue, 14th Apr 2009 12:05 pm

    8. Hi INdy

    One source may be ‘Building Jurusalem’ by Tristram Hunt, history of the Victorian municipalism which created the democratic, cultural and physical infrastructure of the 20th century city.

    Best

    Matthew

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