The ‘state’ has become a tarnished concept. It is a word that now carries substantial baggage; often prefaced by words like ‘overbearing’ and ‘bloated’ and evoking overtones of Big Brother, of waste and interference by faceless, nameless bureaucrats.
It wasn’t always like this. The state once enjoyed halcyon post-war days when it was to be the conqueror of Beveridge’s five evils; the provider from cradle to grave; the safety net; the slayer of Victorian laissez-faire attitudes to poverty. It was a contract of mutuality between the British people that we had a responsibility to support one another and provide for those in need.
These noble ideals have been undermined by decades of battering by those who have simply never subscribed to this ethos. But these attacks have been aided over the years by creeping centralisation and attempted economies of scale. The state has not evolved to keep pace with the changing demands of an increasingly diverse and complex society and has become remote, impersonal, abstract, and unwieldy.
New Labour was an attempt to restore faith in the state through rescuing public services, investing in them and restoring the concept of universality. By providing decent schools and hospitals for all, there would be no need for those who could afford it to opt out.
Yet the Labour government has continued to struggle with the relationship between the people and the state. The choice agenda was an attempt to drive up standards and move away from a ‘you get what you’re given’ philosophy of public service provision, but unworkable in practice.
We are now seeing the drive for personalisation as the answer. This is a substantial breakthrough in terms of delivering decent, flexible, tailored public services as people want them, and the increasing influence on engaging citizens in shaping their services is vital.
Yet the state simply cannot run personalised, high-quality public services from the centre. Broader, cross-service solutions require new ways of working across a range of previously disparate areas, spawning a rapid growth in ad hoc partnerships reaching across government departments, and the private and voluntary sectors. This approach by-passes the vertical hierarchies of command and control decision-making that have characterised the public sector’s structure over the decades. Centralisation is becoming less relevant to more varied localities and neighbourhoods.
Cameron’s Conservatives are acknowledging this by trying to put the final nail in the coffin of the state. At least they now admit there is such a thing as society, yet by claiming ‘it is just not the same as the state’ they are trying to put further distance between the people and governance, and undermine the concept of the universal responsibility we have to one another.
Their answer is replacing the state with ‘voluntarism, altruism, locality, and independence of civil society’. While third sector and voluntary organisations have a crucial role to play as key partners, particularly when dealing with the most vulnerable, local and national government are vital to ensuring democratic accountability, decent funding and standards of provision.
And more importantly, Cameron’s casual approach feels like an attempt to relieve the rest of us of our obligations to each other, and leave it to those with the time and inclination.
The state should be the same things as society. It just needs to be radically reformed to bring it closer to the people, to break down traditional barriers and foster better local partnerships that deliver in the way that citizens want. It must become more participatory and more relevant so that people understand what we pay for and what we all get out.
The forthcoming empowerment white paper has the opportunity to do this. It must take a radical stance by devolving and localising public services if the state is to retain its relevance, its function, and its legitimacy. It must not be allowed to get bogged down in Whitehall compromises and turf wars.
It is only by being bold that we will prevent a return to patchy, laissez-faire provision which absolves society of its responsibilities, and reclaim the state for the people.