Electoral reform is not the solution to the current political crisis. It masks the true problem. That isn’t to say that electoral reform isn’t right – it is and it is needed – but the real issue remains that of trust in politics and politicians.
Changing how people vote will not of itself engender trust from a sceptical public. The change we need rests on creating a new contract between the state and citizens.
A possible way forward has been around since the 1970s: co-production, where citizens act with public agencies to provide a service. Back then, it was seen as a tool for cutting costs and increasing efficiency in response to the pressures of the oil crisis. However, in the 1980s, the American lawyer and civil rights activist Edgar Cahn added social justice to the mix, producing a new concept which chimes nicely with Labour’s core values and New Labour’s basic principle – that economic prosperity and social justice are two sides of the same coin.
Cahn’s co-production has citizenship at its core – a citizenship where we are not just consumers of public services, but beneficiaries, producers and in some cases obligatees (e.g. prisoners or welfare recipients). His approach promises the facilitation of the growth of social capital, increasing levels of trust between individuals by generating “altruistic reciprocal relationships”. A good example is blood donations – a form of reciprocity which allows people to provide a good or service to others without necessarily receiving something in exchange except the knowledge that if they are in need of a blood donation, then others have entered the system of exchange and can provide for them.
This kind of approach is already in action. Co-production has been used to help adults learn new languages and computer skills from each other; to help children learn to read from older students; to prevent anti-social behaviour; as part of the punishment of offenders; to build new parks for local communities; and in a range of health initiatives, from mental health to social care.
Co-production promises a flexible and dynamic way forward for rebalancing the relationship between providers and users of our public services. It offers a new policy direction for reforming them – and for tackling challenges which a continued consumer-focused approach will fail to resolve. Too often, reform has focused on ‘choice’ for the individual at the expense of the collective good. Co-production allows the user to operate both as an individual and for the wider benefit – and, in so doing, re-builds social networks and trust in communities.
In a way, it brings new meaning to the chant of the Musketeer: “All for one and one for all”. At its core, co-production allows the individual to help the community, whilst enabling the community to work for the benefit of the individual.
Establishing co-production in public services offers a solution – perhaps the only solution – to the current financial and political crises. It would incentivise the development of co-productive practices within civic society. As new networks are established, trust is reborn and, over time, public trust in politics – and, by dint, in the public sector – can be restored.
In The Affluent Society, Galbraith warned of the unbalanced nature of the private sector compared to the public sector. The current crisis seems to illustrate his assertion that the financial mistakes of the market lead to restrictions on public spending and public services. He claimed that the affluent society required different economics to those that created it. Co-production offers a means not only to develop this new economics but to provide Labour with a new approach to public service reform which goes beyond the tokenism of current policies and seeks to truly empower citizens.
Reform of the electoral system alone will be inadequate to rebuild trust. What is needed is a new collaboration between state, citizen and community. It is up to politicians to take the first step and show that they trust the people where the design and delivery of public services are concerned. Through new ways of working together trust can be restored, the public sector supported and enhanced and a new economics to face the challenges of post-recession Britain can be developed. Labour must take the initiative and make this change.