The Labour Leader Keir Starmer is promising fundamental reform to give people more control over what happens there they live. I this just rhetoric. The idea has been discussed in the Party since the end of Second World War.
‘Communal activities should be based on neighbourhoods small enough to be felt as such by the people who live in them.’
So wrote in 947 Michael Young, the drafter of the 1945 Labour General Election Manifesto. It reminds us of the enormous contribution he made to thinking about democracy and socialism within and outside the Labour Party.
He was a particular champion of Neighbourhood Councils and wrote Hornsey Plan: A Role for Neighbourhood Councils in the New Local Government (1971)
Other initiatives he was involved with were the Consumers Association, Which magazine, the National Consumer Council, the Open University, the National Extension College, and the Open College of the Arts.
Socialist Democracy
In 1947 the Party’s Research Department published Young’s Small Man: Big World. A discussion of socialist democracy.
‘Democracy … seems to require smallness. But efficiency, promoted by the growth of science, often requires bigness. This is the great dilemma of modern society.’ (p. 3) ‘How can the individual be made to matter more? How can the human advantages of the small group be combined with the technical advantages of the big?’
He suggests:
(1) securing the right kind of democratic leadership.
(2) establishing close two-way communication between those at the bottom and those at the top.
(3) reducing the size of organisation wherever it can be done without harming efficiency.’
He envisages that
· the second Labour Government should work ‘for the people to run the new and old institutions of our society, participating at all levels as active members … workers, consumers, citizens – of an active democracy.’ (p. 4)
· leaders should ‘(s)hare power with the people on the widest possible scale’ in between elections. .. (D)emocracy … requires a continuous two-way traffic of contribution to government from below and information about government from above.’ (p. 5)
He discusses democracy in the economy involving workers and employers in drawing up national plans, and in the workplace.
There is a section on ‘Neighbourhood Democracy’ in which he suggests that ‘(c)ommunal activities should be based on neighbourhoods small enough to be felt as such by the people who live in them.’
‘Community spirit is not something which can be created, but it can certainly be encouraged, by the right combination of necessary buildings and open space.’ He notes that community associations were springing up all over the country and that some 7,200 parish councils ‘have shown remarkable vitality in the last few years.’ (p.11)
The idea was being discussed of setting up urban parish councils as neighbourhood councils. They could have many roles under the local authority and working with existing charities. ‘The guiding principle of the neighbourhood councils would be to give most people an opportunity to play an active part in some small democratic group additional to the family.’(p.12)
The final section of Young’s discussion paper stresses the importance of social research adding knowledge to ‘enrich socialism’. (p. 13)
Discussion Questions
Young sets out questions for discussion groups to consider.
(1) Does the individual feel that he matters far less in the big organisation than in the small group like the family?
(2) Do people regard the authorities of one kind and another to remote and impersonal?
(3) When is election the best method of picking leaders, and when appointment?
(4) If the Discussion Group were selecting (a) a candidate for Parliament,(b) a candidate for the local council, (c) a town clerk, (d) a foreman in a local factory or (e) an official in the local Employment Exchange, what sort of qualities would the members look for?
(5) Are the wish to get more money and the fear of the sack both weaker incentives to work that they used to be; and if so, what should be put in their place?
(6) Are there are ways in which there could be more direct contact between Government planners and the rank and file of industry?
(7) Should there be consultation between the rank and file worker and the foreman or other official immediately above him?
(8) What methods would the Group suggest for overcoming apathy and distrust in industry?
(9) Should there be urban parish councils for urban neighbourhood units?
(10)Have Socialists taken too rosy a view of human nature?
It would be interesting to assess whether these questions have relevance today.
Labour’s ‘The Challenge to Britain’
How far did his thinking influence Labour policy? In June 1953 the National Executive of the Party presented Challenge to Britain to the Annual Conference.
It states ‘If local authorities are to play a still more important role in the nation’s life the organization of local government must become more efficient and more responsive to local control.’ (p. 27)
Commenting on the role of local authorities in health services, the NEC states ‘that local democracy must be strengthened, these arrangements will be reviewed and revised.’ It did not spell out any detail. (p. 24)
It says that ‘Labour will investigate existing structure of local government and take whatever steps are necessary to improve efficiency, and to extend local democratic control of services.’ (p. 31)
Part 2 follows: Should Neighbourhood Democracy Be Introduced? – Part. 2. Crosland, Kinnock and Labour 1972-88
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