Big Society and its Enemies

David Cameron has been promoting an idea: rather than looking at the State to run every service in Society, perhaps Society should look after itself without the parental supervision of the State.

Hence, Big Society - i.e., the antithesis of "Big Government".

(For the US crowd, the phrase will resonate a little too closely to Johnson's "Great Society", but the meaning is precisely the opposite.)

For those of us who are cheering on the freshmen Republicans in the House to enact the same kinds of "draconian" cuts that Cameron has, this cautionary piece in the Financial Times is worth reading:

In austerity Britain, a quiet rebellion is brewing. Not the violent street protests seen in Greece or the mass union demonstrations staged by the French, but something just as troubling for David Cameron.

Nine months into his premiership, £81bn of cuts are starting to bite. The fierce fiscal experiment – a spending squeeze on a scale not seen in any other big economy – has been cheered on by hawks around the world, from the International Monetary Fund to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

But in The Bell, a pub in Mr Cameron’s backyard, genteel rage is bubbling. Its source? The threat to close the Charlbury public library, housed in a double-fronted property built from the yellow Cotswold stone typical of towns and villages in the prime minister’s Witney constituency.

Predictable, and sad - it would be nice to think folks will roll up their sleeves and step into the void left by the Leviathan - but this quote gave me some pause:

“I find the idea of the Big Society insulting,” says Barbara Allison, a retired financial officer, who says that there are 54 local organisations in the town already doing things for the community such as meals on wheels. “We’re already devoting an awful lot of our time to charities and volunteers. I help run Charlbury museum. Am I not doing enough? Is David Cameron going to volunteer?”

Which goes to show that even necessary and well intentioned ideas - like Cameron's Big Society - can come across as patronizing and out of touch to folks who might be expected to be naturally supportive.

I'm not sure exactly how to thread this needle, nor am I sure it can even be threaded. But it's worth thinking about as the prospect for "draconian" cuts (we should be so lucky) becomes brighter.