{"id":2956,"date":"2019-11-07T16:05:23","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T16:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/?p=2956"},"modified":"2022-06-17T16:56:44","modified_gmt":"2022-06-17T16:56:44","slug":"could-public-attitudes-led-policy-making-fix-our-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/?p=2956","title":{"rendered":"Could public attitudes led policy making fix our democracy?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Traditional democracy is creaking. The process of politics itself needs to change \u2013 the stakes could not be higher. Policy making, and the practice of \u2018doing\u2019 politics, needs to be made more accessible to the public. For those on low incomes who have been under?represented in particular, public attitudes led policy making could be a means to counter populist movements and restore faith in our democratic life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political inequality in our\ndemocracy<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The political theorist Robert\nDahl described\nthe democratic ideal<\/a> as, \u2018In making collective decisions, the \u2026 interests\nof each person should be given equal consideration.\u2019 Many members of the\nelectorate would suggest we are a long way from this ideal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those on low incomes in\nparticular feel politically less well represented by our democracy, and are\nless likely than those on higher incomes to be politically active. NatCen<\/a> found that people living on a\nlow income say they feel that the \u2018decks are stacked against them\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, \u2018people on low incomes\nfeel less in control of their lives and have less faith in politicians to act\nin the national interest\u2019. The narrowness of the backgrounds of professional\npoliticians, as society has become more diverse, compounds the problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interest in politics has\nincreased since the EU referendum, but the\npublic\u2019s sense of political satisfaction and efficacy have declined<\/a>. If\nanything, the chasm between the governed and those governing seems to have\nwidened since the referendum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a particular challenge\nfor democracy that needs to be addressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public legitimacy as a goal of\npolicy making<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If politics and political\nrepresentation appear to have become increasingly disconnected from the public,\nso too has the process of policy making. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the current British\npolitical system, public engagement is primarily sought through the ballot box.\nModern policy making has become the convoluted business of a professional\nelite. Politicians often mediate policies through a wider network that\nstretches beyond the civil service, to organised lobby groups, businesses,\npublic affairs agencies, universities and think tanks. This is a legitimate\npart of democracy, but it can mean that the views of sections of the electorate\nare often overlooked, particularly when those perspectives contrast with the\nviews of experts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, a too?narrow conceptualisation of the\nvoices that matter can draw politicians to policies that play well to\nparticular constituencies. In so doing, the wider interests of citizens who\nhave relatively less power can seem more remote to policy makers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public opinion and legitimacy<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Public opinion is clearly\ncentral to political decision making. But the practice is currently fairly\nblunt and one-dimensional. It can result in policies that have been under?tested in design or opinion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditional use of public\nopinion has not necessarily been experienced by the electorate as a\ndemocratically enriching process, and there is nothing to suggest that it is\nincreasing voter engagement over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the longer term, lack of\npublic legitimacy can make policies easier for successive governments to\ndismantle. But a new kind of policy making rooted in public attitudes could\nguide politicians to a more meaningful long?term programme of action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public attitudes led policy making model<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Public policy making should be\nrooted in understanding the needs, preferences and attitudes of the public if\nit is to secure greater democratic consent. New forms of democratic innovations\ncould be incorporated to strengthen traditional engagement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\u00a0The New Working Class: How to Win Hearts, Minds and Votes,<\/a><\/em> I propose a new \u2018public attitudes led policy making model\u2019 (see Figure 1) as a means by which to introduce public attitudes into the founding stages of policy development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public opinion should not be\nseen as an obstacle or a fixed component. Instead, policy making could seek public\nlegitimacy for policy decisions. It could use evidence and user?testing approaches for much\nmore effective policy that commands public confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Figure 1: Public attitudes?led policy?making model<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>The model draws on the large\nbody of public attitudes\u2019 insight which is available and covers a sweep of\nissues relevant to policy makers. On any given topic, it is vital that there is\naccess to high quality evidence to inform any proposition to test. Attitudes\nare available by demographic category. If an evidenced view that treats the\npublic as equal citizens is taken, it could go some way to addressing the\ndistortions that a fixation on voters in marginal seats or swing voters has\ncreated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Innovative democratic methods\nsuch as citizens juries, hackathons and participatory budgeting could be used\nas part of this model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

User<\/strong>?<\/strong>centred design in politics<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The basic principle of putting\nthe member of the public at the centre of policy making is an application of\nuser?centred design which has taken\noff in the private sector, and is increasingly being applied in parts of the\npublic sector \u2013 seen in the work of the behaviour insights team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many possibilities. Take\npublic attitudes to the government\u2019s role in the economy, for example. There is\nstrong public support for an active government to support industry. Current\npolicy could be enhanced if it ran through the stages of actioning ideas with\nindustry and citizens, testing and learning, improving approaches as they\ndevelop in real time. Democratic innovations need to address the \u2018social\nparticipation\u2019<\/a> gap to ensure that people who might otherwise be excluded\nare equal participants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prize could be a long?term settlement between a new\nactive state which reflects citizen expectation of support for industry, but\none which is responsive to the way that markets and individuals behave in\nreality. In this scenario, public confidence in policy direction is secured\nthrough its basis in attitudes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this has to be done within\na framework of positive values; otherwise the risk is that weak leadership\nbends to the whim of public opinion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This public attitudes led policy making model can provide an alternative to emerging populist movements, by building in a clearer role for public engagement in the shaping of policy and reinvigorating democracy for an era of participation. <\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Traditional democracy is creaking. The process of politics itself needs to change \u2013 the stakes could not be higher. Policy making, and the practice of \u2018doing\u2019 politics, needs to be made more accessible to the public. For those on low incomes who have been under?represented in particular, public attitudes led policy making could be a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":2959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1395,1396,1403],"tags":[1617],"coauthors":[1914],"class_list":["post-2956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-comment","category-uk","category-inequality","tag-democracy"],"amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Could-public-attitudes-led-policy-making-fix-our-democracy-andrii-podilnyk-SjzIbQpjaJA-unsplash-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2956"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/politicalquarterlyblog.preliveweb.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=2956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}