Ten things we can all do to save the ‘fragile experiment in democracy’
As politics in the UK becomes increasingly fraught, we could all learn from Richard Haas’s ‘ten habits’ of good citizens
With a volatile and angry electorate, an unstable democracy, a deeply divided and insecure country experiencing long-term decline, a Tory legacy much worse than anyone could imagine, and chilling talk about a Farage premiership – sheer desperation politics – there was never much prospect of a measured view of Labour’s first year in government.
However, the political inquest, so far, has been self-serving and superficial, with some offering reassuring, but deeply misleading explanations of why this country faces such an uphill struggle to build a different future. The challenge is how to escape from a self-induced state of prolonged delusion, with nonsensical, populist claims like “Britain Best in Class” and the fiction generated by not having an honest relationship with the electorate who some politicians appear to treat with disdain rather than the respect due to citizens of a democracy.
The long-term context matters. The financial crash of 2008, Brexit, Covid, the collapse of productive industries, a reliance on financial services, grotesque levels of inequality, the erosion of national resilience, and now Trump-inspired chaos in the global realm have all shaped a struggling country and helped to create an anxious and deeply mistrusting electorate.
And, crucially, no one imagined how the Tory legacy would be much more than a “black hole” in government finances and a tax trap that Labour fell into. These are the calamities that form the deep roots of our dysfunctional politics, long-term structural problems that must be addressed.
Citizens, not consumers
However, while Labour inherited an extraordinary mess, this is not an excuse for their troubled first year in office. Long-term decline is rarely talked about by politicians. It may seem defeatist and negative, but it could inject realism into our politics, where trust has become a scarce commodity. Keir Starmer’s government needs to deal with the true extent of Britain’s decline if they are to restore confidence and lift the public’s mood.
To rescue our politics, we must elevate the importance of citizenship above an avalanche of market-driven descriptions such as consumers, customers, sellers, and investors. We are individuals but also members of a wider society.
The concept of citizenship in ancient Greece arose from membership of city states, and the idea of citizens with rights, duties, privileges and responsibilities has always been key to effective democracies.
In The Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau talked about the private will – what individuals want – and the general will, which is the common interest or what is really best for everyone. It is this commitment to the idea of general will or common good that is breaking down in the UK. Re-establishing trust between politicians and the public is vital to restoring it.
Detoxifying UK politics
In his ground-breaking book, The Bill of Obligations, The Ten Habits of Good Citizens, American diplomat Richard Haas argues that democracy is about more than rights, procedures and laws, and requires much more from each one of us. He believes that, in challenging times, we need “clear and thoughtful statements of our obligations to one another and to our country if this fragile experiment in democracy is to survive”.
Politics is too important to be left solely to the politicians. Obligations between individual citizens as well as between citizens and government matter, and “the habits of citizenship are things that should happen but that the law cannot require”.
Simple and common-sense ideas could change the toxic nature of UK politics. Haas’s ten habits or obligations of a good citizen are: be informed; get involved; stay open to compromise; remain civil; reject violence; value norms; promote the common good; respect government service; support the teaching of civics; and put country first.
Not the ten commandments, but they could save our politics, help us escape this spiral of long-term decline, and create greater political cohesion, giving meaning to the much discussed but rarely acted upon notion that “we are all in it together”.
A ‘life proper to human beings’
Starmer’s government has made mistakes since coming to power, as evident in the rebellion against its benefits Bill by a significant number of frustrated Labour MPs.
But for many in the party, this was an important reaffirmation of what Labour stands for and an early glimpse of backbenchers refusing to accept Treasury diktats and confirming Labour as having a political philosophy, or creed, as defined by RH Tawney in his famous 1931 article, The Choice before the Labour Party. “A creed is not a rigid doctrine but a common conception of the ends of political action based on a common view of the life proper to human beings,” he wrote.
For Labour, this was an avoidable crisis and despite the Prime Minister being described first and foremost as a manager, this was by parliamentary standards, and my own experience of Westminster, a fiasco. But it was one that also provided a reminder to the electorate of the Labour party’s historic mission.
The burning issue
In the immediate future, the PM must provide: a vision of what kind of country we are striving for, giving people a sense of belonging and inclusion; a stronger bond of trust between government and the governed; and leadership, in so many different ways, on issues the public are angry or concerned about.
Welfare, workfare and now warfare will put enormous pressures on spending. But a “social contract” engaging with the “general will” of the people is crucial to prevent every political or social difference becoming a deeply divisive destroyer of the common good, generating more anger and resentment.
Labour needs to update its political conversation with the people. This is the burning issue of British politics.
Henry McLeish is a former First Minister of Scotland
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.