Community politics
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Community politics is a movement in British politics to re-engage people with political action on a local level.
Most developed amongst the
Community politics is based on small-scale action on local political issues. To give an example of how it works: Residents are irritated by rubbish dumped by a playing field. A 'non-community' political response would be to issue a statement calling for more resources to be allocated to deal with dumped rubbish. A 'community politics' response would be for local councillors to lead a group of people to clear the rubbish themselves, then inform the local community through a newsletter.
The result is a stronger local community who feel that their representatives are achieving something, and a better chance of even the most under-resourced local authority taking the time to stop the problem in future.
The low-budget techniques are easy to adopt. No television advertising, mass direct mailing or contacts with national newspapers are necessary.
Community politics principles can be applied to any area and by any party. The keys are local action on residents' concerns and effective communication with local residents through newsletters and face-to-face contact. Parties which espouse community politics often meet with electoral success (e.g. the Liberal Democrats' ability to break out of the third-party trap), particularly in areas which have been dominated by one political party. In
National and local initiatives
Concern at disengagement with local politics in the UK—manifested, not least, by low turnout in local elections - has led to a series of initiatives aimed at making it easier for people to become involved in local decision-making. Their success is debatable. Notable national initiatives include changes to electoral systems to allow universal postal voting on a trial basis, and the process introduced in the
See also
- Community organizing
- Coproduction of public services by service users and communities
- National League of Young Liberals
- Peter Hain
Further reading
- Community Politics by Robert Ingham in Brack and Randall (eds.) Dictionary of Liberal Thought, Politico's publishing, 2007
- Community Politics Today: A collection of Essays J Bridges (ed.), ALDC, Hebden Bridge, 2006
References
- ISBN 9781135206765.
External links
- "The Theory and Practice of Community Politics". Retrieved 2005-12-16.
- Hain, P., (Ed.) (1976) Community Politics Calder Publications Ltd ISBN 0-7145-3543-5