Localism (politics)
Part of the Politics series on |
Communitarianism |
---|
Politics portal |
Part of a series on |
Community |
---|
Academic studies |
Key concepts |
|
Community development |
See also |
Part of a series on |
Green politics |
---|
Localism is a range of political philosophies which prioritize the local. Generally, localism supports local production and consumption of goods, local control of government, and promotion of local history, local culture and local identity. Localism can be contrasted with regionalism and centralized government, with its opposite being found in unitarism.
Localism can also refer to a systematic approach to organizing a central government so that local autonomy is retained rather than following the usual pattern of government and political power becoming centralized over time.
On a conceptual level, there are important affinities between localism and deliberative democracy. This concerns mainly the democratic goal of engaging citizens in decisions that affect them. Consequently, localism will encourage stronger democratic and political participatory forums and widening public sphere connectivity.[1]
History
Localists assert that throughout the world's history, most social and economic institutions are scaled at the local level, as opposed to regional, interregional, or global (basically until the late 19th to the early 20th centuries).[citation needed] Through ongoing forms of colonialism, imperialism and industrialisation local scales become less central.[citation needed] Most proponents of localism position themselves as defending aspects of this way of life;[citation needed] the phrase "relocalization" is often used in this sense.[citation needed]
In the 20th century, localism drew heavily on the writings of
Beginning in the 1970s, a particularly visible strain of localism in the United States was a movement started by
Political philosophy
Localism as a philosophy is related to the principle of subsidiarity.
In the early 21st century, localists have frequently found themselves aligned with critics of
Some localists believe that society should be organised politically along community lines, with each community being free to conduct its own business in whatever fashion its people see fit. The size of the communities is defined such that their members are both familiar and dependent on each other, a size something along the lines of a small town or village.[citation needed]
In reference to localism, Edward Goldsmith, former editor of The Ecologist magazine, claims: "The problems facing the world today can only be solved by restoring the functioning of those natural systems which once satisfied our needs, i.e. by fully exploiting those incomparable resources which are individual people, families, communities and ecosystems, which together make up the biosphere or real world"[4]
Localism and populism
Wayne Yeung[6] questions the assumption that localism is a sub-school of European-American populism. Yeung raised an example in which localism is a cultural or civic value rather than a value that supports ethnic understanding in Hong Kong identity politics.
Jane Wills argued that an increasing numbers of populist politicians are endorsing localism as a framework for public policy.[7] She defined populism as a form of politics that involves people speaking in a register that is authentic to the experiences and needs of those people.[7] In other words, most likely Populist Party policies would contradict parties that support the elites.[7] She also used the term "anti-politics" to describe localist politicians because they stand against mainstream politics.[7] She used the UK Independence Party (UKIP) as an example of a party adopting localism into their policies. Mainstream politicians from the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties were threatened by the rise of UKIP.[7]
Localism and developing countries
Many localists are concerned with the problems of
Some localists are also against
International relations
Some localists are against political intervention and peace keeping measures. They believe that communities should find solutions to their own problems and in their own time, in whatever fashion they decide. They believe that all societies are capable of achieving long term peace once given the opportunity to do so.
Localist activism
Localism usually describes social measures or trends which emphasise or value local and small-scale phenomena. This is in contrast to large, all-encompassing frameworks for action or belief. Localism can therefore be contrasted with
Examples of localism are:
- Support for local food networks, such as community gardens, farm-to-table programs, food cooperatives, and restaurants that serve local food. The slow food movement, using diverse, seasonal, natural food in reaction to multinational merchandising of food which is uniform, produced using industrial methods, and called fast food.
- Support for locally family businesses, small craftsmans and farmers, traditional and local communities of small owners (craft guilds, farming circles and other), community banks and credit unions, such as the following organizations: Move Your Money. "The Benefits of Doing Business Locally" Archived 2015-07-03 at the Wayback Machinean essay by Jeff Milchen, American Independent Business Alliance co-founder, covers many arguments for local business ownership and patronage.
- Localism in media to support a diverse news media in the face of increasing corporate control. The US Federal Communications Commission made use of this term when seeking input on its rules, stating "promoting localism is a key goal of the Commission’s media ownership rules."[13]
- Localism in government structures, which can include:
- Tertiary government where small community councils make relevant decisions, with some degree of independence from local or national government.
- Workers' councils, where the employees of a particular workplace discuss and negotiate with their employer, rather have this done by a national union which may be remote from local issues.
- Federalism and devolution.
- Religion (Protestant):
- Exclusive localism holds that there can't be more than one legitimate institutionally visible church at one given location, the variation of which varies but is usually held to be either a city or a neighbourhood.
- Localism is more generally the congregationalist idea that each local church should be autonomous, only extended to reject any formal association of churches. It is specially relevant among Baptists, where localists reject the forming of Conventions.
- Religion (Churches of Christ):
- The congregationalist idea of local autonomy is a cornerstone of Independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ. Founders of the movement declared their independence from various denominations, seeking a fresh start to restore the New Testament church, and abandoning creeds. The names "Church of Christ," "Christian Church" and "Disciples of Christ" were adopted by the movement because they believed these terms to be biblical and not man made.
- A converging of Christians across denominational lines in search of a return to a hypothesized original, "pre-denominational" Christianity.[14][15]: 108 Participants in this movement sought to base doctrine and practice on the Bible alone, rather than recognizing the traditional councils and denominational hierarchies that had come to define Christianity since the 1st century.[14][15]: 82, 104–105 Members of the Churches of Christ believe that Jesus founded only one church, that the current divisions between Christians are not God's will, and that the only basis for restoring Christian unity is the Bible.[14] They typically prefer to be known simply as "Christians", without any further religious or denominational identification.[16][17][18]: 213 They see themselves as recreating the New Testament church established by Christ.[19][20][21]: 106
- The congregationalist idea of local autonomy is a cornerstone of
- Churches of Christ generally share these theological beliefs:[14]
- Refusal to hold to any formalized creeds or statements of faith, preferring instead a reliance on the Bible alone for doctrine and practice;[21]: 103 [22]: 238, 240 [23]: 123
- : 124
- Local governance: 47–54
- One of the largest divisions within churches of Christ was due to controversy of foreign missionary work. Opponents of what they dubbed "Institutionalism" argued against it both as a drain on local congregations and as sinful if done in cooperation with other congregations. This belief extended to cooperative support of orphanages, homes, large-scale radio and TV programs and ministries.[25]
- The Restoration Movement is so averse to association with other congregations that they renounce the term "protestant" distancing their churches from any association to any denomination; even one they would have to "protest" and evolve from.
See also
- Communitarianism
- Atomization
- Accountable autonomy
- Agrarianism
- Autonomism (left-wing ideology)
- Autonomism (political doctrine)
- Communalism
- Decentralisation
- Distributed manufacturing
- Distributism
- Global justice
- Glocalization
- Indigenism
- Internationalization and localization
- Irredentism
- Knowledge transfer
- List of micro-regional organizations
- Local ethnic nationalism (China)
- Localism Act 2011 – UK law
- Localism in Thailand
- Localism in Hong Kong
- Nationalism
- Nativism (politics)
- New localism
- Open Source Ecology (OSE)
- Parochialism
- Posse Comitatus (organization)
- Secession
- Self-determination
- Think globally, act locally
- Tribalism
- Political unitarism
References
- S2CID 153558023.
- ^ Milburn, Alan (2004), Localism: The need for a new settlement (speech), Demos.
- ^ Tomas, Mark. "Feedback: Transport and climate change – a reply to James Woodcock". International Socialism. No. 109.
- ^ De-industrialising society, archived from the original on 2006-05-14.
- ^ Politic, River Deep, October 2000.
- ^ Yeung, Wayne. “From Populism to Localism.” New Bloom. Updated on April 15, 2016
- ^ a b c d e Wills, Jane. “Populism, localism and the geography of democracy.” In Geoforum, Volume 62 (June 2015), pp. 188–189.
- ^ George Monbiot (September 9, 2003), "The myth of localism", The Guardian.
- ^ Michaud, Hélène (April 2005), East-West brain drain, Radio Netherlands, archived from the original on 2006-01-17, retrieved 2006-01-30.
- ^ Edward J. Feser and Stuart H. Sweeney, Out-migration, population decline, and regional economic distress, Washington, DC: Economic Development Administration, 1998.
- ISBN 978-0262512329. Archived from the originalon 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2012-07-22.
- ISBN 978-0262516877.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ FCC Localism Hearing to be Held in Washington, DC, on October 31st (PDF), United States: FCC.
- ^ a b c d Batsell Barrett Baxter, Who are the churches of Christ and what do they believe in? Available on-line in an "Woodson Chapel Church of Christ". Archived from the original on June 16, 2006. Retrieved 2011-10-03.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), and here Archived 2014-02-09 at the Wayback Machine, here Archived 2008-05-09 at the Wayback Machine and here Archived 2007-10-11 at the Wayback Machine - ^ ISBN 0891120068
- ^ "The church of Jesus Christ is non-denominational. It is neither Catholic, Jewish nor Protestant. It was not founded in 'protest' of any institution, and it is not the product of the 'Restoration' or 'Reformation.' It is the product of the seed of the kingdom (Luke 8:11ff) grown in the hearts of men." V. E. Howard, What Is the Church of Christ? 4th Edition (Revised), 1971, p. 29
- ISBN 978-0802840868), this is "arguably the most widely distributed tract ever published by the Churches of Christ or anyone associated with that tradition."
- ISBN 978-0865547582) 854 pages
- ISBN 978-1878990266, 391 pages
- ^ "Traditional Churches of Christ have pursued the restorationist vision with extraordinary zeal. Indeed, the cornerstones of many Church of Christ buildings read 'Founded, A.D. 33.' " p. 212, Samuel S. Hill, Charles H. Lippy, Charles Reagan Wilson, Encyclopedia of Religion in the South, Mercer University Press, 2005
- ^ ISBN 978-1896836287, 426 pages, Chapter 6 – Churches of Christ
- ^ ISBN 0736912894
- ^ V. E. Howard, What Is the Church of Christ? 4th Edition (Revised) Central Printers & Publishers, West Monroe, Louisiana, 1971
- ^ Randy Harshbarger, "A history of the institutional controversy among Texas Churches of Christ: 1945 to the present," M.A. thesis, Stephen F. Austin State University, 2007, 149 pages; AAT 1452110
Sources
- McKibben, Bill. Eaarth. New York: Time /Henry Holt, 2010.[ISBN missing]
- Business & the Environment. Sep 2011, Vol. 22 Issue 9, pp. 1–4
- Curtis, Fred (2003). "Eco-localism and Sustainability". Ecological Economics. 46 (1): 83–102. .
- Pugh, Michael, ('Centralism versus localism? Democracy versus efficiency? The perennial challenges of Scottish local government organisation', History & Policy.
External links
- Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America
- "Localism" – James Howard Kunstler's view of "Localism"
- "The Localization Reader" – De Young and Princen's view on the process of "localization."