A Different Kind of State?

A large factor in the appeal of neo-conservatism in the early 1980s was its sustained attack on the welfare state. Even those most dependent on public services were frustrated by a system that allowed them no say in decisions directly affecting their lives. A decade later, the alternative offered by the new right—free market competition—has only deepened the need for effective state assistance. The solution must lie not in privatizing the public sector, but in making it more responsive; the real issue is not more state or less state, but rather a different kind of state. How might those on the democratic left govern differently? How might political parties committed to the progressive reform of our political institutions design structures and processes that would enhance citizen participation, and at the same time maintain and increase democratic accountability? How might new administrations implement such a program? The twenty contributors to this book share the experiences they have gained in various contemporary political experiments and popular movements, in Canada, Great Britain, and the United States, that have attempted to expand citizen involvement and democratic administrative practices within the public sector.