Social Capital and Local Government

I notice the Lord Mayor had the Professor Puttnam of Bowling alone fame over to talk to the Dublin Dvelopment Board. It prompts one to think of Local Government reform, one of those old chesnuts that Labour has never gotten around to in government. (Please add to shopping list Pat). People have been talking about it since we were part of the UK.

Anyway, here is an idea that could be included. Parish based elected civic councils. What?. Well my idea is that there is a gap left where once the catholic church represented the focal point of life at a local level in Ireland. Back in the days of one monoculture, the Parish encompassed most of civic life at local level. The parish hall and grounds, administration of school, scouts etc, various other forms of voluntary and social groups. Mass on Sunday was more than religious observance. Congregation at a single space strengthened the community bond.

Now we have major changes. Multiculuralism (and individualist type of confession / non-belief), more telecommunications, and of course the car. But a local form of institution could perform important functions.

Firstly, it could be based on universal participation, ie re-establish community but not based on faith or culture. It could perform a liasing role between local voluntary and social organisations.
It could establish physical fora, a local space for the civic.

Based on universal suffrage, perhaps from age 16, locals would get direct experience in local participatory democracy. (How often do we give a space for the youth of an area to give their opinion on local facilities and services?)

Local residents / tenants interests would be given a form of legitimacy sometimes missing in residents groups, which are sometimes unrepresentative.

I envisage elected commissioners on a small stipend, and also part-time community stewards charged with pro-social community building tasks. Stewards could liase with community police about any issues connected with security, and keep a protective eye on the vulnerable. They could also help to organise community activities like car pooling, walking busses, recycling etc. There are any amount of initiatives.

Pro-social behaviour and voluntary effort could be recognised and rewarded. We hear enough about anti-social behaviour after all.

In the long run, such councils could also get involved in local economic activity which could aspire to ecological goals.

posted by Daniel @ Thursday, June 02, 2005