Where We Are Now
Traditional governance, essentially a mix of bureaucratic structures and political ideology, which evolves in response to the population of the day, is a very mobile force. The present dominance of essentially a two political party system in the UK means that every decade we swing from the right to the left of politics, each often undoing and changing their predecessors’ changes in education, health, social services, privatisation, nationalisation policies etc. As these policies trickle down through to local administration, extra layers of bureaucracy are created to support the implementation of the changes. Resulting in a very top-heavy administration, employing many people working on our behalf drafting and redrafting policies and plans and working on implementation.
The plans and procedures used in our present bureaucracy has created a highly sophisticated system and the language used matches this. The need for plain English and support to understand the system for all involved from those within the system to communities and citizens seeking to be involved in decision-making that affects their work is clear in public consultation exercises. These frequently lead to a lot of frustration and a sense of ‘us and them’ from both local authority and citizen perspectives.
We have become a very risk conscious society, with health and safety rules established to protect us from a range of potential dangers; from accidents in the workplace, waste movements to our own DIY. Many of these rules are difficult to follow and expensive to implement, especially for small businesses. Many citizens feel suffocated and feel their commonsense and personal responsibility is being fundamentally challenged.
While sustainable development has been in common parlance for over 30 years and understood as a balanced approach which embraces social, environmental and economic needs; economic development is perceived as the dominant sector and need for profit the driving force supported by public authorities.
As traced in Jared Diamond’s extensive study of societal rise and fall in his book Collapse , we do make choices as individuals and society; the way in which we govern ourselves, cooperate with each other and maintain our environment is paramount to survival of society. Diamond traces the rise and fall of ancient and more recent societies and illustrates the trends towards failure and the role of governance and leadership; he wants us to learn from history. Using Diamond’s assessments, nationally and globally we are well within a dangerous zone; we need to take strong remedial action.
An agenda for change
A process for implementing sustainable development called Local Agenda 21 (LA21) was unilaterally agreed in 1992 by nations in Rio de Janerio at the United Nations World Summit on Environment and Development. Renamed Local Action 21 at Johannesburg a decade later, this (Agenda / Action for the 21st Century) agreement recognised that the highest quality environment care under the umbrella of sustainable development takes place at the most local level, and that people and communities need and are entitled to support from their governments to make this happen. Local Authorities were identified as the structure for supports and resources to be channelled to local people. To be effective, Local Agenda/Action 21 must be enshrined in all sustainable development based plans and procedures, from Town and parish plans to national legislation. To some extent this has happened through social partnerships etc. However the sheer volume of plans and procedures can make it prohibitive for ordinary citizens and community groups to engage in these processes, unless pro-active support it initiated by the local authority. ICLEI a highly effective network of local authorities around the world has made some very good progress with LA21, particularly in other countries.
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