Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

'The centre-left is experimenting with democracy – this book examines what it hopes to gain from what Tony Blair called ‘strengthening the democratic impulse’. This book offers a clear, in-depth and comparative analysis of a range of cases of ‘innovative’ forms of consultation and engagement. This is one of very few books to critically examine both the policy and political uses of the shift towards citizen-centred policy making. The book also offers a fresh analysis on the Big Society agenda and its potential for adoption outside of the UK. This book will be of interest to politicians, policy makers and interest groups seeking to understand the dynamics and contradictions in the search for democratic renewal. Students, academics and policy makers with an interest in democratic renewal, consultation, centre-left and centre-right politics will find this a valuable resource. The book adopts the ‘democratic audit’ approach developed by Professor David Beetham and colleagues. Using the ideas of political equality, popular control and deliberation the book examines a range of cases of ‘innovative consultation. It links these cases with a mapping of recent changes in political behavior and the political responses by both left and right to what some call a ‘crisis of democracy’.Students, academics, policy makers with an interest in consultation, democratic renewal, labour politics and the Big Society agenda are the key target audience for the book' --Back cover. Why is the search for democratic renewal so elusive? This book examines both the political and policy implications of efforts by the centre-left to transform democracy. This is a story not only about democratic change, but also the identity crisis of centre-left political parties. The book offers a fresh critique of the Big Society agenda, and analyses why both left and right are searching for democratic renewal. Drawing on high-profile interviews and examining an in-depth series of comparative cases, the book argues that the centre-left’s search for democratic renewal contains a range of policy and political aims, contradictions and tensions. It will be of interest to students, academics, researchers, interest groups and policy analysts interested in consultation, democratic renewal, labour politics, and Australian and British politics.

Political participation --- Democracy --- Citizen participation --- Community action --- Community involvement --- Community participation --- Involvement, Community --- Mass political behavior --- Participation, Citizen --- Participation, Community --- Participation, Political --- Political activity --- Political behavior --- Political rights --- Social participation --- Political activists --- Politics, Practical --- Self-government --- Political science --- Equality --- Representative government and representation --- Republics --- Australian Labor Party --- Labour Party (Great Britain) --- A.L.P. --- ALP --- Labor Party (Australia) --- Labour Party (Australia) --- Labour Representation Committee (Great Britain : 1900-1906) --- Britanskai︠a︡ rabochai︠a︡ partīi︠a︡ --- British Labour Party --- Eikoku Rōdōtō --- Labor Party (Great Britain) --- Leĭboristskai︠a︡ partii︠a︡ Anglii --- Leĭboristskai︠a︡ partii︠a︡ Velikobritanii --- LPV --- Mifleget ha-laibor (Great Britain) --- Parti travailliste britannique --- Partido Laborista (Great Britain) --- Partido Laborista Británico --- Yŏngguk Nodongdang --- 工黨 (英國) --- History. --- Australia --- Great Britain --- England --- Politics and government. --- Politics and government --- Démocratie --- Participation politique --- History --- Grande-Bretagne --- Australie --- Politique et gouvernement --- Socialism and left-of-centre democratic ideologies. --- POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism. --- Society & Social Sciences --- Politics & government --- Political ideologies.