10. The New Civic Arena

Like Real Representation, the New Civic Arena is a summary of some ideas put forward by Gerry Stoker in his book Why Politics Matters.

The 'civic arena' refers to the space between the formal institutions of government and the private lives of citizens. It includes the voluntary sector, the media, public debate, popular campaigns and anything else that forms the environment where citizens experience their citizenship.

Stoker suggests a range of reforms that will strengthen this civic arena and create something new.  The aim is to create the right conditions for what Stoker calls a 'politics for amateurs' to take place.

Stoker’s suggestions come in three parts:

1.  New forms of Citizen Engagement

 There are a wealth of innovative ways that citizens can be engaged. The point is not to advocate any in particular but to promote their use more generally.  Ultimately citizens will decide which innovations will come to the fore by supporting those which they perceive will make a difference and those which can fit easily into busy modern lives. 

In his book Stoker does discuss different types of innovations which he breaks down into:

• Consultative innovations
• Deliberative innovations
• Co-Governance Innovations
• Direct Democracy Innovations
• E-Democracy Innovations

2.  Encouraging ‘Civicness’ and Voluntary Activity

Citizenship can be built in a whole range of ways that do not involve dealing directly with government and other public bodies.  In the New Civic Arena, therefore it is important to encourage 'citizen to citizen' activity through community projects and schemes such as time banks.  These types of initiatives have immediate practical benefits for citizens but they also act as a stepping stone to other forms of more political engagement.

3.  Information Flow and Understanding: Citizen Education and the Media

Reform also needs to extend to the institutions that 'frame' citizenship.  In this case both education for citizenship (for all not just the young) and the way in which the media reports politics.  For the latter Stoker highlights the need for a civic journalism which takes more of an explanatory and public interest approach to the issues.

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The idea of the New Civic Arena has a clear resonance with the concept of the Big Society currently being promoted by the UK Government (See David Wilcox's blog for a proper discussion of the Big Society).  However, whilst the problem that the Big Society seems to be aimed at solving is social needs, the New Civic Arena aims to address political disenchantment.  Nevertheless, the overlap between the two ideas is obvious.

5. Real Representation

This idea is a summary of some of the ideas set out by Gerry Stoker in his book Why Politics Matters given from a local government perspective. 

In this book Stoker argues for a viable and realistic 'politics for amateurs' that can give people genuine opportunities to get engaged whilst taking account of the realities of the modern world.

For Stoker representation needs to be more than the minimum - that people should just vote to select their representatives and then do nothing more.  Instead 'it requires a sustained connection between the representative and those who are represented'. People expect their representatives to reflect their own wants and interests and, whilst they don't want direct democracy, they want to be communicated with and dealt in a better way than happens now.  As Stoker argues:

If representation is made effective then people can focus on passively and sporadically monitoring rather than engaging with intensity at all times; in short it is the ideal mechanism for delivering what the amateur political citizen wants

Stoker suggests some mainstream areas for reform to strengthen representation:

• Social Representativeness - People will feel better represented if local councils reflect the social diversity in any area.  Encouragement could be offered to women and to ethnic groups and institutions could be made more friendly to those underrepresented
• Maintaining Ethical Standards - Strong leadership and transparency can be combined with independent oversight to create the right environment for high standards and this will build public trust and confidence
• Competitive Elections - Some form  of electoral reform, such as proportional representation, might help ensure that everyone feels that their vote has counted and therefore strengthen the relationship with those who represent them

Stoker also suggests three 'unconventional' reforms:

• Conversational Democracy Through ICT - This may well be more of a challenge for the councillor than for much of the public - however it provides an ideal mechanism for citizens to dip in and out of politics when they need to.  (Stoker's book was published in pre twitter 2006 - this might now be more of a 'mainstream idea')
• Re-engineering Representative Politics - This is about councillors examining how they spend their time and thinking about whether their time could be used more effectively to connect with citizens.
• A Representativeness Challenge to Campaign and Civic Groups - To demonstrate that they really do reach out to those that they seek to represent

Many local councils are already using councillor role descriptions and some also expect their councillors to produce annual reports.  You could argue that these are steps that are being taken towards real representation at the local level.  At least it show that the problem is being given some attention.