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Democracy must become the lifeblood of progressive politics. Social democrats
have placed too much emphasis on the first part of their name and insufficient
on the second. Social equality is only likely to be secured and sustained
within an increasingly democratised society. The left lost its hold on the
public's imagination when capital went global in the 1970s and democracy failed
to respond. Only by rebuilding the democratic impulse at every level of social
organisation can the power of markets be used in society's interests.
New Labour has carried out some structural reforms to the UK constitution, but the cultural leap to a faith in people - to allow them to become the collective controllers of their own destiny - has been resisted. Only as consumers, it seems, can choices be made. In this way markets and the commercialisation of the public sphere have eroded democratic institutions still further. Managerialism, in combination with the two main parties' apparent desire to wear each other's old clothes, is turning the voters away. So a democratic recession goes hand in hand with its social equivalent.
In this final instalment of the Compass Programme for Renewal trilogy, the authors call for policies that will breathe life into our aging democratic structures, but also for the building of new democratic spaces for more direct democracy. From community activism to global decision-making, Democracy and the Public Realm makes the case for the social democratisation of modernity. Politics, for the left, has to be about the dream of different kind of society allied to practical steps to achieve it. The democratic journey is the only path we can take - it is the means and ends of our politics.