Tom Bentley

Do political parties stand in the way of democracy?

Tuesday, May, 2nd, 2006, 6 pm
Centre for the Study of Democracy
The Westminster Forum
32-38 Wells Street, 5th Floor
London, W1T 3UW.
Nearest tube Oxford Street. (Map)

Synopsis

This year's party funding scandal has dramatized and made more urgent a problem that has been building for a generation; how to recast mass political parties so that they can serve a legitimate function in mediating between Britain's public and the exercise of political power in Westminster and Whitehall.   

Mass political parties evolved as an essential part of modern parliamentary democracy during the 20 th century.  They offered the prospect of real political participation and agency to ‘ordinary' people, helped to translate competing ideological systems into recognizable political choices, reinforced the accountability of governments and other powerful institutions through parliamentary competition and scrutiny, and provided a channel for social movements and new ideas to evolve and be absorbed into large scale organization.   

Today, their standing looks rather different – membership has been decimated, local branch structures are reeling, and public perceptions of party discipline, funding and ethics are seriously damaged.  Politicians increasingly look to newer, looser forms of activism for promising models of engagement and influence.  More people belong to environmental NGOS than to all Britain 's parties put together.  The future of democracy demands a wave of political and institutional innovation, promoting more direct participation in decision-making, but also deepening deliberation in many different settings (an argument I have set out in Everyday Democracy, available free at www.demos.co.uk ).  So could future constitutional models be party free?  Or can parties adapt to changing social and ideological conditions and find ways to rebuild their essential mediating role?

 

Publications:

Tom Bentley, 2006, Everyday Democracy - Why we get the politicians we deserve - here or our backup here

 

Biography:

Tom Bentley has led Demos since 1999.  Prior to that he was a special adviser to David Blunkett MP, then Secretary of State for Education and Employment, where he worked on issues including school curriculum reform, social inclusion and creativity.

Demos has played a leading role in the formation of policy ideas and analysis of government reform over the last decade.  It has also established an international profile as an independent source of ideas and innovation across a range of subjects.  More recently, Demos has become known as a ‘do tank', providing consultancy and practical partnership alongside its more familiar forms of research and policy ideas. 

Tom's work focuses particularly on democracy and governance, public services and learning.  Demos has a network of projects and partners ranging from northern Europe to China , India and Australia . 

His publications include: Learning beyond the classroom: education for a changing world , (Routledge, 1998) The Creative Age: knowledge and skills for a new economy (Demos, 1999), The Adaptive State : strategies for personalising the public realm (Demos 2003), Letting go: complexity, individualism and the left (Renewal, 2002), and Everyday Democracy: why we get the politicians we deserve (Demos, 2005).

Aged 32, he lives in London with his wife and two daughters.