[Upd-discuss] Opening Up Local Government to the Public

[Andrius Kulikauskas]

Markus Petz,

Thank you for your one-page statement about Local Councils, with 
examples from across Europe, for our COMMUNIA workshop Ethical Public 
Domain: Debate of Questionable Practices in Vilnius, Lithuania on March 
31, 2008 http://www.ethicalpublicdomain.org (Note, we will be showing a 
live Internet video feed http://www.internettv.lt and an online chat 
room http://www.worknets.org/chat/ from 10:00 to 15:00 GMT+2).

Markus, if you find time before Monday, I encourage you to make 
prominent the questionable practice that you wish to critique. This will 
also help us understand the connection with the Public Domain. For 
example, you might straightaway consider the problems in UK local 
councils with party-ocracy and mid level executives who stymie progress 
as they try to guard vested interests and take credit for themselves. 
Then for us it would be interesting how this relates to the Public 
Domain? We can think of the Public Domain as a cultural commons that we 
share and that should be fruitful, should let us have impact on our 
surroundings, and thus especially on local government, which must 
therefore be approachable, transparent, human sized, influenceable if we 
are able to participate as neighbors rather than as corporate lobbyists, 
professional politicians, or voting blocs. You could then go through 
your very informative examples that an approachable local government has 
proven possible. And then let us know, as best you can, what is it that 
keeps local government in parts of the UK or US from being approachable? 
That would be a provocative critique!

I suppose I am suggesting that (if you can and wish) you write your 
statement in reverse order. You have written a statement that is 
balanced. But to provoke debate (and perhaps to win debate) I think that 
it is very helpful to write a statement that may appear unbalanced but 
will provoke your opponent to show they are even more unbalanced. Then a 
mediator might pull together the pieces by looking for balance, much as 
you have. Yet first we're looking for provocation!

Markus, Thank you very much for provoking us with an issue that expands 
the relevance of the Public Domain!

Andrius Kulikauskas, Minciu Sodas, http://www.ms.lt, ms@ms.lt, +370 699 
30003, Vilnius, Lithuania

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The place of local councils and how they interact with associations and 
informal groups in the non-commercial third sector. Or civil society.

Councils occur at different levels. At the highest level is perhaps the 
big metropolitan city coucnil with a Mayor that can make unilateral 
decisions and have tax rasining powers. This model is seen in the USA 
where there has been a high level of corruption and many such mayors are 
in prison.

However, councils can also occur at much lower levels. District councils 
or even village councils. Such village councils are often the butt of 
jokes. A case in point is the British TV sit com The Vicar of Dibley 
(which confuses the Church Parish Council, with the Town and Parish 
Council, which in the UK is the lowest level of local government.

Although of course crooks can exist here its more the connections with 
local peoepl and the opportunities to support initiatives that makes 
these councils better known. Here the praxis of politcs is different and 
Party political lines are not so important.

The councils can usefully provide a rôle as an advocate of smaller 
groups, for example in Rippingale, where I was a Parish Councillor they 
were able to argue for the Village Design group that effectively was 
interacting with the planning departments higher up in governement.

Such local groups can develop the expertise and special interests that 
the council sees are valuable but just cannot find time for amongst 
other council business. They also allow a broader range of opinions to 
be debated. Funding can come from the council or through its support for 
ideas and help develop them to fruition and success.

The council can also stimulate smaller groups to form, based on needs 
identified with other local areas. Village audits are a good way of 
doing this. Small regions and districts can act in a more autonome 
method less constrained by public spending restrictions, yet still 
supported by coucnil advice or lassitude. Such a system exists in 
Tampere with Kirpitsa Talo and Hirvi Talo, whcih are ostensibly council 
owned, but run by independent associations. These associations are very 
free to persue directions not set centrally.

Good governance relies on this civil sector interacting with the higher 
up bodies that can then spend money, other resources and guide without 
controllling. If the council is too controlling failure results. This 
has been seen in the analyses of Agenda 21, whcih was shown to work well 
in Norway, where the hands off approach and local empowerment meant 
ownership and successful initiatives, compared with much of the UK where 
the middle sized executives actually stymied progess, largely as the 
officers (paid workers for the council) had vested career interests that 
were threatened by the smaller bodies taking credit for successful 
projects. And little to gain by someone else doing a good job. Also at 
the intermediate level party-ocracy starts to play a part and thus 
horsetrading and there is less of ”will it benefit someone” and more of 
”will it give another party adavantage over mine or my vested interests”.

So for success both must feel they are winning and subsidiarity needs to 
manifest without all the work being dumped on one party and no reward 
for successful projects. How to achieve this balancing act is hard. But 
this is the question I leave you with. Balance and benefit to all with 
independent opportunities? How do you have co-operation without 
co-ercion? How do you let the power go?