DEMOCRACY TEAM NEWSLETTER
SPRING 2005
Greetings from Ben Rogers
Welcome to the first edition of our new Democracy Team Newsletter. Ippr’s
Democracy Team has been growing and moving into new areas recently. This is our
chance to tell you about what we are doing and the issues that we think are important.
I am pleased to say that the Democracy Team is continuing its longstanding focus on
ways of making public services more democratic and accountable and engaging the
public with them. Early this summer we will be publishing our report on New
Directions in Community Justice. And we are keeping up our research on
constitutional reform and on new democratic processes – the Joseph Rowntree
Foundation are funding a project I am doing looking at possibilities of extending the
jury principle, and appointing citizens at random to serve on both local and national
public bodies.
At the same time, we also looking at a new area for us - cultural and sports policy - and
seeking to identify if and how government could better use public investment in
culture, heritage and sport to build communities, boost social capital and encourage a
greater public involvement in civic and political life. Guy Lodge, who recently joined
the Team from the Constitution Unit, is carrying forward a major project on the future
of the civil service – we will be launching an interim report this July. And we are
fundraising for ambitious projects on identity, and the future of local government.
We will also be working hard, during the election campaign, to raise the profile of
issues around constitutional reform, local government and democratic engagement.
Turnout is likely to fall again this time round, ensuring that the issues of political
engagement will remain at the centre of political debate for a long time to come.
Finally, the Team is very pleased to welcome Matt Cavanagh as a Visiting Fellow to
Ippr and the Democracy Team. Matt, who was formerly Special Adviser to David
Blunkett and a tutor in political philosophy at Oxford University, will be writing a
pamphlet for us about multi-culturalism and national identity.
If you are interested in any of our research – or would like to support it – please don’t
hesitate to get in touch.
Best wishes
Ben Rogers
Associate Director and Head of the Democracy Team
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Mission Statement
Deepening democracy underpins all of ippr’s policy work. The Democracy
Team aims to promote democratic reform of central and local government and
public services, strengthen communities and increase citizen engagement in
public life. The team believes that as people become less deferential, and old
traditions and attitudes of trust in authority decline, public institutions have to
become more open and transparent and do more to engage citizens in decision
making.
____________________________________________
Key Research Themes for 2005
 Trends in civic involvement; ways of better engaging people in public life;
the future of political parties; community building and civic engagement
through sports and culture
 Public engagement and accountability in policing and the criminal justice
system; new directions in community justice; community courts.

The future of local government, and models of community governance
 Constitutional reform and ways of promoting trust and involvement in
government
 Developments in national, regional, local, ethnic and religious identity;
policies for promoting progressive, shared identities.
 Rethinking of the Civil Service to identify the steps needed to ensure that it
is fit for purpose in the twenty-first century.
___________________________________________
Recent Publications

A New England: An English Identity Within Britain
By Rt Hon. David Blunkett MP, March 2005
This publication of David Blunkett’s speech given to ippr is available to
download from the ippr website.
 Reinventing the Town Hall: a Handbook_________
by Ben Rogers
“I welcome this book. It reminds us that good contemporary design can help
restore that civic pride, make government more accessible and help connect
people to their elected representatives.” (Julia Barfield, Marks Barfield
Architects)
This handbook draws on national and international examples, including
unpublished new designs by a range of leading contemporary designers, to
suggest ways of reinventing town halls as open animated public spaces.

Lonely Citizens: Working Party on Active Citizenship
Ed. Ben Rogers
Many inside and outside government argue that we need to do more to engage
citizens in politics and governance. Others, however, contend that the attempt to
promote active citizenship will fail, or will not have the effects its champions
claim. This book is the report of the working party on active citizenship, set up
by ippr to explore what ‘active citizenship’ means, what it adds to our
individual lives and what could be done to promote it.

Reinventing the Police Station
by Ben Rogers with Tom Houston
With the police estate undergoing dramatic change, this report examines the
ways police buildings shape people’s confidence in the police, their fear of
crime and sense of security, and identifies means of raising standards in the
design and management of the police estate. A DVD was also produced called
‘Police Stations: The view from outside’.
 Touching the State
Ippr and the Design Council worked with user experience researchers to explore
the character of key citizen state encounters: voting, jury service and the
citizenship ceremony. A multidisciplinary team of experts from policy,
academia, sociology, design and commerce, worked to identify how encounters
between citizen and state can be better designed.
The magazine style publication combining essays, photos and design was
launched by the Design Council and ippr in October 2004 and was shown
during the London Design Festival.
More details about the project and the Design Council 'touching the state design
challenge' can be found at www.designcouncil.org.uk/red
_______________________________________
Current Research

Rethinking Whitehall: The Future of the Civil Service
The British Civil Service was once widely acknowledged as the best in the
world, a model for others to follow. But a range of developments - new
technologies, changing relations between state and civil society, new models of
corporate organisation, the redrawing of departmental responsibilities and the
reordering of relations between the prime-minister and cabinet, and parliament
and government - all pose a challenge to old ways of doing things. With the
announcement of sweeping job cuts in Whitehall, the relocation of staff to the
regions, and a drive for greater efficiency and effectiveness in public sector
delivery, the time has come for a serious debate about the future of our civil
service.
Launched in February 2005, Rethinking Whitehall will review the options for
civil service reform, and drawing heavily on international experience, it will
clearly identify the steps needed to be taken to ensure that the civil service is fit
for purpose in the twenty-first century. Main contact: Guy Lodge
 The Value Added by Community Governance
This project funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, under its
Governance and Public Services programme, is funding the ippr and the
Cornwall-based consultancy Future Perspectives to develop an exploration of
the costs and benefits of different forms of community governance, with a
special reference to Local Strategic Partnerships.
A number of new models for the local governance of services are being debated
and introduced, including community interest companies, foundation hospitals
and neighbourhood management schemes. Although there are perceived
benefits to decentralised governance, it is important to examine assumptions
about the value added by broadened governance. Who does it benefit and who
pays the costs? Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) provide a mature example
of how broadening governance has been taken forward in practice. They remain
central to the government’s policy of community involvement in local services
and have developed a range of models of how this might be achieved. They
therefore offer us an opportunity to stand back and assess the costs, the benefits
and the added value of community involvement in the governance of local
service provision.
Main contact: Lucy Stone
 Culture, Community and Civil Renewal
This project is examining the role that cultural policy can play in developing
social capital, bridging diverse cultural communities and encouraging active
citizenship – especially in poor, disadvantaged communities.
The research will gather evidence of the impact of arts, heritage and cultural
activity on civil renewal, identify research gaps, examine best practice and
provide a road map for how cultural and heritage policy can best contribute to
civil renewal.
ippr are grateful for the invaluable input and support of Arts & Business,
English Heritage, Heritage Lottery Fund, Nationwide, NMDC and Platform
for Art, London Underground as sponsors of this project.
Main contact: Emily Keaney

Sport and Civil Renewal
This project will run alongside the Culture, Community and Civil Renewal
project, looking at the impact of participation in sport and physical activity on
creating civil renewal. This project is being undertaken in partnership with the
DCMS.
Main contact: Emily Keaney
 Community Justice
We need to reduce the number of offenders serving prison sentences, improve
the credibility and effectiveness of non-custodial approaches, and boost public
confidence in the criminal justice system. To do this, we have to find ways of
making the criminal justice system more responsive to the public, and increase
the profile of and public involvement in its operations. This 6 month project is
exploring ways of bringing courts and community service programmes closer to
the communities they are meant to serve.
We will be publishing the findings of the project, sponsored by the Local
Government Association and Securicor, in a report this June.
Main contact: Lucy Stone
 Appointment by Lot
This short project funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, will have the
publication of a pamphlet exploring whether one variant of appointment by lot,
'invitation by lot' - inviting people at random to take up governing positions might represent a new way of involving ordinary citizens in governance.
Appointment by lot has long been used in jury service, but has not been applied
much elsewhere. Many commentators, however, have been arguing its potential,
and it has recently been taken up by the Community Fund, and is being tried out
by others. The research will draw, in particular, on the experience of jury
service, recent experiments by the National Lottery Communities Fund, and the
citizen lead commission on voting reform currently underway in British
Columbia.
Main contact: Ben Rogers
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Recent Events
Culture, Community and Civil Renewal project
Creating Civil Renewal – The Impact of Culture
This seminar explored what it is that is special about culture and cultural
participation and in what sense communities that don't have it are deprived. It
focused in particular on the role that cultural activity can play in generating and
sustaining shared common identities in both geographic and social
communities. Speakers at the seminar included Dr. Geoff Mulgan, Director of
the Institute of Community Studies, Andrew Newman, Lecturer in Museum
Studies at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tony Bennett, Professor of
Sociology, and Director ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-cultural Change
and Kate Clark, Deputy Director of Policy and Research at the Heritage Lottery
Fund.
Active Communities – Culture, Community and Civil Renewal, January
2004
This seminar looked at the scale of participation in cultural activity in the UK
and discussed the issues surrounding how and what one classes as participation.
Speakers included: Prof. Roger Jowell, Department of Sociology, City
University
Liam Delaney, Post Doctoral Research Fellow, ESRI
Lunchtime Lecture - Robert Putnam, January 2005
While in Europe this January Robert Putnam kindly agreed to come to the UK
to give a talk on the role of sports and cultural activity in national and
community social capital, expanding on his well known and influential work
Bowling Alone.
Community Justice Seminars at ippr
We have been running a series of successful seminars attended by key figures in
the criminal justice field, including academics, practitioners, policy makers and
government representatives:
A new model of Community Justice - Liverpool Community Justice Centre,
November 2004
The community court in Liverpool represents an ambitious attempt to adapt our
courts to the communities they are meant to serve. Up to now, however, little
has been known about the way the court will work. With the court due to open
early next year, we held a seminar at which Simon Smith (Department for
Constitutional Affairs) talked about progress to date and plans for the future.
Conferencing and restorative approaches to anti-social behaviour, January
2005
Tackling anti-social behaviour has become a political priority. But are we
focusing too heavily on ASBOs at the expense of other options? Speakers
included Guy Masters (Wandsworth YOT), Ben Lyon (Nacro), Alex Crowe
(Home Office RJ unit) and Mike Hough (King's College London).
Community engagement in community service by offenders, February 2005
Community service done by offenders is largely invisible, with little actual
community involvement. This seminar discussed how can we put the
'community' into community sentencing? Speakers were: Valerie Keitch
(community justice panel, Somerset), John Hedge/Sue Raikes (Thames Valley
Partnership), Rob Allen (Rethinking Crime & Punishment)
Community Courts? Increasing accountability and responsiveness of the
court system, March 2005
This seminar looked at how courts can be connected to the communities they
serve. Short of setting up a community court in every locality, how can we
increase the responsiveness and accountability of the courts? Speakers were:
Adam Mansky (Centre for Court Innovation, US), Judge Samuels and Professor
Brian Williams.
National Identity lecture at ippr
A New England? An English Identity Within Britain, March 2005
This event in association with the Heritage Lottery Fund explored issues around
English identity, asking how we can sustain a common sense of identity as
communities become less structured and knitted together by social class, the
change in gender roles, a fluid workplace and migration. They key note speech
was given by Rt Hon. David Blunkett MP. Other speakers included Neal
Ascherson and Philip Dodds.
________________________________
Recent articles
When the people spoke, New Statesman - 17th January 2005
by Guy Lodge
Alan Milburn, Labour's election supremo, recently argued that citizens should no
longer just be consulted; they should "get the chance to decide". And politicians in all
major parties now profess commitment to active citizenship and democratic renewal.
But can it really work? Developments in the Canadian province of British Columbia
suggest it can.
New model of community justice, Nacro Safer Society Journal - 17th December 2004
by Lucy Stone
New Labour has long talked-up the importance of engaging communities in civic life,
but it has been slow to act on its rhetoric as far as the adult courts are concerned. While
the reforms associated with the setting up of the youth justice board have, arguably,
made youth system a more responsive and less impersonal, while the police are under
pressure to return Bobbies to the beat, the court system remains relatively unreformed.
Touching the local state, Municipal Journal - 21st October 2004
by Ben Rogers and Hilary Cottam (Design Council)
Over the last few decades we have got used to the idea that the public sector has to get
better at seeing things from the customer’s point of view and adapting services to fit
their needs. We are all familiar with the phrases ‘customer care’ and the injunction to
put ‘the customer first’. But while local and national government alike praise
citizenship, and insist they want citizens to get involved, who ever talks of ‘citizenship
care’, or ‘putting the citizen first’?
Learning to reply, Progress Journal - 23rd July 2004
by Ben Rogers
There are times in our collective lives when we suddenly come to conceive of things
once neglected or taken for granted as vitally important. Ten years ago government was
not seen as having much responsibility for children under 5. Now we acknowledge that
parents need support in these crucial early years. Until recently streets were seen as
things for driving cars down. Now we are more likely to recognise that they play a vital
role in shaping the quality of local civic life.
Reality spoils a good story about reforms, www.ft.com - 16th June 2004
by Ben Rogers
Political parties need stories if they are to win voters. But those stories have to measure
up to reality. If the party's analysis is shown to have been wrong, if its account of what
people want proves to be faulty or the promised happy ending never materialises, the
party must tell a better story - or voters will switch their support.
Re-inventing the town hall – a guide for local councils, Local Government Chronicle 2nd April 2004
by Ben Rogers
After years of neglect, central and local government are once again beginning to
appreciate the case for investing in public buildings. At the most basic level, good
design can produce enormous savings in long-term running costs, promote productivity
and increase the satisfaction, and even the health of the people who work for public
services. Good design, in other words, offers value for money.
__________________________
Introducing the Democracy Team
Ben Rogers
Associate Director
Ben leads the research and management of the democracy team. After receiving
a doctorate in political theory from Oxford, he worked as a free lance journalist
and writer. He is the author of three acclaimed books: Pascal: In Praise of
Vanity (Orion), A.J.Ayer, A Life (Vintage) and Beef and Liberty (Vintage). For
more information see Random House Publishers.
Ben writes regularly for a wide number of papers including Financial Times,
Guardian and Prospect. In the past has produced a number of radio programmes
on philosophy and appeared on many more. He gave a series of talks on
democracy and civic engagement in Argentina as a guest of the British Council.
Areas of expertise:
Political theory, liberalism, democracy and social justice. Citizenship and civic
renewal. Design, public services and public realm.
Guy Lodge
Research Fellow
Guy joined the democracy team in October 2004, having come from The
Constitution Unit, in The School of Public Policy, University College London.
Previously he worked in Parliament and has also worked for the Fabian Society.
He was educated at the London School of Economics (BSc Government & MSc
European Politics and Policy). Guy is an experienced media commentator and
has appeared in The Guardian, The New Statesman, The Observer Online, The
Scotsman, The Independent and other specialist publications.
Areas of expertise:
Democratic and civil renewal, the constitution and constitutional reform, and
Whitehall and local government.
Lucy Stone
Research Assistant
Lucy joined the democracy team having completed her MSc at Imperial College
– (her thesis was conducted in Zambia on community radio and community
participation in natural resource management). Before that she worked in the
Scottish Parliament and for an MP in Westminster. She has a degree in religion
and philosophy from Newcastle University.
Areas of expertise:
Participatory democracy, sustainable development, community justice.
Emily Kearney
Research Assistant
Emily joined the democracy team having been part of ippr’s digital society
team. Prior to this she worked as a conference organiser producing independent
business conferences. She has a Modern History degree from Oxford
University.
Areas of expertise:
e-government, public service communications, cultural policy, civil renewal.