Reclaim the state
by Noel Rooney
[ bookreviews ]
Participatory democracy has always been the dream of grassroots activists. It seems sensible to the point of natural that people should have a say in how their lives are governed and arranged. Sensible, that is, for all of us who are not part of a power elite, or encumbered with an antideluvian idea of society as a machine only the experts can fix.
Wainwright, an honest and approachable journalist who has spent a lot of time with grassroots activists, has focused on four situations, to show how people can influence the decisions made on their behalf by the great and the good, and even re-shape the context of those decisions and processes to make them more democratic. The successes of these people, and the solidarity they show, is quietly inspirational; and Wainwright puts their actions in a larger context of a struggle against intransigent authorities and a global agenda which does not have majority interests at heart or wallet.
The book opens with a perspicuous analysis of current power structures and the rationale behind them. The description of British government attitudes, and the dinosaurs who mandate public policy, is particularly apt, and should be required reading for any person with an ambition to govern. The clash of corporate interests and old-fashioned social mechanics has a great deal to do with the parlous inefficiency of public service provision in this country, and Wainwright maps it out patiently and accurately.
Whether the types of community action reported here, or the context of their struggle, is new, is I think arguable. Throughout history, the oppressed have occasionally woken up to the possibility of direct action; and while this has often been in the form of violent protest or rebellion, it has often enough meant a talking cure for perceived ills and injustices, negotiating a space for themselves with the powerful. I am not sure I read anything which distinguished the people in Wainwright's book from that larger, marginal historical picture.
Likewise, whether people are reclaiming anything is moot. There is no golden past of participation, at least not in recorded human history. The novelty of form here arises from the perceived novelty of the geo-political context; globalisation, and its unctuously disreputable political face, has changed the way the élite do business, and perhaps homogenised us in opposition - a global democracy movement to combat a global oppression.
You may or may not subscribe to the reality of globalisation (and most people do), and you may or may not subscribe to the notion that, for all its imperfections, liberal democracy is the best way forward for world politics (Wainwright appears to); even if you don't, there is much value in this book and its accounts of real people becoming actors in the social and political fabric of their own lives. Whether it sets out an agenda for future political action on a larger and more widespread scale, or is simply a supportive and optimistic narrative of islands of invigorating action in a sea of passive humanity, Reclaim the State is an enthralling study of people waking up to the idea that they can have an effect on their own lives, and they can engage with the powerful in a meaningful and productive way.
