George Moyser

Local politics and participation in Britain and France

List of figures and tables Preface Part I. Scope and Context: 1. People and local politics: themes and concepts Albert Mabileau, George Moyser, Geraint Parry and Patrick Quantin 2. Local government in Britain and local politics and administration in France Albert Mabileau Part II. Participation: Introduction 3. Participation and non-participation in a French town Patrick Quantin Conclusion Part III. Political Mobilisation: Introduction 5. Political mobilisation in France: a study of local protest Philippe Garraud 6. Local political mobilisation: a case study of a Welsh community David Cleaver Conclusion Part IV. Local Elites, Groups and Citizens: Introduction 7. Councillors, issue agendas and political action in two French towns Richard Balme 8. Councillors, citizens and agendas: aspects of local decision-making in Britain George Moyser and Geraint Parry Conclusion Part V. Community or Locality?: Introduction 9. Community, locality and political action: two British case studies compared George Moyser and Geraint Parry 10. In search of community spirit Patrick Quantin Conclusion Part VI. Conclusions: 11. Participation and the local polity in France and Britain Albert Mabileau, George Moyser, Geraint Parry and Patrick Quantin Bibliography Index.

Political participation and democracy in Britain: Party and values

The previous chapter looked at very broad orientations towards the political system and the degree of confidence people had in their capacity to take effective action within it. Such action is very often prompted by quite specific issues and problems which people face. The context of issues within which people participated will be the subject of chapter 11. But, occupying an intermediate position between the broadest of perceptions of the political process and the recognition of immediate issues are a number of outlooks by means of which individuals place themselves in the political spectrum. Amongst the most central of these outlooks in the modern political world tends to be the stance people take towards the political parties which play such a significant role in aggregating values. Closely linked to this sense of identification with political parties are the alignments of people on those issues which have traditionally distinguished the political left from the political right. Since the 1960s, however, new sets of issues have emerged with steadily increasing prominence which do not readily fit into the old dichotomy between left and right based, as it mainly is, on material issues. Amongst the issues of this ‘new politics’ are the environment, nuclear weapons and their potential threat to world peace and survival, and the status of women in a male-dominated society. The very emergence of these new issues carries with it some implication that old modes of participation have not handled them adequately.

Voices and Signals — Active Citizens and the Market-Place

In democratic Athens it was the practice to use a vermilion-smeared rope to drive citizens from the market-place (the agora) to the assembly on the pnyx.1 Thus it would seem that Athenians fell somewhat short of Rousseau’s ideal that men would ‘fly to the assembly’ and that, even in this most politicised of communities, they were inclined to stay around in the market, trading for their own advantage. This reluctance to use one’s political voice may, perhaps, be reflected in the ambivalent relationship between states and markets which has run through political thought. What is it that people can do or that they prefer to do through politics which they cannot do through the market?