The Guardian/ICM survey carried out in five EU countries makes worrying reading for anyone looking for a positive way forward.  (reported Monday 14th March) 

“Only 6% of people across Europe say they have a great deal of trust in their government, 46% say they have not very much and 32% none at all. Only 9% of Europeans think their politicians – in opposition or in power – act with honesty and integrity”, it concludes.

This publicly-voiced distrust of politicians is not new.  Yet there is still trust in representative democratic processes – used without question as a differentiating criterion between a bad “them” and a good ”us”, wherever that might be in the world. 

If you don’t trust the people you elect to act for you but believe in democratic values, what do you do?  The obvious response is to mobilise and get rid of the politicians you have now – less sophisticated and wise blogs than this one are full of rants along these lines.  

But given voter apathy has also been much commented on in recent years the picture is not so healthy when it comes to thinking through what will work democratically, not just in the UK but more broadly. 

An obvious counter here is the type of single issue campaign like Make Poverty History.  These seem to have a pattern of briefly sparking visible political interest, until something more distracting – like a YouTube clip of a cat with thumbs – becomes more compelling. There is nothing inherently wrong with short-term campaigns.  They show mobilization is possible, but they are not truly participative in the way sustainable change, which secures a sound public future, requires.

The TUC-fronted march on 26^th March is being built up as a literal rallying point for opposition to all the nonsense coming out of the Coalition.  It will work as such, but will it increase actual participation in constructing a sustainable future?

The hope has to be that those who voice their distrust of elected representatives get up and do something positive about it.  The hope has to be also that those who get active on 26^th March work out what a sustainable contribution to making life different looks like.  But what exactly?

You would expect Fontis to argue that greater expression of participative democracy is the missing ingredient.  Active partnerships at local level offer the best, maybe the only, means of strengthening state institutions and creating new communal entities which articulate and meet the needs of people in society. This has to be about more than just having an opinion or standing shoulder to shoulder at a one-off march.  It has to be about local active participation in the design and delivery of local services.

Time is pressing and although those running public organisations have had (and still have) plenty of distractions there is no more important issue on their agendas now, surely? This is where Fontis will continue to operate, brokering what needs to make change happen.