Ah, the magic of elections. Nationally and locally elections and voting more generally seem be seen as THE essential component in creating a new connection between the public and the State.  Think elected mayors.  Think elected Boards in the NHS (maybe, in whatever (re)-structure emerges from the warm ashes of the last one).  

But elections, and even voting itself, especially at local level, are in danger of reinforcing a negative, arms-length model of democratic engagement. It plays in some ways in the UK today as a power to instruct and remove, not an enabling, active power. Elected mayors or Board members are assumed to have a sinew linking them directly to local people. "Either he (almost inevitably a he) gets stuff done or we sack him". It also plays to a simplistic, lobbyist take on engagement. "Either he does what we want on this issue or he has to go".  Ability to sack has replaced desire to trust.

I exaggerate for effect but an unsubtle focus on populist performance and hangman accountability does us no good.  It tends to give a false sense of ownership to the public and to nurture a short-termist focus for the elected individual and  by the media.  

How much more powerful and positive is active citizenship and continuing participation, by contrast? Local engagement, smart, multi-channel engagement done with conviction, remains for me the basis for sustained social progress - a joint agenda for elected, non-elected and electors alike, a common driver for improvement, especially at a time of potentially bone-headed "more for less" in public services.

The challenge it presents to all concerned, not least to worn-down citizens used to either passive non-engagement or active single-issue campaigning, is not to be underestimated. Crucially it does not depend on the patronage of the political system alone but I guess having the Big Society as a policy driver can but help. (But spare us the mythical imagery of rural idyll or any attempt to dress Big Society up as the missing link to a radical tradition.  Please.)

The shift to powerful public engagement does though depend in part on insight and support from public institutions.  Now as they face truly knotty dilemmas and problems, without the ballast of upward spiral income, leaders of these organisations can surely wait no longer to embrace all the benefits of active, continuing participation in a serious way, rather than relying on a purely or largely election-based model. 

Fontis is here to help the elected, the unelected, the elector and even the unelectable!  The prize is huge and the time is right.