Special issue: Mutualism: social democratic policy in an age of austerity. Policy Network, 2010 (UK).

URL = http://www.policy-network.net/content.aspx?CategoryID=375&ArticleID=3454&fp=1

Introduction

"The Conservatives, with their rhetoric of the “big society”, seem to have displaced Labour as the “party of ideas". Their emphasis on empowering communities and decentralising power arguably reflects a cooption of traditional social democratic language and an encroachment on the ideological terrain of the centre-left.

Many see mutualism as the Left’s answer to the “big society”. However, our definition of mutualism remains unclear and the means to achieve its goals intangible. On the one hand, it may refer to an alternative form of economic organisation – common ownership – in which companies are owned as mutuals in order to give employees a greater stake in the organisations for which they work and to ensure a fairer division of the proceeds: the ‘John Lewis’ model. Or, on the other hand, it may be understood as social mutualism, a form of public service reform in which providers and users of public services acquire greater control over the running of those services, and where government-provided services may be supplemented (or supplanted) by local citizens’ groups. The latter, however, raises questions of equality similar to those posed by localism: how can equal access to and quality of services be maintained nationally?

The challenge for Labour is to develop a clear vision of what mutualism means for the Left and how it can be used to drive forward the social democratic project. In this series, prominent thinkers, politicians and strategists will reflect on mutualism's relationship to social democratic values and aim to generate concrete policy solutions to give Labour the tools to constructively challenge the "big society"."

Mutualism as Policy

Introduction

Contents

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