Experimental Governance and the Big Society

Abstract

This working paper explores some of the issues of democratic and normative legitimacy raised by the proposals to devolve power to local decision-makers as part of the ‘Big Society’ agenda. The paper examines the similarities between the Big Society proposals and democratic experimentalism, with which they share many characteristics. It considers how the advocates and critics of democratic experimentalism have addressed the question of how to legitimise the vesting of power in decentralised and disaggregated decision-making units. It asks whether this literature has any implications for the ‘Big Society’ project. It concludes that there are significant difficulties with the Big Society plan in its current form.