Posted on April 19th, 2011 by Ellie Brodie in Archived related news
Tagged as: Big Society
1 Comment
ShareThisLast month I read and reviewed The Big Society: the Anatomy of the New Politics by Jesse Norman - one of the intellectual architects of the Big Society and MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire. In The Big Society, Norman sets out the ideas that underpin the ‘new’ or ‘compassionate’ Conservatism and explains that the Big Society is the political programme that stems from these ideas. If you don’t have the time to read the book yourself, I’ve summarised the main arguments and provided a brief critique in the latest bulletin from the Association for Research in the Voluntary and Community Sector (ARVAC) which can be accessed here - arvacbulletin114 - or downloaded from the ARVAC website (www.arvac.org.uk).
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Probably worth noting that Norman produced this book independently of the Conservative Party - i.e. no-one asked him to write it. His status as a leading thinker on the subject within their ranks is largely therefore self-generated.
This isn’t to diminish his contribution. There’s an RSA podcast on the BS from late last year with him on the panel where he makes a very compelling argument, delving into much of the historical context of Conservative-Liberalism he covers in the book. Really interesting - by far the most useful academic analysis of BS I’ve read to date.
For me the really telling issue is that Cameron hasn’t picked up on this and used Norman more in promoting the BS. Maybe because he comes from quite an intellectual perspective, but certainly a much more heavyweight contribution than made by the likes of Nat Wei et al so far.