Big Society
The coalition government has launched its flagship Big Society programme, with the aim of empowering local people and communities, and building a Big Society that takes power away from politicians and gives it to people.
Organisations and individuals may either like it or loathe it, or may wait to see what happens. Even so, the Big Society idea is being rolled out and hardly a day goes by without some new dimension being unveiled.
What is the Big Society?
The programme has five main parts:
- Give communities more powers
- Encourage people to take an active role in their communities
- Transfer power from central to local government
- Support co-ops, mutuals, charities and social enterprises
- Publish government data
Prime Minister David Cameron said:
"Today is the start of a deep and serious reform agenda to take power away from politicians and give it to people.
That's because we know instinctively that the state is often too inhuman, monolithic and clumsy to tackle our deepest social problems. We know that the best ideas come from the ground up, not the top down. We know that when you give people and communities more power over their lives, more power to come together and work together to make life better - great things happen."