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Why Has the Concept of the Big Society Failed to Catch the Public's Imagination?

In: Social Issues

Submitted By speechyparrot
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Why has the concept of the ‘Big Society’ failed to catch the public’s imagination? The concept of the ‘Big Society’ was developed as the flagship policy of the Conservative Party as part of the 2010 election campaign, an initiative designed to transfer powers from local government to the people of the community. The Big Society encompasses everything from free schools and libraries, to supporting local sports groups and repairing vandalised or damaged public property. Despite being championed as “the most important and radical part of the coalition government’s agenda” (Bishop & Green, 2011:30), the response from the British public has been underwhelming to say the least. Indeed, in its first year, a mere 24 free schools (schools funded by the government, but ran by parents, teachers, companies, religious groups or voluntary groups) were approved and opened. Furthermore, an Ipsos MORI poll (2010a) found that 60% of the public felt that the government was responsible for improving public services and public areas, and that they shouldn’t be calling on the public to do so. Various reasons exist for the Big Society failing to capture the public’s imagination; quite simply, many people just do not understand what exactly the Big Society is. Considering the current economic climate, it is also safe to say that most people do not care about what the Big Society is, as they have more pressing issues such as feeding their families and affording their energy bill to deal with. Similarly, a large percentage of people believe the entire concept of the Big Society as a way for the government to cover up or lessen the blow of spending cuts—a sort of “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” situation. Finally, a lot of people are still disillusioned with the Conservative party (and now the Liberal Democrats following Nick Clegg’s U-turn on tuition

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