State, Market and Civil Society — Different Spheres and Different Values
Leicestershire County Council is currently consulting about their plans to slash the budgets of libraries, museums, adult education and creative services. The principles and strategy officalis and politicians propose are set out in a consultation document, which puts working with ‘partners’ to the fore — actually code for leaving other people to do things for themselves, as much as actual partnership.
In advocating ‘partnership’ — between the council and citizens, the council and communities, the council and other organisations — the Council assumes that in all sectors, people and organisations value the same ends and means. They do not. Approaches to needs and wants, and to power and value, differ profoundly.
Organisations within the market or state or civil society differ in the relationship they seek with those who ‘use’ their services. In the ‘market’ relationships are based on exchange, on buying and selling. For local and national government, the relationship with citizens is based upon us voting and them telling us what to do—on voting and telling. However, for communities and civil society the essence of relationships is quite different—giving and sharing.
The market stresses competition; the state accountability. But in the charity sector need and generosity rule. In the market people value above all ‘profit’ — the difference between income and costs—the necessary condition of being able to generate returns for owners and investors. In the state sphere the preoccupation is above all with ‘cost’. But at its heart civil society emphasises neither profit nor cost, but benefit.
The differences are embodied in the very word ‘consultation’. The Council, in the sphere of the state, consults and then itself decides for us. In the market firms do research—’market and marketing research’—and then decide what to do ‘for themselves’. But here in civil society, at our best, we ‘collaborate’. We together explore and understand needs and contexts. We develop together views about the past, present and future. We dream, decide and act together, for each other.
