iDemocracy and the Big Society

Douglas Carswell is one of the most interesting Conservatives I know. His new book, The End of Politics and the Birth of iDemocracy, is very depressing to begin with but I’m assured gets more optimistic!

At the launch last night, one of the things he talked about was the digital dashboard that David Cameron has had installed on his ipad, enabling him to track individual departments’ progress in real time. I have written about this before, noting that it is not the Prime Minister’s job to do this in such detail and that it is his job to see the big picture. But my essential point was that the information he gets on it should be available to all of us (precisely the point Douglas made too).

The more I read of the book, the more convinced I am of this, and that eventually it will happen.

I recently wrote a long essay for someone else about the Big Society (which I’ll post once it’s been published there) and my big conclusion is that the expression of the Big Society (choice, control, contribution, responsibility) is inevitable, whether or not it’s actually called that.  I haven’t got there yet, but I suspect that the success of the Big Society is also one of Douglas’ conclusions though possibly expressed a little differently.

Related posts:

1. The ‘Big Society’ is dead, long live big society
2. Five things the Big Society Bank tells us about Big Society
3. Tax Freedom Day vs Society
4. Why daffodils represent the Big Society
5. Big Society: A desire for control, a need for engagement