Using and developing power
Let’s use the framework of managed change at the initiation stage to see what sort of things we need to do to develop an alternative source of power that is capable of replacing exiting power structures.
- Political Activity and Mobilisation
- Ideas and Policy Formation
- Democratic Practice and Institutions
- Economic Change and Business Development
This section is all about what has to happen, I’ll get to some very specific proposals about how in Tactics
Political Activity and mobilisation
In order to get political activity moving and mobilise people activity needs to focus on three areas
- Developing the supportive culture
- Getting organised
- Walking the walk
Developing a supportive culture
Political work does not go on in a vacuum, the industrial revolution which created mass society and the industrial working class who mobilised through trade unions and created the Labour Party has gone.
To combat the divide and rule that follows from individualism and the hegemony of “there is no alternative” new approaches are needed to build solidarity and confidence. Although we are starting from scratch with the arguments the same technology that supports precarious ad hoc work can also be used to link people together. This can be the start for a change of the ruling paradigms in the current culture. We need to start creating the infrastructure within our culture (as a counter culture) that helps bring out, as new emergent properties, the behaviours we seek as civic virtues – collaboration, cooperation, the quest for good governance and commonwealth creation
This cultural infrastructure is needed to bring about the paradigm shift that unlocks change.
Get organised
An organisation will be needed but will not be a political party. It will be an association of like-minded people, it will be open to anyone who accepts the aims and values of holistic political economy. The reason it will not be a political party is that party politics is part of the problem and cross-party co-operation is a step towards the solution,
- Because the HoPE Association will be dedicated to persuasion rather than getting elected it will stick to its own framing of the critical issues and insist on the use of this framing in all debates with people who have yet to be convinced and the media
- It will be a campaigning organisation that mobilises people in support of things not in opposition to them. The politics we have now is the result of a long process that had to be fought for, it will be no different in the future, until the new ideas have enough support and rhetorical power to command a majority
- The association might choose to support independent candidates for election, this is a tactic which may have a place in breaking the strangle hold of the whips – I discuss this in Tactics - Organisation
This supports principle 3 – balancing ends and means
Walk the walk
The strategic choices on the use of power and personal behaviour mean that practitioners must walk the walk, not just talk the talk
- The use of power will be guided by the need to disperse it and use it with circumspection. It will deal with opposed power through the use of approaches designed to encourage reciprocal cooperation and the careful matching of ends and means
- The individual practitioner should strive to be a facilitator, guide or mentor. The the achievement of a position of power is an opportunity for reform by opening up decision making, decentralising or even abolishing the post acquired to do it.