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THE THEORIES, CONCEPTS AND
PRACTICES OF DEMOCRACY
Series Editors: J. Gagnon & M. Chou

RETHINKING CIVIC
PARTICIPATION IN
DEMOCRATIC THEORY
AND PRACTICE

Rod Dacombe
 The Theories, Concepts and Practices
of Democracy

Series Editors
Jean-Paul Gagnon
University of Canberra
Canberra, VIC, Australia

Mark Chou
Australian Catholic University
Fitzroy, VIC, Australia

“Supporters of more intensive forms of civic participation have always faced one big
challenge: their desired reforms could result in larger political inequality through
giving more voice to the most resource rich members of the community.
Dacombe’s book makes an important contribution to this debate. Through a
rich case study of a deprived community, he illuminates many of the existing
tensions between poverty and participation. The analysis provides an interesting
answer to the criticisms raised by minimalist democrats to participatory democracy,
without making an uncritical appraisal of the limits and problems that participation
in deprived settings has in real life.
The richness of the book theoretical dialogues and of the empirical materials
make it useful for several areas of research, from democratic innovations, to third
sector research and from local politics to research trying to understand the
structural explanations of participation”.

—Professor Joan Font, Instituto de Estudios Sociales Avancados, Spain

There are many types of democracies and many types of democrats.
Though contemporary Western scholars and practitioners of democracy
have tended to repeat a particular set of narratives and discourses, recent
research shows us that there are in fact hundreds of different adjectives of
democracy. What one theorist, political leader or nation invokes as
democracy, others may label as something altogether different. Part of this
has to do with the political nature of democracy. As a practice and concept,
it is always contested. Yet instead of exploring these differences and
ambiguities, many democrats today retreat to the well-worn definitions and
practices made popular by Western powers in the twentieth-century.
The aim of this book series is to engage and explore democracy’s many
articulations. It seeks contributions which critically define, analyse and
organise the many theories, concepts and practices that encompass
democracy in all its forms. Both theoretical and empirical treatments of
democracy, particularly when told from less conventional or more marginal
perspectives, are especially encouraged.

More information about this series at

http://www.springer.com/series/14410
 Rod Dacombe

Rethinking Civic
Participation
in Democratic Theory
and Practice
Rod Dacombe
King’s College London
London, UK

The Theories, Concepts and Practices of Democracy

ISBN 978-1-137-58824-1 ISBN 978-1-137-58825-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58825-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017943644

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

The Author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher,
whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation,
reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any
other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic
adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or
hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.

Cover illustration: Stanley Hare/Alamy Stock Photo

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
The registered company address is: The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW,
United Kingdom
For Em, Saul and Nate
 PREFACE

Blackbird Leys is a remarkable place in a city full of curiosities. Before the

1950s it did not exist at all. Instead, the site comprised approximately six
square miles of farmland and marshes deemed unsuitable for agriculture or
commercial use, which had passed into the hands of the local authorities
almost by accident. It was the steady industrialisation of Oxford from the
1930s that provided the impetus for the creation of an area of urban space,
reclaimed from this largely unused land on the edge of the city. Planners
recognising the need for housing for workers and families employed by the
Morris Motors plant, pressed steel works, and other industries to the east
of the city, found a solution that would also allow for the rehousing of
families from other areas of Oxford earmarked for redevelopment, and the
parcel of wasteland just a few miles from the centre of the city changed
dramatically as the first houses were built. Schools, shops and other facil-
ities grew up alongside the housing, and transport links to the centre of the
city slowly developed. So too did clubs and associations of all kinds. Local
residents organised sports teams to play those from neighbouring areas
of the city (the area’s gymnastics side, in particular, became hugely suc-
cessful), and a popular community festival was held most summers. In
many ways, the area seemed to have quickly developed the kind of civic
infrastructure one would expect in a more established community.
From these quiet beginnings, the decline of Blackbird Leys, if the papers
are to be believed, happened quickly. As heavy industry in the area declined,
unemployment and poverty rose, and the density of housing, coupled with a

vii
viii PREFACE

large cohort of teenagers, contributed to a series of high-profile social

problems, culminating in a brief epidemic of joyriding in the early 1990s
which gained the area national notoriety. People who know Blackbird Leys
well understand that its reputation as something of a sink estate had
developed long before this. The architectural design of the housing in the
area, and its role as a working class suburb, led to a number of generalisa-
tions which (however unfair) can be easily found in existing writing about
Oxford. As one might expect, the area is rather more complex than this, and
life in the estate is far too nuanced to be captured in such a way.
It was this kind of insight that made the area such an appealing case for
the exploration of participatory democracy in practice. Participatory
democrats place a premium on the widespread engagement in the political
life of an informed and thoughtful citizenry. Conventional views of
democracy in deprived areas tend to suggest that their residents rarely, if
ever, approach politics in this way, creating obvious problems for partici-
patory theorists. But most of these kinds of studies (and indeed, many
theoretical insights) are large-scale, abstract analyses. Reconnecting the
assumptions generated by this body of work with the reality of democracy
as it is experienced in deprived areas, therefore, seemed like an empirical
and theoretical imperative.
I caught the democracy bug at a relatively young age, and have always
viewed it as a lived experience, rather than simply a means of organising
public decision-making. Since my time as an undergraduate student, my
family have lived not far from Old Sarum, an old Norman settlement in the
South of England celebrated as a Rotten Borough.1 The idea that there
had been a pretence of democracy in an area with no social infrastructure
whatsoever prompted my curiosity about the nature of democratic life in
areas where the prominent assumptions in the literature pointed to only
minimal civic engagement. Put another way, I simply could not believe that
civic participation in places like Blackbird Leys could be as limited and
ineffectual as the theorists I had read suggested.
Investigating these issues led me into common territory for political
scientists. As many readers will know, there is a vast literature which
investigates the relationship between social and economic inequalities and
the likelihood of political participation. This work has made some major

1
In fact, it is one of the Rotten Boroughs defended by George Canning in the
speech I discuss in the next chapter.
 PREFACE ix

contributions to our knowledge of the possibilities and the limits of

democracy and has shed light on the ways in which the underlying
inequalities in society are reflected in political life. But there are analytical
difficulties in understanding the mechanisms through which these different
factors take effect, leading to a number of competing, and sometimes
contradictory, theoretical positions, but no clear understanding. I was
interested in extending this work by considering the ways in which civic
participation worked through a detailed examination of a deprived area.
Relatively few recent studies in political science had taken this approach
and I felt that adopting an empirical design which contrasted with much
of the existing work would allow for new insights to be shed on what is a
complex theoretical problem.
Of course, in other disciplines, the importance of local social conditions
has long been investigated in this way, and the abundance of community
studies in sociology in particular, draws on a long tradition of case studies
of deprived areas. Other disciplines, too, can provide insights into the
nature of poverty and its effects, and I have unashamedly taken cues from
works in social policy, sociology, history and urban studies in order to make
a contribution to existing knowledge in political science. It is important to
note, however, that this book is not an attempt to replicate any of these
traditions. The problems faced by the proponents of participatory demo-
crats today play out in a distinct environment marked by a growing distrust
of public institutions, a concentration of power amongst the most privi-
leged groups in society, and an increasingly complex and specialised polity,
and new ways of understanding these problems are needed if they are to be
resolved.
The empirical aspects of the work were influenced by William Julius
Wilson’s (1987) work on urban poverty, and in particular, his identification
of structural, ‘neighbourhood effects’ as important in determining varia-
tions in the nature of poverty and its effects, and in providing a corrective to
some of the behavioural explanations for low levels of participation which
relied on old stereotypes of the feckless poor. Equally important were the
‘classic’ studies of local politics which emerged in British political science
around the 1970s. These had played an important role in refocusing
scholarly attention on the importance of local democracy at a time when
theoretical accounts of participatory democracy were experiencing a
revival.
This book draws on these traditions to make an argument about the
interplay between democratic ideas and civic life in one locality. In it, I try
x PREFACE

to provide a realistic account of participation and democracy on the estate,

and in doing so strive to find answers to some of the more pressing
problems concerning scholars interested in democratic theory and practice.
Fundamentally, however, this book is about the residents of Blackbird
Leys, both past and present. By connecting their experiences with the
assumptions held by many democratic theorists, I hope I have presented a
case for reconsidering the ways in which we think democracy works, and in
particular, a timely reminder of what we do when we abstract political ideas
too far from everyday life.

London, UK Rod Dacombe

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book would not have been written without the support of a great
many people. The intellectual impetus for this book has been generated by
my time working in the Department of Political Economy, King’s College,
London. The argument I pursue here was shaped through numerous
discussions with both colleagues and students, and I am particularly
grateful for the challenging and searching questions asked by the under-
graduates taking my final year module, ‘Democracy and its Critics’.
Additionally, a number of colleagues in KCL and elsewhere have been kind
enough to read and comment on parts of the book in draft form, and I owe
a great debt to Adam Tebble, Adrian Blau, Mark Pennington and David
Skarbek, as well as Maria Mancilla Garcia, Jonathan Davies, Colin Crouch
and Sonia Exley. Everyone at Stn. 22 provided distraction in the right
amounts and particular thanks need to go to Kelly Talbot, who over coffee
and biscuits became instrumental in guiding the direction of my analysis
and who told me the correct way to spell ‘Top Shop’.
Jean-Paul Gagnon and Mark Chou, the editors of this book series, have
been hugely helpful, as have Palgrave Macmillan, and in particular my
editor, Imogen Gordon Clark, who was a source of calm guidance
throughout the final stages. Patient reading, editorial discipline and moral
support were also provided by my wife, Emma, and my two boys, Saul and
Nate (who both remain unconvinced that democracy is a suitable topic for
a book).
The original period of research underpinning this book was supported
by an Early Career Fellowship, provided by the Leverhulme Trust (award

xi
xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

number ECF/2010/0393), to whom I am extremely grateful. Practical

assistance was provided by staff working at Blackbird Leys Library, the
Oxfordshire History Centre, and the archives and records team at Oxford
City Council. Oxfordshire Community and Voluntary Action have also
been indispensable in providing access to information and data which
would otherwise have been unavailable and made for a far more complete
book.
Finally, I owe a huge debt to the residents of Blackbird Leys who have
taken the time to help me with this book. Although ultimately, the stories
of participation and civic life discussed here belong to them, any inaccu-
racies in the telling are mine alone.
 CONTENTS

1 The Problem with Civic Participation 1

2 Participation and Democracy in Theory and Practice 21

3 Participation, Democracy and Neighbourhood Poverty 47

4 Participation in Real-World Settings 73

5 Democratic Participation in Blackbird Leys 97

6 Community Structure, Participation and Social

Organisation 121

7 Participation and Social Isolation 145

8 Responding to Democracy’s Critics 169

Appendix: Researching Blackbird Leys 191

Bibliography 201

Index 209

xiii
 LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 4.1 Oxford ward boundaries map 76

Fig. 4.2 Oxford Corporation map (including sewage works) Circa 1930 78
Fig. 4.3 Outline plan for the Blackbird Leys Estate by Oxford City
Architect and Planning Officer, 28th February 1957 81
Fig. 4.4 Plan of Blackbird Leys today 82
Fig. 4.5 The legacy of the riots—media reporting Blackbird Leys from
the early-1990s and the present day 85
Fig. 4.6 IMD map of Oxford 92
Fig. 5.1 Oxford electoral boundary map 105
Fig. 5.2 City Council Election Turnout (1973–2016): Blackbird Leys,
Littlemore and Oxford 108
Fig. 5.3 ‘The Girls are Game: Are You?’ 116

xv
 CHAPTER 1

The Problem with Civic Participation

INTRODUCTION
This is a book about democracy, and the arguments which go on over its
meaning and efficacy. An idea often invoked but little understood,
democracy has passed into the everyday vocabulary of modern life,
reaching beyond the sphere of formal politics into areas as diverse as
education, work and family life.1 Fundamentally, most discussion of
democracy holds it as a ‘good thing’, which is to be pursued with vigour.
Democracy is held as an essential element of the good life, of modernity,
which developed societies can display as proof of their success, even as
justification for war against those who do not share these ideals. And so it
seems remarkable that there are those who would argue against its value as
an idea, and as a means of organising society, yet an extensive body of
literature has developed which raises a number of serious objections to
many of the established features of democratic thought. It is the critics of
democracy who provide the starting point for this book, and to whom this
account of the civic lives of the residents of Blackbird Leys is addressed.
The analysis of democracy provides a perennial occupation for political
scientists of all flavours—the questions it raises strike at the very heart of the
kind of scholarship preferred by academics and researchers since Harold
Lasswell (1958) famously declared that political scholarship involved the

1
See Gagnon (2013) for an account of the complexities in understanding the term
and its meaning.

© The Author(s) 2018 1

R. Dacombe, Rethinking Civic Participation in Democratic Theory
and Practice, The Theories, Concepts and Practices of Democracy,
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58825-8_1
2 R. DACOMBE

study of ‘who gets what, when, how’. And almost as soon as scholars
started to develop a coherent programme for the study of democracy, a
strong tradition began which took as its starting point the idea that a
society organised by democratic means would be ‘chaotic, arbitrary,
meaningless and impossible’ (Mackie 2003: 2). The problem with
democracy, it is claimed, comes from a number of basic flaws in the
democratic process, which tend to fall into two related themes. The first set
of problems stem from the claim that democratic decision-making is
ineffective and, in the most extreme cases, entirely undesirable due to the
inability of democratic systems to provide reasonable and accurate aggre-
gations of the desires of their citizens. The second series of critiques is
focused more specifically on participatory and deliberative understandings
of democracy, and suggests that both in theory and practice, these do not
provide the outcomes their proponents desire.
This kind of analysis often goes on quite unnoticed by the practitioners,
activists and citizens who are actively engaged in the democratic processes
that are studied. In fact, those actually involved in the business of
democracy tend to take a rather different view of its value (Klingemann
1999). And yet the questions that are raised by democracy’s critics are very
real and of high practical significance. In the UK, there can be little doubt
that democracy is in crisis, with the erosion of interest and confidence in its
institutions fast becoming a cause for serious concern. Voter turnout has
declined steadily, reaching disastrous levels at the turn of the century, and
amongst some of the most deprived social groups the picture is bleaker still.
Modern democratic life seems to reflect Carole Pateman’s insight, that ‘the
outstanding characteristic of most citizens, more especially those in the
lower socio-economic status (SES) groups, is a general lack of interest in
politics and political activity’ (Pateman 1970: 3).
It is small wonder, then, that the debates around the proper place of
democracy in political thought generate some of the most pressing ques-
tions addressed by scholars today. While some of the most interesting
insights developed over recent years have come from political scientists
whose areas of work might broadly be understood as ‘theoretical’, in this
book I will argue that democratic life, and in particular, the place of civic
participation2 within contemporary understandings of democracy, also

2
There are many ways in which civic and democratic participation are understood.
Many writers have found it analytically necessary to restrict participation in
 1 THE PROBLEM WITH CIVIC PARTICIPATION 3

needs exploring through empirical research, and that new methods of

inquiry need to be developed to meet the challenges which exist in theo-
retical accounts. A failure to properly explore the implications of demo-
cratic theory in an applied setting leaves the idea of democracy somewhat
disconnected from its application by activists and citizens.
Abstractions of the theory of democracy from its practice can be flawed
in two areas. First, by focusing arguments and counter-arguments on the
claims of other scholars, there is a danger that political scientists end up
talking to each other, rather than extending their ideas and influence more
broadly in society. Second, by separating the discussion of democratic
practice from its original meaning and context, it is possible to miss some of
the richest and most thought-provoking elements of civic life. This point is
of vital importance. Too often, democratic theorists attempt to isolate
democracy from its surroundings. One of the main themes explored in this
book is that, in fact, democratic life is deeply embedded in its social con-
text, and the success of democracy is closely tied up with the environment
in which it is set. The research underpinning this book aims to remedy both
these flaws in the existing work, by extending the debates of political
theory into the world of practice, and also by focusing on the unique
conditions of civic participation in one neighbourhood, in order to chal-
lenge some of the assumptions of the more prominent elements of
democratic theory.

democracy to the act of voting. In contrast, participatory democrats include a wide

range of other ‘civic’ activities. Some of these are formal, such as organised protests,
signing a petition or writing to an elected representative. Others, such as partici-
pation in voluntary associations, are less obviously connected to the formal struc-
tures of democracy but are nonetheless still important. Equally, there are a range of
views over the setting of democracy; Carole Pateman (1970) identifies the necessity
of democracy in the workplace, Baldwin (1955) broke new ground by applying the
principles of democracy to the family. As will become clear, in this book I take a
broad approach to understanding both civic and democratic forms of participation
—indeed, one of the arguments I make is that it is difficult to fully appreciate the
relationship between poverty and democracy without understanding participation
in this way.
4 R. DACOMBE

DEMOCRACY’S CRITICS
It seems remarkable to the casual observer that anyone would argue against
democracy. However, history is littered with those who have spoken out
against the introduction, and extension, of many of the democratic ideals
readers living in Western liberal democracies will take for granted. In 1820
the Tory MP George Canning, later to become Prime Minister, made a
famous speech arguing against the extension of the franchise and the
abolition of the Rotten Boroughs, which seems indefensible now but was
in its time an expression of the views of many in power. Stability was
Canning’s key concern, and he suggested that the ‘[democratic] impulse,
once given, may be too impetuous to be controlled; and, intending only to
change the guidance of the machine, […] may hurry it […] to irretrievable
destruction’ (Therry 1895). This clash between democracy and stability
forms a core element of much of the literature against participation.
These concerns have merit, and democracy can be a fragile thing. In
1942 there were only eleven functioning democracies left on the face of the
planet. From the late 1930s, the twin forces of fascism and communism
combined to strangle the life out of democracy as a legitimate form of
social and political organisation, almost eradicating the idea entirely (Keane
2009). As Gerry Mackie (2003) notes, these developments alerted political
scientists to the very real dangers presented by unstable democratic sys-
tems. Even with the defeat of fascism at the end of the Second World War,
the eventual democratisation of Spain and Portugal in the 1970s, and the
fall of Communism over a tumultuous three-year period starting at the end
of the 1980s, these concerns persist.
The collapse of democracy in the 1930s had been nothing short of
spectacular. Until the early part of the twentieth century the democratic
state was widely believed to be in a position of strength, with a sustained
demand for greater participation in the industrialised West accompanied by
a dramatic rate of industrial and social change. Importantly, these devel-
opments were largely divorced from violence (at least on the part of the
advocates of democracy) and their objective (in many cases seemingly
achieved) was a stable, democratic system of government, rather than
revolution and social upheaval. The cost, to nations and their citizens, of
the fall of democracy in the 1930s will never be truly established, but taken
in the context of what came before, the shock to contemporary writers
must have been astonishing.
 1 THE PROBLEM WITH CIVIC PARTICIPATION 5

It is no surprise, therefore, that perhaps the most influential democratic

theorist of the modern era, Joseph Schumpeter, takes stability as one of the
primary concerns addressed in his work. His classic Capitalism, Socialism
and Democracy (1942), outlines a theory of democracy that explicitly
excludes forms of democratic organisation based on widespread civic par-
ticipation on the basis that they are both impractical and unstable. For
Schumpeter, one of the most serious problems with ‘classical’ theories of
democracy3 stems from their reliance on a model of citizen participation
which he saw as unrealistic, and unlikely to be implemented in any practical
form, due to the tendencies of citizens to remain uninformed and unin-
terested in political affairs (as Iris Marion Young (2000: 16) memorably
suggested, most people ‘would rather watch television, read poetry, or
make love’). In reaction to this, Schumpeter is very clear in outlining an
alternative understanding of what he describes as the ‘democratic method’.
This is the ‘institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions by
making the people itself decide issues through the election of individuals
who are to assemble in order to carry out its will’ (Schumpeter 1942: 250).
In this case, it is ‘the competitive struggle for the people’s vote’ (p. 269)
which defines the democratic process, and the focus of democracy is on the
small group of leaders who compete for the votes of the electorate.
Fundamentally, Schumpeter’s democracy is an elitist model, trading off
broad-based participation for stability and simplicity. It is of little impor-
tance that ‘the typical citizen drops down to a lower level of mental per-
formance as soon as he enters the political field’ (Schumpeter 1942: 262).
Rather, politics should be the occupation of the few, namely, those with the
ability to take on the role of elected leaders. This role demands a certain
level of skill and commitment but also commands autonomy. Schumpeter
invokes Edmund Burke to suggest that, outside of formal elections, the
electorate should not involve themselves in the activities of politicians—
that they should accept, in his words, the ‘division of labour’ (Schumpeter
1942: 295) between themselves and the political class. If the cacophony of
voices that make up the electorate were heard throughout the democratic
process, decisions would be made in deference to a fickle and unruly mob.
Schumpeter’s work was, and is, hugely influential, and elements of his
thinking have come to dominate more recent democratic theory. John
Dryzek (2000) suggests that thinkers in this tradition favour a form of

3
For a detailed critique of Schumpeter’s assumptions here, see Pateman (1970).
6 R. DACOMBE

minimal democracy, where the problems of participation are avoided by

focusing primarily on regular elections to hold elected politicians to
account, with a market-like process where candidates compete for votes
replacing some of the more troublesome elements of democratic life. The
basic premise of conceptions of democracy like this is that any attempt to
identify a common will, which might be developed through extensive
participation in democracy, is, in the words of William Riker, one of the
most successful minimal democrats, ‘inconsistent and absurd’ (Riker 1982:
241). The consequent dangers of reaching towards high levels of partici-
pation are clear in the literature. Robert Dahl (1956) suggests that high
levels of democratic participation amongst lower socio-economic groups
are likely to lead to authoritarian (and therefore, anti-democratic) out-
comes. Others echo this point, suggesting that totalitarianism of the kind
experienced in the period leading to the Second World War is strongly
associated with a politically mobilised working class.4
Conceptions of democracy like this have deep roots. Plato’s Republic
was based on a notion of democratic participation that was emphatically
elitist, and somewhat honorific. Participation in the demos was restricted to
a small number of ‘great men’, excluding women, children, slaves, the idle
rich and those who did not own sufficient property.5 The ruling class was
instead to be composed of those who had demonstrated their worthiness
on the field of battle, or through years of dedicated study. In this way,
political responsibility was bestowed on those who were best suited to this
kind of work, celebrating their achievements and rewarding their ability.
The restrictions on participation here underline Plato’s belief that wide-
spread popular participation in democracy would be disastrous, scorning
the idea as a ‘theatrocracy’, which provides ‘the starting point of everyone’s
conviction that he was an authority on everything’ (Plato 2005: 1389).
This reliance on the wisdom of the few is echoed throughout the most
celebrated writing on democracy. James Madison (2000), in the Federalist
Papers, thought that the will of the people ‘pronounced by the represen-
tatives of the people, will be more consonant to the public good than if

4
See, for example, Sartori (1987).
5
In practice, of course, popular participation in Athenian democracy fluctuated
wildly during the period of Athenian dominance in the fourth and fifth centuries.
Plato’s ideas on democracy were by no means widely accepted or put into practice
by his contemporaries.
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