The Big Society - For Dummies

4 Minute Film from Big Society on Vimeo.

Here is The Big Society, flagship policy idea of the 2010 UK Conservative Party election manifesto.

The aim is "to create a climate that empowers local people and communities, building a big society that will 'take power away from politicians and give it to people'" by encouraging charities, volunteering, social enterprises. Prime Minister David Cameron, is trying to make UK citizens ask themselves this kind of questions, "how can I do more, other than paying taxes and obeying the law, in order to make my country stronger and better place?".

Well, I have to say from a theoretical point of view it sounds pretty solid but in the real world things seem to get significantly complicated.

In my opinion, it is not so much about involving people to do the jobs covering for inevitable cuts in public services made by the Government, the great difficulty will rely on changing the mindset of 62 million of Britons. Especially in European countries where we take welfare programs for granted, and many times claiming these to be more generous every year regardless of the socio-economic environment. Evidently, this affects the transition creating a desynchronization in which the State is already cutting expanses in public services and where The Big Society is still too young and innocent to take the steering wheel. Useless to say this is causing more inequalities amongst the poor and the rich.
However, I find important to keep in mind that the Big Society is also valid even if increasing public expenditure since the goal will always remain the same: more empowerment, freedom, responsibility and control for communities allowing the Government to focus on other non accessible aspects of our society.

The Big Society is a Governmental initiative and so unfortunately these are never well perceived by the populace. Trying to tackle this issue, the conservatives are structuring a whole platform called StartUp Britain, in order to get new businesses going as well as a better social entrepreneurial friendly environment.

Here's my way of seeing this, I don't think anyone could tell if this is the solution right now but what I do know is that in UK there is will for change and when there's a will...