Our Localist, Tocquevillian Future?

Although it’s been overshadowed by the fiscal crisis, it remains the case that the closest thing the Conservatives have to a Big Idea is their twinned-commitments to a “Post-Bureaucratic Age” and a future in which local communities enjoy much greater control over their affairs. As Dave has put it, “There is such a thing as society, it’s just not the same as the state.”

Nonetheless, it must be admitted that it remains to be seen whether Tory talk on these matters is matched by real action should they form the next government. It’s easy to make good speeches and interesting promises in opposition; rather harder to translate that rhetoric into action once the government machine gets involved.

And let’s not get carried away by the rhetoric either. A degree of scepticism is sensible. In his Hugo Young Lecture Cameron talked repeatedly about the need for “strong and concerted government action” and that “we need to use the state to remake society”.