I don’t know what Tory policy is on this, but certainly New Labour shows little interest in genuine democracy these days. This is not confined to treating self appointed Muslim community organisers and lawyers as if they were democratically elected representatives. What about the unelected regional assemblies being run at our expense and what about the recent attempt to force party approved voting lists onto us? And its liking for quangos packed with party supporters (interesting to see if the Tories continue this if they get into power).

“the fact that so many of the circulating elites and lines of power between this new quasi governance and the state are hidden, I thought silent state best described it.”

Maybe hedge funds and private equity investors should also come into this category – being vehicles for the savings of rich men and corporations only.

I said to Mr Ben a while back that the hedge funds – which I regard as the worst face of gangster capitalism – had become so embedded in our financial sector here and in the US, as a way for rich men and bankers to make money at our expense, that it would be hard to winkle them out.

The Medoff scandal has now shown the extent to which banks recklessly lent money to hedge funds to invest in his scam even if they did not invest directly. The entire financial sector seems to have been run as a giant scam to benefit rich men and bankers at the expense of the rest of us.

You might add to your list the kind of organization found in every major city which, while considered more “booster” than “intellectual” in reality consists, in the main, of major power players and highly educated professionals–mainly entrepreneur
businessmen and independent professionals who have the luxury of scheduling their own time: the “good government/progressive government” voluntary committees/associations with names like
“Third Century” (US) or “Leadership Louisville, etc.,” which heavily influence legislation in the City Councils, the mayor’s office and major city depts. and develop land use and town planning documents in conjunction with neighborhood associations (also dominated by the professional class and educated stay-at-home housewives of professionals with lots of free time) upon which City governments so often depend. These organizations are in one sense highly undemocratic and un-representational of the community at large,
who have neither the time nor the training, expertise and educational background to make meaningful input. Thus seen, these organizations are a powerful influential adjunct to representative government (as seen in City Councils, the Mayor’s office,etc) at best and a substitute of elected representatives responsive to the voters for unelected elites at their worst.

{If you wanted to see this sort of activity on steroids you should have come to New Orleans post-Katrina to watch the myriad
committees and neighborhood associations spring into action [or inaction as the case may be] as part of the Mayors formal “recovery” process. Plus “Urban Planners” the world over flocked in to make their “special” expertise available. When combined with State and Federal “planners” all putting their oars in, twas
a sight to behold…..)

PS: Don’t ask me how it all “worked out.” Got lots of time? Better lay in some provisions…..Don’t get me started.

I made it up on the spur of the moment. its interesting though that it does capture a changed stste modality.

I have allways been interested in civil society and civic institutions as providing a democratic glue.

In countries that I have worked,coming outof dictatoships, the ones that have become successful democracies seem to be those who have built a strong and self conscious civil society.

The problem with this formulation is that it does not catch the increasing arms length franchised out natue of the state, that both creates quasi autonomous non governmental organisations, or pseudo civil societies, as well as recruiting civil societies to be service providers and ‘partners’ for government.

I wanted to call it an estate that now exists as a pillar stronger and more differentiated than either the media or the Church.

But the fact that so many of the circulating elites and lines of power beetween this new quasi governance and the state are hidden, I thought silent state best described it.

This all happened automatically while writing and looking for a word, but thank you for pointing it out because it deserves more work.

When i think of it this ’silent state’ has spawned an entirely new elite class of policy interlocutors, who are a for pay activist/lobbyist/advisor/sevice provider.

The problem is that despite all the community rhetoric there is nothing remotely democratic about these ambitious young things career paths entering the established channels of power .

Who votes for these community organisers and to whom are they accountable.

Barak Obama may represent the highest elevation for a functionary of the silent state.

I should say that these silent staters do have a good experience of government as they get to shortcircuit the old apprenticeship model of politician.

Its just that the whole process of dialogue and partnership and advice and research and think tank and lobbyist erodes the very nature of democratic participatory politics.

Further billions of pounds or dollars of tax payers money are now dissapearing into the accountability black hole of the ’silent state’

This model of a ’silent state’ would actually give us a theoretical and empirical means to investigate the clearly worsening endemic nature of political patronage in modern society which is not random nepotism but highly structured preferrement.

Hmm…don’t mess with the French…or their language

They are your betters!

Say cheese!

Oh…to be ‘theist’ and ‘francophone’, and from Quebec province.

What a hoot!

Hmm…don’t mess with the French…or their language

They are your betters!

Say cheese!

Oh…to be ‘theist’ and ‘francophone’, and from Quebec province.

What a hoot!

I’m embarrassed. Strike “unappreciated” should have said “modern day” Cassandra; “unappreciated” is part of the very essence of the term Cassandra itself.

Excellent post as usual. You’re getting (are) good at this tour d’horizon bit–a cultivated art-form. I want to thank you for the “silent state” term–don’t think I’ve seen it before. A perfectly succinct description–wish I’d thought of that, as the old saying goes. I know I will use it often from now on.

I do think, however, that time and the course of events is not proving kind to many here who have often spoken so disparagingly and condescendingly towards “Mad Mel.” The odds of the unfolding of history proving Mel to be an unappreciated Cassandra on this subject grow more favorable with each passing day…..

Not mine they bloody don’t.