ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the process of constructing policy is explored in more depth. When a new government takes office, it needs to present itself as distinctive and essentially different from what has gone before. For the Conservative-led coalition of 2010, this involved constructing a narrative whereby the ‘Big Society’ would address the social and economic ills brought about by the ‘big government’ of the previous New Labour administration. At the same time, the Conservative Party needed to reconstruct itself as the party of the working classes rather than exclusively the party of the rich. It was to this end that David Cameron, even before he became prime minister, and other proponents of the Big Society such as Phillip Blond and Jesse Norman looked to a more ‘compassionate conservatism’, one that would disassociate itself from the harshness of Thatcherism and accusations of being the ‘nasty party’ (White and Perkins, 2002). By repositioning the state in relation to civil society and the market, the overall aim was to replace state power with people power and bureaucracy with democracy. In order to achieve this, the narrative of the Big Society had to prove itself historically and politically grounded, and resonate with the everyday experiences of those it sought to win over.
