ABSTRACT
How is this related to the other reforms reviewed, and to the voluntary sector at the local level? An emphasis on democratic participation via the medium of voluntary associations could theoretically have evolved through local Compact negotiation processes. However, we have seen that Compact adoption has been very limited thus far, and in those cases where they have been adopted, it is not clear that this has been a priority. What of the other components of the new horizontal architecture surveyed earlier in this chapter? The encouragement of community group participation as part of the ‘joined-up’ agenda for addressing social exclusion has been limited to those geographical areas benefiting from areabased programmes, and has essentially acted as a means to the end of improving local services and environments. Moreover, we have seen that participation here, even if it could have involved some political dimension, has been limited.10
