example the Labour government elected in 1997 in the UK introduced
a form of devolution with the creation of national-level government
in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the potential for
regional government in England. Yet at the same time the Labour
government has been criticised by some commentators for cen-
tralising more power in the hands of Whitehall.
We are now witnessing a fascinating debate amongst the heirs of
both the neo-liberal and third way approaches as one set of politicians
is being replaced by a new set. For example what will be the attitude
towards the location of power of Gordon Brown and David Cameron
in the UK, the Democrat and Republican presidential candidates in
the USA and Nicolas Sarkozy the president of France?
Political communication
We have considered democratic government in terms of the extent of
popular participation in government, the extent to which the people
can influence the choice of governors and the form which democratic
institutions might take. Arguably more important than any of these,
however, is the responsiveness of government to people’s views and
interests and even its capacity to leave well alone (to respect their
rights).
In Chapter 1 we saw that Easton (1979) and many other writers
view a political system as a mechanism for authoritative decision
making linked by ‘inputs’ and ‘outputs’ to its environment. In this
very simple model of politics two of the four elements (i.e. 50 per
cent) are communication functions.
The responsiveness of governments involves, clearly, both
governments receiving an accurate picture of the electorate’s needs
and the electorate having a clear picture of the government’s activi-
ties. Communication between the government and the electorate and
the government’s monitoring of the objective effects of its policies
and gathering information about policy alternatives are clearly
central to a successful democratic system.
Even a very simple model of communication suggests some
important questions. Who are the senders and recipients of the
information? What quantity of information flows? Are the flows one
way (simplex) or two way (duplex)? Are messages accurately encoded
and decoded? Does ‘noise’ interfere with accurate reception? Does
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