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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- Introduction CAUSE FOR CONCERN
- Part One THE CREED AND THE CRAFT OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
- Chapter 1 THE ATHENS OF THE NORTH
- Chapter 2 THE CREED OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
- Chapter 3 THE CRAFT OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
- Chapter 4 BIRTH OF THE SOCIAL WORKER
- Chapter 5 THE STUDY OF SOCIETY
- Chapter 6 THE MACHINERY OF GOVERNMENT
- Chapter 7 A VOLUNTARY WORKER IN THE WELFARE STATE
- Chapter 8 THE GLORY THAT WAS GRANBY
- Chapter 9 THE DISINHERITED SOCIETY
- Chapter 10 DEMOCRACY REDISCOVERED
- Part Two TRACT FOR THE TIMES
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 10 - DEMOCRACY REDISCOVERED
from Part One - THE CREED AND THE CRAFT OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- Introduction CAUSE FOR CONCERN
- Part One THE CREED AND THE CRAFT OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
- Chapter 1 THE ATHENS OF THE NORTH
- Chapter 2 THE CREED OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
- Chapter 3 THE CRAFT OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
- Chapter 4 BIRTH OF THE SOCIAL WORKER
- Chapter 5 THE STUDY OF SOCIETY
- Chapter 6 THE MACHINERY OF GOVERNMENT
- Chapter 7 A VOLUNTARY WORKER IN THE WELFARE STATE
- Chapter 8 THE GLORY THAT WAS GRANBY
- Chapter 9 THE DISINHERITED SOCIETY
- Chapter 10 DEMOCRACY REDISCOVERED
- Part Two TRACT FOR THE TIMES
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In which I reflect on my experience as Chairman of the Merseyside Police Authority, following the 1981 disturbances. Responsibility for what was done in our name by the police emphasised the importance of accountability. I revert to voluntary action only to discover that there too government by consent has been dangerously eroded. I rediscover democracy at the grass roots.
The move to the new Merseyside County Council in 1974, following the reorganisation of local government, made little visible difference to me. It was a huge relief to be rid of direct responsibility for housing cases, although I still did my share of the ‘surgeries’. The pace was leisurely, the style curiously old-fashioned after the rough and tumble of Liverpool City Council. My new colleagues came from all over Merseyside, some with no previous experience of local government, and only a few displayed anything like the aggression characteristic of Liverpool politics. We maintained considerable pomp and ceremony. There were potted plants on the dais of the Town Hall where we held our Council meetings. Our offices occupied the top floors of a tower block down by the Pier Head, with views of such glory that I had to choose a seat with my back to the window to avoid distraction. True, the river was a shining sheet of water empty of all traffic and the cranes of the shipyards pointed skywards in their parking places, but structure planning would remedy all that.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Disinherited SocietyA Personal View of Social Responsibility in Liverpool During the Twentieth Century, pp. 133 - 146Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 1996