Exploring Democracy in the English Voluntary Sector

This blog, written by Dr Daniel Haslam, reports on a pilot workshop held between CVSL and Voluntary Action Leicestershire (VAL) in July 2024.

A more detailed report is available here. 

Context

Voluntary sector organisations (VSOs) have long been linked with democracy whether related to the ability of citizens to form or join groups focused on aspects of life that are important to them; the role of VSOs in raising issues that otherwise would not be heard; engagement with communities; and compensating for a ‘democratic deficit’ (Steffek et al., 2008) that is often observed in other aspects of society.

In addition, VSOs have a variety of internal ways of working, depending on capacity, funding, skill base of staff, etc. that result in more or less democratic practices. Those VSOs who do not function in a particularly democratic way internally may nevertheless contribute well to external democracy (Bolleyer, 2024).

With approximately half of the world’s population having taken part in democratic processes over the last 12 months (John and Sen, 2024) and England (as part of the United Kingdom) having gone to the polls on the 4^th of July 2024, it seemed an opportune time to start to explore how democracy works in the English voluntary sector.

The workshop

A workshop was planned by CVSL, working alongside VAL, and funded by the Open University Business School. 11 participants attended from 8 different organisations.

The workshop focused on the following questions:

1. What does democracy mean to you?
2. How do voluntary sector organisations see themselves as contributing to external societal democracy?
3. How do voluntary sector organisations see their own internal practices in relation to democracy?

Findings

In relation to Question 1 many of the responses reflect positive ideals related to democracy. These included broad ideas about freedom of speech and expression, values such as equality, respect, choice, involvement, and informed consent were also mentioned. There was an emphasis on the availability of accurate information – including about potential outcomes of decisions – avoiding coercion, and accountability.

There was however some acknowledgement that these ideals are difficult to deliver in the real world and that tensions between different values, and in relation to the practical delivery of organisational goals, may mean that at times democratic ideals are not achieved.

These tensions were also mentioned in relation to Question 2, although participants did feel they and their organisations contributed to a variety of different aspects of democracy in participatory, representative, and deliberative ways. In particular, limitations around engagement with communities was mentioned as a barrier to representational legitimacy.

Responses to Question 3 also suggested participants felt their organisations did conform to democratic practices internally. The ability of all staff to ‘have their say’ was emphasised. However, limitations were mentioned around information sharing and fear of having conversations with communities that might lead to expectations that cannot be delivered upon. Differences between large and small organisations were noted however there was a lack of real detail about what these differences were, beyond an assumed ‘closeness’ to communities within smaller VSOs.

Conclusion and next steps

It’s clear that the subject of democracy is of interest and important to practitioners in voluntary sector organisations. Participants defined democracy in broadly positive terms but did also acknowledge practical tensions. They felt that they work in democratic ways both internally and externally.

Future work could explore the issues raised in this workshop in more detail, including how participation, representation, and deliberation manifest in organisational ways of working, and the potential to develop a toolkit or audit of democratic practices.

Further reading

The workshop was designed as a pilot session for a larger project as part of the Open University ‘Open Societal Challenges’ initiative, which you can view here: https://societal-challenges.open.ac.uk/challenges/exploring-democracy-in-the-voluntary-sector/473

We will also be looking to see how this work can combine with ongoing CVSL interest in subjects such as leadership and ethics. This previous blog explores the ethical leadership tensions in the work of foodbanks: https://www5.open.ac.uk/centres/voluntary-sector-leadership/blog/ethical-leadership-tensions-voluntary-sector-example-food-banks

And this free Open Access journal article from CVSL academics explores leadership and care ethics: https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/vsr/aop/article-10.1332-20408056Y2024D000000026/article-10.1332-20408056Y2024D000000026.xml

References