The Participation of the Meek: Reflections on John Boswell, How Citizens Encounter the Democratic State

Abstract John Boswell examines in an innovative way the forms of ‘survival politics’ that people adopt in dealing with the administrative state, and demonstrates that its failings feed into the wider contemporary sense of disillusionment with government and politics. Drawing on my experience as a town councillor, I observe that people can and do mobilise and participate effectively when local government plans affect them negatively. Nonetheless, I accept that there is widespread alienation from the state in all its manifestations, participatory as well as administrative. Some of Boswell's solutions for addressing the problem of lack of effective participation by the meek are convincing, but I question his interpretation of populism as disengagement. Populist parties have succeeded in raising voter turnout: a mundane indication of democratic renewal. The challenge is to understand the appeal of Reform UK better and extract the positive lessons for democratic politics.