Why Improving Local Democracy is Vital – Bill Howat

2025 is proving a year of huge political and economic significance. We face a daily deluge of announcements, claims, and assertions that challenge much of what we understand of the ‘World Order’. Most of us feel the deluge comes from ‘on high’ and beyond any influence or control that we, as citizens in a democracy, might legitimately expect to have.  There is growing evidence of disillusion, frustration and disenchantment with our governance structures and even with democracy itself.

Amidst all this turmoil it is easy to forget that most of our day-to-day public services are delivered locally. It is even easier to forget that those services were formerly the responsibility of democratically elected local councils. It is precisely half a century since the ‘high water’ mark of local democracy in Scotland because 2025 is the 50^th anniversary of the ‘Wheatley’ reorganisation of Scottish local government – an anniversary that is likely to go largely unnoticed.

The Wheatley reform survived a mere 21 years except for the three island councils who remain as the original Unitary councils. The 1975 changes remain the only full-scale, rigorous review of local democracy in Scottish history. Before that changes were incremental and far from universal. And that trend re-emerged and was reinforced after the 1996 reorganisation and arrival of the Scottish Parliament started the process of centralising decision-making to Holyrood. In short, local democracy has been in decline as responsibilities and powers have been transferred to central/national bodies.

In the 2025 world of turmoil, global change and uncertainty it is worth taking a little time to reflect on the wider context of how democracy evolved and why the need for it to be revitalised at the local level has never been greater. This is especially significant in Scotland.

Origins and Decline of Democracy
Democracy began at the local level. When humans began to live in settlements and produce an economic surplus the first societies emerged. Communal living requires rules and brings responsibilities for everyone in any society. This is the most fundamental foundation of democracy. Amongst the others is the need for checks and balances to avoid abuse of power. Over many centuries humans built on these foundations to create the various forms of constitutional democracy we now have. Each aims to provide a system in which ALL citizens can contribute to decision-making for the benefit of society as a whole.

The roots of the word ‘democracy’ are from ancient Greek; Demos meaning ‘the common people’ and Kratia meaning ‘power’.

The Oxford English Dictionary definition is:
“Government by the people; that form of government in which the sovereign power resides in the people as a whole, and is exercised either directly by them (as in the small republics of antiquity) or by officers elected by them.”

In the millennia since Greek philosophy gave us the concept, many societies have developed different forms of democracy. Almost all have used some form of election giving temporary power to whatever party or grouping of parties gains the support of the majority of the voters. Most modern democracies are representative, including the UK, where the power to govern is determined at regular elections. Those elected are expected to govern in the best interests of society and respect their ‘contract’ with the people to do so and behave with due propriety. Public office is a privileged position with serious responsibilities. A critical part of any robust democratic system is therefore the scrutiny of the use of power and the checks to avoid its abuse.

Churchill’s oft-quoted view was:
“No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…’

When Parliamentary Democracy began in the UK there was direct accountability between those elected and their constituents because the electorate was local, small and restricted to men of property. This changed as political parties emerged, universal franchise became the norm, and the world became more integrated with faster information flows; a trend accelerated by the development of the World Wide Web and social media. Modern political parties are now much more centralised in their decision-making and, crucially, in their electioneering messages. They are also much more influenced by lobbyists, Special Advisers and, perhaps more importantly, financial backers (who are ostensibly as influential as party members or voters as their contributions become ever more significant).  This has changed behaviours in significant ways

Since 1975 there has been a concentration of powers and functions into central government in the UK, and especially in Scotland. The Mercat Group  and others have both documented and highlighted the democratic deficit that has grown over the last 50 years and, more especially since the advent of the Scottish Parliament. The significance of that growing democratic deficit is evidenced by the decline in participation in elections and an increase in public services managed by non-democratic bodies or agencies. It has led to a mistrust in political systems in general and politicians in particular. There is considerable and growing evidence that disillusion with democracy is greater amongst younger people.

What can be done?

Improve LOCAL Democracy
The increasing trend for elected legislators to ‘run’ things raises serious constitutional issues especially in the UK with an unwritten constitution. Is it time to establish a clearer division between the legislative and executive roles as in some other democracies?

And what about accountability? The original role of elected representatives was to do what it said – ‘represent’ their constituents. That was fairly clear when first developed. Several centuries later in a very changed world, Parliamentarians are expected to fulfil several roles mostly within a system of party politics. An MSP is expected to legislate, scrutinise, and represent their party, in addition to representing their constituents. When promotion is dependent on supporting your party, it is valid to question how hard any MSP will challenge the Government of the day if it is their party. And within the party system lies another driver of centralisation.

The most obvious way to reduce the risks of centralisation is to engage the electorate and utilise their knowledge and energy, to make their involvement matter and a positive experience. In short, distribute power. That means devolving powers and functions to the lowest possible level. That will not be achieved by creating new or restructuring existing bodies piecemeal. That has been the approach of all Scottish Governments since 1999 and has led to the ‘Spaghetti of public service boundaries’ highlighted in our two previous articles (Parliament or Council: 25 years of evidence; Restoring Local Democracy in Scotland).

The way the whole public sector is organised in Scotland needs to be examined to reset the way all public services in Scotland are organised, delivered and financed. We have suggested the creation of a Scottish Civic Convention to take forward the public conversation necessary to conduct such a review. This approach must extend beyond the civic society and enfranchise the wider electorate, the majority of whom feel they are ostracised from democratic decision-making. There are options such as citizen’s panels that have been used in other countries which have produced outcomes that are more progressive than those that might have been chosen by elected representatives who, as Machiavelli argued, are more likely to defend the existing order of things. The central aim should be to develop an approach to the delivery of all public services in Scotland that ensures that decisions are taken at the lowest local level and consistent with democratic and financial accountability.

Two commonplace memes are: ‘Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater’, and ‘Let a thousand flowers bloom”. These are relevant to the kind of change needed in Scotland’s public services. The proposed Civic Convention should develop a transition plan/programme that allows Scotland to reset public services over a period. It will take time, effort, and goodwill. It will probably be messy at times. But the process should build on the current strengths of our public services which are all too often overlooked in media hype claiming they are ‘broken.

What Next?
Our first three articles for Reform Scotland focused on the need for a national conversation on how public services in Scotland are organised, financed, and delivered within a democratic framework. They build on our earlier work (available on our site within the Knowledge Hub – accessed here ) that highlight the democratic deficit in Scotland, the strengths and benefits that local democracy gave Scotland over centuries, and the need to reinstate good working relations between local governance arrangements and the local communities of interest such as businesses and the voluntary sector.

Our next article will provide a Manifesto Challenge to the political parties ahead of the next Holyrood election.

The next step has to be achieving a broad consensus that a process of review and reset is needed. The aim of that process should be to achieve the main aim of the Founding Fathers of Devolution; namely the devolving of powers, roles and responsibilities to the lowest possible local level. Doing so will counter the excesses of central control by any elite group. It will enable local decision-making that recognises the diversity of Scotland.

The 2026 Scottish Parliament election should offer new hope for renewing local democracy as a key component in a more participative democracy. It should empower people, using new technologies, to focus on faster decisions and partnerships at the local level that have been lost in the drive for centralisation. In short, it should give people the chance to exercise their democratic rights and re-establish the fundamental meaning of the Greek origins of the word democracy. Power to the People.

The article is by Bill Howat on behalf of the Mercat Group, an informal network of former chief executives of Scottish local authorities with over 220 years of public service between them, including 70 years as chief executives. Bill Howat is a former Chief Executive of Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar