Adam, thought provoking and well-written piece.

I am sure you will get a similarly thoughtful response from our readers. I would only say that I would disagree that Unions are great examples of the sort of collective action the Big Society seeks to empower. For example, opting out of union subs is a seriously difficult thing for many workers to do - the level of stigmatisation and difficulty many endure is nothing to be dismissed; opting out of donating to the Labour party as part of that sub is equally difficult. Far from giving a collective voice to individual workers, all too often, unfortunately, the Union dispossesses the individual at the behest of the collective.

Whatever your view on the achievements of Unions (and you eloquently list several), all too often they fail to represent kind of collective action that a Big Society should seek to advocate. Involuntary versus voluntary; top down rather than bottom up. Alienating rather than empowering. It need not be this way; Unions need not be so tribal, but all too often the healthy voluntarism of the collective gives way to the less healthy tribalism of it; to the politics of the machine (which no doubt Will Brett, posting here tomorrow, would actually advocate) that harms, not supplements effective local action.

Thoughtful.

The Conservatives don't really, in their hearts, believe in co-operatives or mutualisation.

But it is thought provoking to consider that the period of decline of strong Trades Unions mirrors the period of the rise of political apathy and the decline in democratic commitment and disillusion with the democratic process.

So if David Cameron really wants a stronger democracy we should expect to see him promising policies to restore Trades Unions to the core of our polity.

@Alex - While the the decline of unions and the rise of political apathy do appear to be correlated, I doubt that they're causally related. Rather, I would contend that both are the symptoms of a wider change in the way that individuals engage with their families, neighbours, communities, associations and the political process.

@Asheem - Undeniably tricky territory... What kind of civic associations are the Conservatives prepared to back in a Big Society and why? Do organisations need to be voluntary? In what sense? Do they need to be democratic? Do they need to be open? By which (or whose) standards?

Many organised religions, guilds (to use David Cameron's example), professional bodies and even charities and smaller community organisations would fail to pass the "stigmatisation" test you've applied to unions - let alone the "bottom up" or "non-tribal" tests! Are they to be excluded from the vibrant panoply?

I think the interesting question is how workers are organised - by definition a co-op is an organisation of workers and that organisation of working people is clearly included in the big society but it has a civic element that is missing from traditional forms of union organisation. Too often big unions resemble the big state - and exercise centralised power for the sake of centralised power - for example unions have campaigned against employee owned enterprises in the public sector - whereas they should encourage such settlements as co-ops can vastly increase their own member's equity and skills. That said there are more civic traditions in the unions and it is this that the new conservatives should be encouraging - unions and management have too often bought into the old class war rehetoric - a new economic model needs a new relationship between waged workers and capital - and that is what the big society should make possible.

A very good article Adam, and a relevant topic in the current political and economic climate.

Historically trade unions have had a central politicising role, bringing together workers and encouraging active political participation when these may not feel adequately represented by the parties of the time. Today, with a British polity characterised by apathy, disassociation and disengagement, an organisation that can politicise citizens without risking the possible 'mob' nature of voluntary organisations or the superficial populism of many audience democracies should not be knocked. In fact, the apparently closed way in which it is difficult to opt out of unions could easily be interpreted as a representation of the responsibility on the shoulders of each individual in a political organisation: rather than walk away, if that person is not satisfied they should work to improve it from the inside.

Phillip,

I'm not sure if the civic element was missing in the traditional union - meetings every week, social events, links with educative organisations like the WEA, principles of self-organisation and mutual aid. When the problem came is when unions no longer represented their workers qua workers, but became some kind of 'consumer rights' organisation that simply bring the opinions of the bosses to the workers - a change I think that came after Thatcherism, something we don't see on the continent. You can see this is the recent Visteon Occupations in Enfield. Here the union were just sent in to express to bosses opinion that the workers were fired, instead of even minimally representing the interests of their members and the real sense of injustice they felt. The one problem I can see is (on kind of IWW principles) small co-ops having the lack of lobbying power the 'one big union' can have in terms of solidarity and sheer force.

".....major civic institutions – from political parties to churches to trade unions...."

@Adam: Great post, and I'm fully in agreement with you. I would further emphasise that political parties are key associative platforms. It's interesting that those boosterists for the civil society often find explicitly political associative activity distasteful, as if it doesn't belong in the civic fabric. In fact de Tocqueville got his knickers in a twist over this very point - he says that political associations are the mother of civil associations, yet that political parties are inimical to equality and liberty.

So here's a question for ResPublica: does membership of a political party (say, Labour) count as associative activity?

@William: I have to say I agree with de Tocqueville on both fronts, political participation and association is particularly crucial but like any form of social capital (including organised labour) it can serve socially regressive ends. Personally I think that membership of a political party is a (very low level) form of association, hopefully a first step towards more active involvement. I tend to include it as a proxy for more active (and less easily quantified) civic association.

@Simon, Asheem, Phillip: As you all suggest, I'm sure there is plenty of scope for union reform, especially (as per Simon) from within. I suppose my point is that undermining unions misses the opportunity to realise one of the most appealing aspects of the Big Society, as summarised by David Cameron's "We are the radicals" piece in the Guardian today, which argued that: "You cannot fight poverty or improve hospitals from office blocks in Westminster; you need pluralism." To me, that pluralism entails allowing, engaging with and even encouraging different civic groups to pursue different social ends using different means.

Finally someone comes to their senses regarding the trade union movement. Though they did overreach themselves in the 1970s, a trade union movement is the guarantor of a middle class, a decent living wage, a home of progressive values and a check against abuse of capital's power.

What needs to happen is a meaningful amendment to the Employment Act of 1982. Look at the societies of Western Europe - in Germany, France and Scandinavia. They all accomodate the collective bargaining mechanism of the trade union movement; all societies have lower levels of inequality, higher median wages - and less millionaires.

We need to accept in this country that the Dalton principle, that longterm economic efficiency is aided by a smaller gap between rich and poor. The Conservative Party needs to get away from its latent dislike of the trade unions in order to create a civic society.