6.8.4 Political Negotiation
People need to be adequately represented in political negotiation, which needs to be respectful, inclusive, balanced and transparent.
As described at the start of this chapter, a politician’s role is to act as an intermediary between the population, the services that it requires, and other political entities (6.1.2). Politicians must reconcile differing viewpoints, so negotiation is fundamental to their effectiveness. The previous section examined the importance of communication between people and politicians, to highlight the issues for which negotiation is necessary (6.8.3), and the negotiation process itself is examined in more detail below.
Earlier sections in this chapter have described different aspects of negotiation:
● Voting in a democracy is one method for balancing the views of different segments of the population (6.3.2). Decisions may be needed on specific issues, though, without waiting for an election or change of government.
● People have several ways of putting unsolicited pressure on politicians (6.4). It is necessary, however, for the voices of activists to be put into perspective in the interests of the wider population (6.4.6).
● Consultation, as described previously (6.5.3), is a mechanism by which a government and its contractors can ask the population its opinions on matters of importance. There must be dialogue, though, if a consultation is to become a negotiation. People must be able to ask questions, receive the answers, and be able to see that they have influenced the policy.
● Local negotiation might be more responsive and accountable than taking a national approach (6.6.2).
Some of these issues were illustrated in the public consultations on the northern leg of Britain’s HS2 high speed railway. They looked as though they were going to be exemplary, but this part of the project was later cancelled. The reported Industry backlash at Sunak’s ‘damaging’ U-turn on northern leg of HS2 illustrates the need to involve all the interested parties in a negotiation. It will not be possible to see how well the consultation would have worked in practice – and it is difficult to find good examples of such a process. It should not be an unattainable goal, though.
For political negotiation to be meaningful in the terminology of this book (2.4), it needs to be respectful, inclusive, balanced and transparent. The following sub-sections examine each of these criteria in turn:
● Respectfulness means recognising that each of the parties to a negotiation wants to be treated as an equal (6.8.4.1). Negotiations should aim to reach a position where all parties feel that they have benefited, in contrast to a confrontational approach – which results in dissatisfaction and continued conflict.
● Political inclusivity means ensuring that all affected groups are represented (6.8.4.2). Such an approach can compensate for the fact that no government is selected by all the people.
● Balanced negotiation means taking account of the numbers of people affected and the impacts on them (6.8.4.3).
● Transparency in consultations includes keeping people informed and explaining decisions (6.8.4.4). People should have the opportunity to comment and to see what has happened to their suggestions. This doesn’t often happen.
If a negotiation results in a failure to agree, an appeal process may be needed – as described below (6.8.6).
This page is intended to form part of Edition 4 of the Patterns of Power series of books. An archived copy of it is held at https://www.patternsofpower.org/edition04/684a.htm.