Nothing less than social change at a fundamental level will do
The forthcoming party conferences may leave a hollow feeling. Quite apart from the unseemly pandering to the prejudices of a weak and narrow activist base, the mixture of vague values and small solutions that politicians conventionally offer for our nation's pressing problems will feel desperately inadequate. Speech writers may abhor big theory, but without it we can't see the barriers to change.
Reflecting the way we have evolved as a species, there are three fundamental ways of thinking about and pursuing social change: hierarchical authority, solidarity and individual aspiration. So, for example, if we want seriously to tackle social injustice or to make an ageing population an asset, not a burden, it will require a strong and consistent framework of policies, substantive shifts in social norms and expectations, and new ways for individuals to pursue their interests. Successful societies, organisations and policies direct and combine authority, solidarity and aspiration. This is where the problem lies. Today, the sources of social power are weak or distorted.
Take the challenges besetting authority. The recent global survey found public trust in government across 18 countries at a new low of 38%. The survey also found the credibility of company CEOs and government officials had plummeted.
Several factors are implicated. For two decades, many western economies have suffered stagnant living standards for most workers and high unemployment. We live in a complex society with a public that has differentiated needs and personalised expectations. Technology has increased the pressure: open information, virtual networks and the speed of online mobilisation all challenge hierarchical bureaucracies.
What about the force of social solidarity and shared values? Private affluence, population mobility and social diversity are among the factors weakening solidaristic institutions and impulses. The last 30 years have seen the decline of a set of "congregational" institutions such as the church, trade unions and political parties. Also important has been the fracturing of class, most vividly illustrated by the shift of social housing from a mainstream tenure of choice to a residual sector catering overwhelmingly for people without work.
In contrast, and contributing to the declining power of authority and solidarity, individualism is the dominant force of our times. But unlike classical or Enlightenment conceptions of the good life well lived, it is a narrow and materialistic form of individualism.
The lens through which problems are viewed and solutions offered can be telling. A recent report on failing care for frail older people in hospital blamed managers and a lack of compassion among nurses. Yet neglect is more likely when vulnerable people have no loved ones as advocates. The problem is, therefore, not only about public service standards but also isolation, provoking wider questions about an ageing society.
A facile debate about social mobility focuses almost entirely on how to get a few talented poor people to be upwardly mobile (something that would only concentrate disadvantage), but questions about the characteristics of a just society or the fierce resistance of the privileged to downward mobility are avoided.
To restore public faith in social progress and to develop credible solutions to difficult problems we need to renew our sources of power. This means radically different ways of thinking about and exercising political and organisational leadership. It means a much deeper understanding of what binds people together and how social networks and shared values can be mobilised for progressive ends.
Barack Obama took a risk last week when he told his party that change in America will take a generation: "It'll require common effort, shared responsibility, and the kind of bold, persistent experimentation that Franklin Roosevelt pursued during the only crisis worse than this one."
This insight is just a starting point, but unless our politicians face up to, and confront us with, the challenge of renewing social power, we are doomed to the exhausting futility of trying to fix big problems using broken tools.