Whatever happened to the Big Society? Once British Prime Minister David Cameron’s flagship idea, it has been so conspicuous by its absence in recent weeks that Third Sector magazine argued last week that it was time to say ‘bye-bye’ to the idea. Such a judgement by the official organ of the UK charity sector, which yearns […]
Tag: Social Investment Task Force
Saving the Big Society
Lately, the Big Society has seemed in danger of early consignment to the dustbin of history. Though it is David Cameron’s big political idea, the Big Society did not excite the voters at last year’s general election and has wobbled alarmingly between unpopularity and ridicule in recent weeks, as the British prime minister’s plans for […]
Moving Beyond Band Aid
“Our time to change is now, and our time to change is short,” was the message that the new USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah delivered to a Town Hall meeting of the US Global Leadership coalition on May 5th this year. To sustain the commitment to spend billions of federal dollars on aid, he was warning, […]
Better Red Than Dead?
The Big Society was supposed to be the big idea that would sweep the leader of Britain’s Conservative party, David Cameron, into power in little more than a week’s time. Yet Cameron is struggling to sell the Big Society to the voters. The niggling problem he seems to be facing is that while the Big Society sounds OK, no one quite […]