Civitas.org.uk is UK institute for the study of civil society
Title
CIVITAS: the Institute for the Study of Civil Society
Description
All think tanks have a point of view, and unthinking commentators always want to know whether an organisation is left wing or right wing. Those who think for themselves know how misleading these categories are. Civitas is not easy to position on the left-right spectrum. Most of our staff have no current or past party affiliation, but our director of community studies, Norman Dennis, is a member of the Labour party in Sunderland and our Director, David Green, was a Labour party member for over ten years and a Labour councillor in Newcastle upon Tyne for about six years. To avoid the tug of party loyalty, Civitas is non-partisan in politics.
Moreover, our principal concerns are not the property of any one political party. The focus of Civitas on encouraging social cohesion is shared by many who would describe themselves as on the left. But, the trouble with the term 'left' is that it describes political positions that are radically different. Many have traditionally aligned themselves with the left of politics because their primary motive has been sympathy for the least fortunate members of society. But, typically they have been firmly committed to democratic political methods and have wanted nothing to do with the class-war socialism that reached its height in the 1970s and early 1980s. Similarly, many who identify with the left today are opposed to the laissez-faire or minimal state, but have no sympathy for the sweeping collectivisation of social life or for public-sector monopolies that suppress individual choice. Many in this camp probably don't realise that the oft-proclaimed founding father of free-market economics, Adam Smith, agreed with them. So too did the modern champion of the market economy, F.A. Hayek.
One of the main obstacles faced by a think tank that aims to be non-partisan is the spirit of faction that pervades public debate. Thus, if you think the evidence points to social insurance as a better way of ensuring universal access to health care for rich and poor alike - a policy considered 'left wing' everywhere else in Europe - in Britain you are likely to be called 'right wing'. Advocating school choice may also be attacked as 'right wing', although it is accepted across the spectrum of opinion in countries such as Denmark and Holland, and even Sweden.
Languages
English
