The British Digital Cooperative: A New Model Public Sector Institution -Dan Hind September 2019
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BDC The British Digital —Dan Hind Cooperative: A New Model September 2019 Public Sector Institution
The information technology sector, and direction of our economic, social, and
broadly defined, is now at the leading edge ecological systems. Technology will not
of the capitalist system. Material produc- save us from the overlapping and intensi-
tion and distribution, enterprise and profes- fying crises we face. But it has an important
sional management, finance, insurance, contribution to make in a broader process
and real estate are all increasingly depen- of reform.
A New Model Public Sector Institution
dent on digital technology. In the second
quarter of 2019 the top five firms in the As well as sketching the outlines of
world by market capitalisation were Micro- this transformative agenda, I set out some of
soft, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, and Face- the key structural features of an institution
book. Their combined value of $4.7 trillion that will be tasked with the primary respon-
tracks the extent to which the broader sibility of developing digital resources with
economy of production and exchange which to articulate and inform a revived
currently relies on a relative handful of democracy. This institution, the British
digital intermediaries. Digital Cooperative (BDC), will combine
election, executive appointment, random
Any attempt to reassert the primacy selection and general popular supervision
of democracy over private power must in order to reorient research, development,
reckon with these leading firms and with and production away from the needs of
the sector more generally. In what follows, profit-seeking investors towards widely
I set out the outlines of a socialist agenda discussed and broadly supported social
for digital technology—a programme that priorities. The BDC is intended to provide
begins with a new approach to networked a space for egalitarian collaboration as
communications, and shows how a ‘public well as rapid technical innovation, bring-
option’ here opens up new possibilities for ing some fragments of a better future into
much more extensive popular oversight being in the here and now, where they are
needed most.[1]
The British Digital Cooperative:
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2 31
It is not OK for every move, emotion, ise, and indeed often deliver, user benefits.
utterance, and desire to be catalogued, But these benefits are secondary to their
manipulated, and then used to surrepti- core business model, best understood as
tiously herd us through the future tense a combination of surveillance and manip-
for the sake of someone else’s profit ulation.[7]
—Shoshana Zuboff
A New Model Public Sector Institution
While the advertising platforms
— Welcome to the Hotel Northern mainly cater to the needs of other corpo-
California rations, they also count political propagan-
he preeminence of the technology dists and election strategists among their
sector is particularly obtrusive in what Paul clients. Moreover, they are now a signifi-
Sweezy and Paul A. Baran called “the sales cant medium for the delivery of news and
effort”: the realisation of profits through current affairs, and important producers
market research and advertising.[2] The and distributors of entertainment content
internet is now by far the most important in their own right. A distinct new media
medium for commercial manipulation in regime is supplanting broadcast-plus-print
the world.[3] More than 40% of the world’s as the means by which the social order
advertising by value takes place online, and becomes visible and intelligible.[8] So far
a handful of large players have a command- the leading players in this new regime have
ing position.[4] Google and Facebook alone avoided the formal regulation and legal
are expected to rake in $171.1 billion in responsibilities that apply to broadcasters
advertising revenues in 2019, capturing and print publishers. But elected represen-
51% of the total digital spend.[5] By provid- tatives and the remnants of the pre-inter-
ing free and low-cost services on propri- net media sector in the US and the UK are
etary sites (‘platforms’), Google, Facebook agitating to secure a privileged position in
and their competitors and collaborators any future media landscape. The current
gain access to vast amounts of informa- debate about ‘fake news’ and foreign
tion about vast numbers of individuals. subversion is part of a process, already far
They analyse this data and use it to inform advanced, of ensuring that the digital media
The British Digital Cooperative:
efforts to modify our mental states and our serve the same, essentially conservative,
behaviours. Clients then pay to reach ever function as the outlets they are displacing.
more precisely described and intimately (The debate about the shortcomings and
understood sub-groups within these plat- excesses of the digital platforms largely
forms’ gigantic user base. ignores the extent to which the major
media have always staged a production of
These corporations are always look- diverting half-truths and mystifications that
ing for new ways to extract more, and more keep the fundamentals of political econ-
detailed, data from their users, and for new omy safe from sustained scrutiny.)
ways to generate insights from it. The need
for more data helps explain why they are None of the dominant players in the
moving into fields as diverse as crypto-cur- current economic order have any desire
rency and urban development.[6] The need to see the emancipatory potential of digi-
to make more sophisticated use of it helps tal media realised. Needless to say, those
explain their lavish investments in artificial tasked with defending the status quo
intelligence. It is also in their interests to already take a keen interest in the plat-
promote engagement and interaction, to forms. US-UK State intelligence agencies
elicit the personal disclosures that are now have direct access to the data gener-
Common Wealth
their raw material. As a result almost all ated by Facebook, Google, et al. Indeed,
aspects of human sociability, the very life their infiltration of, and substantial integra-
of the species, are now shadowed by digital tion with, the digital communications archi-
architectures. These architectures prom- tecture in many ways recalls earlier efforts
4 5to bring both newspapers and broadcast- whom they trust: we must get at them by ism depends on their continued massive state-corporate media system can only
ers into their orbit.[9] some kind of ‘personal persuasion’. We profitability, and so would further entrench be challenged and dispelled if the online
must not show our hand directly; rather them as foundational institutions in the spaces used by the majority of the popu-
Our activities online are subject to than merely advise or command, we must emerging, digitally mediated social order. lation are subject to effective democratic
unseen and unacknowledged supervision manipulate.[10] [13] The idea of a ‘data dividend’ – payments oversight and control. And the collection
by employees and automated processes. to individuals for their information – also and analysis of data from very large plat-
A New Model Public Sector Institution
While we are nominally free to interact with Nevertheless, the extent to which presupposes that personal, intimate, and forms would be an extremely important
others digitally, we do not fully understand, the platforms separately and together politically sensitive data will continue to be aid to the work of democratic planning. In
and certainly do not control, the terrain constitute living spaces, artificial habitats collected in vast quantities by the leading other words, both political and economic
on which we do so. And even when the whose elements can be arranged and rear- companies and then monetised.[14] Union- emancipation depend on building a public
platforms afford us opportunities to build ranged at the whim of their owners, must isation of the tech sector, while desirable network architecture that rivals the size
communities around shared interests make us pause. If it is true that media influ- in itself, will not be enough to change the and sophistication of the private platforms.
we cannot reliably reach others outside ence is qualified, and to some extent coun- relationship between the leading firms and Capitalism can survive challenges from the
them. Commercial platforms cannot prior- teracted by, the social contexts in which the rest of society.[15] margins. Indeed, it draws both legitimation
itise the ideals of the liberal public sphere, individuals are shaped and reshaped, then and profit from them. Its most sophisticated
much less the principle of popular sover- the platforms’ ability to exercise unseen Attempts to apply the principles partisans have always understood this. Our
eignty, over the profit motive. The need to control over these processes of socialisa- of American progressivism to the digital task is to bring revolutionary imagination
deepen and prolong our engagement must tion suggests that they possess new capac- sector run into similar problems. Elizabeth and post-capitalist practice into the broad
come first, even if it means that isolated ities for manipulation.[11] Friends and family Warren’s proposals to break up the digital daylight of the everyday.
and vulnerable individuals are exposed to can be made to serve as vehicles for paid- giants have some merit, but a world where,
misleading, hateful or distressing content. for content on an unprecedented scale; our for example, Instagram, Whatsapp, and — The Need for a Socialist Response
wider social networks can be made up of Facebook are owned by separate corpo- We need to develop a distinctively
Human sociability relies on digital deceptive and malicious actors; our ideas rations is still a world where massive socialist response to the emerging digital
mediation to a far greater extent than it did of what constitutes ‘common sense’ can be corporations generate vast profits through organisation of communications. Working
a generation ago, and this digital mediation algorithmically steered towards hair-rais- surveillance-and-manipulation. While from a presumption in favour of commonly
is for the most part shaped by commercial ing extremes.[12] The picture is further making the digital sector more competi- owned and managed resources, with
logics. The platforms are becoming sites complicated by the activities of well-funded tive in certain respects, Warren would leave democratic governance, we can begin to
of addiction and compulsive use, and there and highly motivated groups who use the society’s most important communicative outline a digital sector that provides the
is little scope to develop ‘public service’ dynamics of social interaction to radical- resources in private hands.[16] infrastructure for a much broader process
The British Digital Cooperative:
interventions, let alone more radical forms ise others. of democratisation.
of democratic control, if we do not break The imposition of data portabil-
with the underlying economic logic. There is no shortage of reporting ity and interoperability in functions like Our ultimate aim is to establish
on the power and reach of the advertising instant messaging might deliver real bene- democratic deliberation as the central
The fusion of the sales effort with platforms, the pathologies associated with fits to consumers by reducing the power method for allocating material resources
news and entertainment content is by no social media use, and the malign possibil- of currently popular platforms to ‘lock-in’ and social goods. This requires that we
means new. And attempts to enlist the ities created by the capture and analysis users. But even in a ‘re-decentralised’ reduce the importance of markets, and
dynamics of social life to the task of persua- of behavioural data at scale. Although the system we will remain consumers rather market-mimicking or market-anticipating
sion are a constant theme in modern picture that emerges is distorted by vested than citizens: we will still choose between institutions, and that we greatly enhance
propaganda. In the 1950s, the American interests, it is obvious that we cannot leave competing firms in a vastly asymmetric the powers of the citizen body. Large-scale,
sociologist C. Wright Mills noted the desire the preeminent means of public communi- marketplace when deciding how we will state-level planning decisions can then be
of powerful groups to gather knowledge cation and social coordination in the hands conduct our lives online. In such circum- made intelligible to the public and, as plan-
to inform efforts towards covert control: of a few private corporations and their part- stances, network effects will still favour ning becomes more detailed, individuals
ners in the secret state. capital’s pursuit of scale, and free services and self-organised groups can take the lead
To change opinion and activity, they funded by data harvesting and advertising in decision-making, until the glamourous
say to one another, we must pay close — The Limits of Liberal Reform will still tend to win out over paid-for options mystifications of the commodity’s work
attention to the full context and lives of Many of the responses to the emerg- in which users are customers, rather than on the psyche of isolated individuals is
the people to be managed. Along with ing reconfiguration of global information products. replaced by a conversation between demy-
Common Wealth
mass persuasion, we must somehow use flows leave this partnership between stified citizens. Instead of a few all-know-
personal influence; we must reach the private and secret interests more or less Scale, in itself, isn’t something that ing centres surrounded by manipulable
people in their life context and through untouched. Taxing Google and other should trouble us. The mystifications that masses, each of us secures the means
other people, their daily associates, those companies to fund public service journal- flourish in the mainstream of the current, necessary for clear-eyed decision-mak-
6 7ing about our needs and wants, and about
the balance to be struck between them. In
other words, the assembly displaces the
marketplace—both in the digital sector and
in the broader political economy. This will
only be possible in an information environ-
A New Model Public Sector Institution
ment characterised by equality-in-speech
and rules-based participation in public
business.[17]
If we do not adopt a decisively
democratic and socialist approach to
digital technology, we will be drawn into
an exhausting struggle for what will only
ever be minor adjustments to the status
quo. In this struggle the companies will
marshal vast lobbying resources while we
will be denied the only possible counter-
vailing power—the appeal of a transforma-
tive agenda. In the next section I trace the
outlines of this agenda.
The British Digital Cooperative:
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8 92
It is inconceivable that we should ing resources, as well as secure data
allow so great a possibility for service, for storage for individuals and groups. These
news, for entertainment, for education, to resources will need to be tied to a broader
be drowned in advertising chatter. reform agenda that includes changes to
—Herbert Hoover the structure of the BBC and direct control
by individual citizens of public subsidies
A New Model Public Sector Institution
We do not have to believe that the to support journalism. They will also need
new, digital iteration of capitalism marks to bring the public into their governance
a radical departure from what preceded it through random selection, election, and
to recognise that new technologies create general participation based on the rights
both new opportunities to exert unaccount- outlined above.
able power, and new opportunities to
strengthen democracy. A socialist govern- Instead of relying on an environ-
ment that takes this state of affairs seri- ment designed to deliver advertising
ously will use public investments to create content to targeted demographics, we will
democratically managed resources and be able to shape our online experience and
commonly held properties in the sector. collaborate in efforts to understand and
The immediate goal is to break the hold change the world. We will share informa-
of the surveillance-and-manipulation plat- tion consciously and be able to access
forms over citizens who aspire to self-gov- and analyse collectively generated data
ernment. This public claim on the central as equal citizens. Designers and applica-
means of communication also creates tion developers will be able to concentrate
potential for democratisation throughout on promoting sociability and productive
the social field. The formal constitution and exchange, without the need to extract and
key aspects of the informal order underpin- analyse data for the purposes of manipula-
ning it, such as land and credit, stand to be tion. Any use of algorithms will be open to
transformed by changes to how they are scrutiny and public oversight. A democrat-
described, and by changes to the distribu- ically brokered consensus will take prece-
tion of those descriptions. dence over the promotion of engagement
The British Digital Cooperative:
at all costs. Wherever possible, this socialist
— Platforms of Our Own: Reithbook programme will adopt and adapt free and
and Beyond open-source material. (We might decide,
As a first step, we need to create for example, that the Decidim platform in
public platforms on which commercial Barcelona, for example, delivers much of
imperatives will be replaced by clear prin- what we want from a public platform for
ciples of communicative equality. These political decision-making, and to adopt it
include a right to attend to one’s private on a broader scale.[18])
affairs and participate in public life with-
out harassment or surveillance; an equal By working at a national scale we
power to make our worldview, experi- will be able to establish a public option as
ence, and interests into matters of general a central part of our online experience. A
consideration; and a corresponding power public platform will connect us to content
to challenge and disarm efforts at manipu- from the BBC, from museums, theatres and
lation. Citizens must be able to access and galleries, from archives and libraries. Public
share publicly relevant information, publish institutions will become platforms in their
their responses, and have their responses own right that also connect with others. An
assessed in turn, confident that, to the individualised system for distributing public
Common Wealth
extent that they are vulnerable to manip- subsidies for journalism and research will
ulation, they have the means to combat it. find a publishing outlet on these platforms.
In practical terms this means developing This content and the debates that surround
interoperable social media and messag- it can then be made to mesh transparently
and according to well understood princi-
10 11ples with the output of the BBC.[19] In this leads to a joyless and resentful scrolling communications system would make the existing state settlement. The arterial
way, public service values at the BBC will through more or less artificial images of the best available account of the social supply of credit requires capillary networks
be supplemented by a more kinetic and social success and connection. Resources a shared point of reference in politically of insight and assessment if it is to find its
mutually rewarding relationship between we control, on the other hand, will enable consequential speech. way back to the National Investment Bank
the institution and the audiences it serves. us to find one another in diverse ways, and and its regional subsidiaries as repayments
[20] to delight in the full potential of our socia- The creation of this collection of on viable investments.
A New Model Public Sector Institution
ble natures. public digital resources does not only
Attempts to misinform or mislead threaten the interests of the digital giants. — Governance Online
the public will be subject to sustained chal- We can be confident that a public Newspapers and broadcasters have long We will want to supplement the
lenge by organised and articulate publics. option in social media technology will serve benefited from the restrictions imposed public platform architecture with special-
This will make powerful institutions more our needs better than its corporate rivals in on public curiosity by insiders. A genu- ised software that makes the public sector
transparent and bring the citizen body as other respects. Being able to live as civic inely public platform, designed to func- more transparent and accountable. In this
a whole into sharper focus, while making and social beings without being subject tion as a collection of spaces for collective we will again be able to draw on resources
individuals less vulnerable to data harvest- to panoptical oversight and surreptitious sense-making, will transform the terrain on from Barcelona. For example, the City
ers. Self-organising networks will be able to direction by private and secret interests which all content providers operate. Council there has established an open digi-
create their own sub-platforms and shape will provide an important respite from the tal marketplace to make public procure-
their functionality to serve particular needs commodification of life processes pursued The elite vetoes that frustrate efforts ment more accessible to local startups and
and interests.[21] Each of us will be able to by the leading capitalist enterprises. While towards general enlightenment will be over- small and medium-sized firms. This could
engage as members of a range of collectiv- it is utopian to imagine that we will be able ruled at last by a public communications be adopted in the UK to promote commu-
ities. Rather than a single site, this platform to prevent abuse online, users and techni- system that privileges democratic speech nity wealth building along lines pioneered
architecture will provide us with a profu- cians working cooperatively to reduce the over the claims of property and its paid- in Preston, Lancashire and Cleveland, Ohio.
sion of spaces that overlap in diverse ways. impact of insincere and malicious speech for experts and apologists. Journalists and [24] If citizens’ assemblies are to become
Public sector institutions, including local, will not need to worry about protecting a researchers will be gradually drawn out of an ordinary feature of public life, they will
regional and national government, will business model that demands engagement patronage relationships with institutional also need a digital infrastructure to support
provide venues where citizens and more at all costs.[22] Indeed, we will be able to superiors and owners and into a dialogue their work and integrate their proceedings
or less cohesive groups can assemble and participate in a conversation about what with their audiences. In this way the tight and recommendations into the wider field
secure a claim on the political. digital technology is for, and what its limits control of political speech by private and of publicity.[25]
should be. Platform design could then be secretive actors will give way to a much
We will be free to use commer- used to encourage real-world engagement more plural, open, and reflexive public An expanded co-operative sector
The British Digital Cooperative:
cial platforms, of course. But the surveil- and association and we could , and could sphere. will also benefit from new forms of online
lance-and-manipulation business model even aid in devising ways to reduce the governance. Members need to be able
means that these platforms cannot make net amount of time we spend staring at As the state is democratised, we to access information and express their
facilitating collective deliberation and screens.[23] will need a digital architecture that maps preferences in secure conditions. With-
agenda-setting their priority. Advertisers onto its changing structure. More extensive out new capacities for general oversight
prefer to work their magic on physically The value currently created by the participation in the political process can and for effective, rewarding participation,
isolated, and preferably anxious, individu- users of the private platforms is captured then be publicised according to clear and there is always a danger that insiders will
als who can be persuaded that competition by their owners and advertisers. The plat- consistent rules in order to benefit those use their information edge to corruptly
and consumption, not collaboration and form architecture proposed here will return who are excluded from decision-making in secure benefits for themselves. A reform-
conviviality, are the answer to their trou- that value to the public in the form of a the current order. The result will be better ing government will no doubt want to
bles. And in an environment where willing- better understanding of the social world, decision-making as the quality of general legislate to make it simpler to form co-op-
ness to spend money translates directly and greater power to address problems invigilation improves. eratives. But it will also want to ensure
into communicative reach, the citizen body within it. The relationship between the that publicly funded digital resources are
as a whole and in all its diverse constitu- social, the political, and the economic can It is particularly important to bring available that give power to workers and
ent elements tend to be marginalised by be renegotiated in ways that do not accept the population into a dialogue with public consumers.[26] New institutional forms,
concentrated capital. the limits now imposed in the main circuits institutions when the state is expanding such as public-common partnerships, will
of communication. The public platforms into areas that have been left to the private also need to be supported by technology
For the same reason, the commer- will give the majority the means to resolve sector in the recent past. For example, so that their democratic potential is real-
Common Wealth
cial platforms promote a highly restricted conflicts and pursue shared interests, in public banking will need detailed informa- ised through sustained and broad-based
version of the social. The competitive much the same way that elite media and tion about social priorities if it is not to be participation.[27]
need to generate insights about consump- elite sociability have historically served captured by those few institutions capable
tion-oriented subjects, taken to its limit, the ruling class. At a maximum, this public of making themselves intelligibly present in
12 13Similarly, voluntary organisations alised Royal Mail to provide individuals and — Socialise All Rents! serve and put a technical gloss on efforts to
and charities stand to benefit from more businesses with a publicly accountable Wherever possible, a reforming coerce and control. A public programme of
democratic governance. Large institutions alternative to Amazon and Ebay. Publicly state will want to reduce monopoly rents investments would build democratic prin-
in particular will benefit from forms of online owned and cooperatively governed e-com- and compulsory charges in the economy. ciples and conscious participation by citi-
governance that bring them more firmly merce promises lower costs of intermedi- Our agenda for the digital sector would zens into this and other forms of high-end
under the supervision of their members. At ation and transparent and equitable terms therefore include a suite of publicly owned computing. The awesome computational
A New Model Public Sector Institution
the moment, too much of civil society oper- of service. Whereas Amazon tracks sales and democratically managed software power currently in private and secret hands
ates as a kind of genteel racket, in which categories and then manufactures items resources. At the outset this would include will become available to citizens where it
the generous and humanitarian impulses designed to compete with those sold by enterprise and operating systems based on can be used by individuals and collectiv-
of mass memberships are converted into the businesses that use its platforms, the existing free software resources—publicly ities to create new kinds of knowledge
lavish lifestyles for a few senior managers. proposed approach will provide fairer terms funded and maintained versions of Linux, and hence new capacities to act. In this
Where charities receive public funding, it of service to consumers and producers. A Open Office, and so on. Small businesses way, economic planning will ultimately be
might be desirable to insist that they adopt public e-commerce option might also be and the self-employed will immediately devolved to individuals in free assemblies
defined standards of democratic gover- able to favour local, ‘onshore’ production enjoy lower overheads, and public sector and given a properly civic character.
nance supported by digital resources, so over transnational corporations based in organisations will benefit from enhanced
that they can act as models of egalitarian secrecy jurisdictions by imposing a duty system security and reduced operating This standardised and stable free
transparency. At any event, the socialist of candour on vendors. costs. The state’s ability to establish stan- software architecture, combined with the
project aims to reproduce the values and dards across its own institutions means other capabilities outlined above, would be
structures of a democratic state through- This retail platform, when combined that it has enormous power to stabilise and available at cost to other countries. Social-
out society, and digital technology will play with other investments in technology, promote a low-cost system architecture.[30] ist technology would then provide an alter-
an important part of this process of diffu- establishes the conditions for a much more A publicly-funded development platform native to an emerging duopoly in which
sion. extensive democratisation of the economy. could allow independent operators to add we have to choose between American and
As real-time behavioural data becomes to the share of free resources and provide a Chinese styles of surveillance-and-manip-
— E-Commerce: From PayPal to available to the population at large, structure of payments that rewarded valu- ulation.
PayPub rather than a relative handful of network able innovations without resorting to the
Platform retail has proved extremely managers, consumers can combine to market mechanism.[31] — Where Are We Going? Digi-
successful and seems to follow a simi- access goods on equitable terms with tal Resources for Democratic
lar logic of market concentration as the producers. Indeed, production, which There is also a case to be made Planning
advertising platforms. A single company, is already informed by intensive surveil- for public and collaborative search and Other services currently offered by
The British Digital Cooperative:
Amazon, now accounts for half of all of lance of consumers, could take a much reference capabilities, especially if they the surveillance-and-manipulation firms,
online retail in the US, and for $7 of every more collaborative form. Demand would are tied to academic publishing platforms such as mapping, can be reimagined to
$100 spent by US shoppers.[28] The informa- be discovered in undistorted discussion and a reinvigorated library sector.[32] Web deliver greater public benefits. For exam-
tion it captures from its operations means between civic equals, who would then find browsers would bring these functions ple, a government seeking to reshape the
that Amazon can now exercise enormous the material resources and labour power together in a way that would make possi- built and natural environment will need
power throughout its vast supply chain.[29] needed to satisfy it. ble a host of challengers to Google organ- popular constituencies to displace concen-
It has also become a leading provider of ised on regional, national, institutional, or trated private interests as the lead actors in
computer services and is putting together Taken as a whole, the public plat- sectoral lines. Rather than seeking to maxi- the land economy. The gathering climate
a portfolio of sites and services, such as forms will allow citizens to make economic mise their share of global attention, each of crisis requires something like a process
Amazon Prime and IMDB.com, from which decisions on the basis of better informa- these search-browser combinations could of disenclosure—a reversal of the privati-
it can extract commercially valuable data. tion and at a remove from the needs of concentrate on serving the specific needs sation of the countryside that marked the
It is expected to become a major compet- the moment. Patterns of consumption that of particular groups while contributing to beginning of English capitalism. Public
itor to Google and Facebook in the digital compensate for powerlessness will be a shared stock of resources. mapping, through which representations
advertising sector over the next few years. redirected towards ends that are discov- of physical space are tied to public data-
ered through collective deliberation and The design of algorithms has, to bases of ownership, permitted use, hydrol-
It is important for the state to reflection. The sales effort gives way to the date, been dominated by commercial and ogy, soil quality etc., can help citizens to
develop an online payment system as part public discovery of needs and wants, and military, rather than social, values. Where understand the places where they live
of its public banking infrastructure. This the balance to be struck between them.. algorithms have bled into the adminis- more fully and to take a more active role in
Common Wealth
payment system, supported by e-com- tration of the civil state, in policing and planning their future. The 3-D design tech-
merce authoring tools that are compatible welfare provision, for example, they have nologies currently used by property devel-
with the rest of the public platform archi- often reproduced unexamined prejudices opers will, once made generally available,
tecture, would integrate with a re-nation- about the populations they are meant to greatly assist in this work of democratic
14 15place-making. Similarly, publicly owned For example, small-batch and
augmented reality holds out the promise bespoke manufacturing production is
of making the places where we live more becoming increasingly expensive to source
legible and informative, and hence more from foreign markets. The state can facil-
conducive to both real-world sociability itate a programme of re-industrialisation
and collective direction. that grows the co-operative sector and
A New Model Public Sector Institution
deepens workplace democracy while
Planning in the UK is bedevilled by a driving up real productivity and greening
kind of legalised corruption in which state the economy. Through a conversational
power forces the majority to hand over partnership with public bodies, organised
much of their income to a tiny minority in labour can take the initiative without the
the form of interest and rent. The building enervating approval of private capital. The
that does take place promotes a landscape knowledge accruing in the public sector
of car-dependent estates and out-of-town would enable it to make targeted invest-
shopping centres that no one in their right ments to complete supply chains and bring
mind would choose. Public mapping and key technologies into production. An entre-
design will help ensure that infrastruc- preneurial state indeed.
ture investments, new technologies in
construction, and other interventions in As part of this process, the public
the land economy track our collectively platforms will need to provide crowd-fund-
discovered priorities. Self-governing ing capabilities that help direct the atten-
groups in the process of deciding how tion of technocrats and elected officials
they want to live together will inform the away from the heavily promoted proposals
industrial strategy as it relates to housing. of large corporations and their lobbyists,
Underused or mismanaged land can be and towards initiatives that recommend
brought into public or common ownership themselves to the people who will, one
in an orderly way and put to use as part of way or another, pay for them. Villages
a broader economic, environmental, and and towns, cities and regions, as well as
social programme. currently disaggregated fractions of labour,
The British Digital Cooperative:
would use a variety of publicly funded and
— Building a Co-operative Economy owned digital resources to develop their
At the moment, bank lending over- own plans, engage with the institutions of
whelmingly supports asset purchases. an expanded public sector, and create the
But public finance, with the help of organisational forms they need.
publicly developed software capabilities,
could be used to support the creation of — Industrial Strategy: Research,
commonly held properties such as co-ops Development, and Production
and public-commons partnerships. Public For the most part, the state’s role in
social media platforms would provide a the economy is ignored or disparaged, the
venue for workers and consumers to find better to ensure that its contribution can be
one another, develop detailed business captured by a handful of privileged private
plans, and secure start-up funding from a interests. But it is responsible for the bulk of
National Investment Bank and the National the research and development that drives
Transformation Fund. Digital technology private sector innovation, either directly or
would support the process of enterprise through the use of subsidies.[33] A publicly
formation from casual expressions of owned digital architecture would be part
interest through to the creation of legally of a new approach, in which the state-as-
Common Wealth
defined and democratically governed oper- patron plays a much more active role. This
ations. digital architecture would help integrate
research, development and production so
that the implementation of new technol-
16 17ogies tracks the public interest—through collectivities on the terms of civic equal- economy while reducing carbon use. This
state ownership of publicly funded inno- ity. Rather than treating populations as the might require investments in manufactur- — Digital Socialism
vations, through free diffusion into the raw material for research, these experts ing technologies that track the needs of A socialist approach to digital tech-
global intellectual commons, or through help the rest of us to define what human small, independent and interdependent nology aims to help democratic assemblies
the creation of co-operative forms that flourishing looks like and to secure it. The growers, rather than those of industrial meet human needs and wants with more
subordinate market logic to social need entire process of research, development agribusiness and national retail chains. It granularity and sophistication than the
A New Model Public Sector Institution
in clearly defined ways. and production remains in public hands. will certainly require new communicative market. A fully constitutionalised digital
Democratic oversight, rather than the profit resources. Efforts to increase yields from sphere, rather than the corporate board-
For example, the UK state currently motive, becomes the driver of innovation the UK’s home waters will also require room, becomes the central space in which
provides massive levels of support to and the guarantor of efficiency. investment in new kinds of social coordi- economic planning takes place. Prefer-
privately owned pharmaceutical compa- nation as well as physical infrastructure. ences that are currently revealed through
nies. This sector is able to negotiate with This collaborative approach holds our guileless online activity are discovered
the NHS from a position of strength, thanks out the prospect of more rapid progress The restoration of pre-enclosure instead through reflection and deliberation
to its control of intellectual property rights, in pharmaceutical medicine. But once patterns of land use, and a new relationship on the basis of the best available informa-
a.k.a monopoly rights, derived to a very the social and economic determinants of with the sea, together promise an abun- tion.
considerable degree from these same health are given due weight, and commer- dance of food. Massive public health gains
subsidies. Public funds end up gravitat- cial considerations no longer inhibit the can be made through the self-conscious By changing the process of discov-
ing towards a narrow range of patentable clinical imagination, a much broader hori- creation of a patchwork of new and revived ery, we change the nature of the prefer-
chemical interventions designed to act on zon of possibilities opens up. After all, food cultures across the British Isles. But ences discovered. Instead of acting as
inert individuals, and away from social and cures are much less lucrative than symp- all this needs to be knitted to a social order mystified consumers, we make choices
collective approaches that enlist the indi- tom management. Meanwhile, the citizen’s characterised by collective deliberation in a state of disenchantment. What is
vidual as a collaborator in their own well- experience of an increasing power over and shared powers to frustrate tactics of kept hidden in commercial culture – the
being. Where innovation does occur, the their own circumstances becomes insep- manipulation. At the moment this might range of possibilities beyond individual
financial upside is captured by a handful of arable from the therapeutic process.[34] seem a distant prospect. But however consumption, the full implications of partic-
global companies, whose legal structure In healthcare and other sectors such as unlikely it sounds, it is necessary if these ular choices and styles of life, the tendency
and business model makes them incapable housing, there is a long history of top-down islands are to support a population in the towards magical thinking encouraged by
of acting in a public-spirited way. provision from both the state and the tens of millions expected a few decades the creation of the commodity form itself
private sector. Digital technology has an from now. – can be acknowledged and taken into
Rudolf Virchner once wrote that important contribution to make in efforts account. What is currently unspeakable
The British Digital Cooperative:
politics is medicine at scale. The vast mate- to establish the citizen body as the deci- Public investments in digital tech- becomes available as a matter of public
rial and intellectual demands of modern sive actor in publicly funded innovation.[35] nology are a necessary component of an business.
medicine mean that it is an inescapably industrial strategy that serves the majority.
a branch of the political. We are now in An integrated approach to popula- This is in part a matter of preventing insid-
a position to develop technologies that tion health would have important implica- ers from securing corrupt advantages. In
prevent it from serving oligarchical inter- tions for the food economy. And, as noted part it is also a matter of bringing the public
ests. A platform architecture of the kind above, if the UK is to play a full and equi- into the development process as active
outlined above will be key to liberating the table role in moves to address the climate participants with a direct stake in projects.
sector, in that it will provide us with a space crisis, we will need to develop new technol- Above all it is a matter of acknowledging
where the nature of human flourishing can ogies that make much more efficient use that technological development is shaped
be discussed in ways that do not privilege of natural resources. Efforts to bring land by the power relations that surround it.
the needs of powerful interests. into more productive use will rely heavily Unless innovation is embedded in a culture
on the kinds of coordination made possi- of democratic oversight and direction, it will
In a democratic and socialist ble by digital technologies. never deliver on its emancipatory potential.
approach to healthcare, citizens with
defined communicative and political rights If we are to be well nourished in
form collectivities in which they seek to the future we will need to be able to iden-
promote their own wellbeing. Data is tify suitable land, bring it into public and
Common Wealth
pooled for clearly defined ends, accord- common ownership through legislation and
ing to previously agreed-upon princi- purchase at fair value, and develop highly
ples. Experts, including medical experts, productive, highly diversified networks
are brought into partnership with these that substantially de-commodify the food
18 193
If you want to do something new, tend to intensify as one moves up the vari-
set up a new unit, and recruit. You’ll get ous hierarchies.
people joining who want to do new things.
—Michael Jacobs After forty years of neoliberalism,
public institutions need to be restruc-
Some people might accept the need tured along lines that combine democratic
A New Model Public Sector Institution
for the public sector to take a more active legitimacy with technical expertise and
role in developing digital technology but efficiency. This does not mean a simple
reject the idea of a new institution. After all, reversion to the principles of Keynesian
a constellation of government departments public service. Rather, the public sector
and parastatal organisations already exists must develop an approach that enhances
and might be able to do the necessary the capacities of the citizenry in assembly.
work. But reliance on what already exists The focus shifts from the minister of the
would be a serious mistake for a number crown to the body politic as a whole.[38]
of reasons. For one thing, we are faced This approach will help secure the state
with overlapping economic, social, and from subversion by sectional interests,
environmental crises, all of which require and model a wider shift in the economy
new technological resources if they are to and in society towards more egalitarian
be addressed. The existing institutional practices and a more equitable division
array was designed for a different time, of wealth and power. But this amounts
with a different set of agendas, and with to a new logic of state. It will need novel
different operating assumptions. A new, institutional contexts in which it can be
generously funded organisation allows elaborated and refined. Just as the Brit-
us to start afresh, on a scale and with an ish Broadcasting Corporation provided a
urgency equal to the task.[36] template for the institutions of the postwar
social democratic settlement, the British
The need becomes more pressing Digital Cooperative (BDC) is intended to
when we factor in resistance to far-reach- lead the way in developing the structures
ing changes to the structure and purpose of democratic socialism.
The British Digital Cooperative:
of the state. Ralph Miliband once warned
that “to achieve office by electoral means The supporters of reform deserve
involves moving into a house long occupied to see swift, conspicuous action, in new
by people of very different dispositions— places, according to new principles, in the
indeed it involves moving into a house pursuit of clearly defined goals that enjoy
many rooms of which continue to be occu- broad support. The BDC will be able to
pied by such people.”[37] Electoral success establish development teams in towns
secures control of one, very visible, piece and villages, coastal resorts, post-indus-
of the state apparatus for would-be reform- trial cities, and rural areas that have long
ers. But much of the rest will be staffed been neglected. It will also be able to create
by people with very different ideas about new physical infrastructure to support its
the purpose of public intervention in the mission and move quickly to establish labo-
economic sphere, about the practicality of ratories for a democratic and prosperous
democratic self-government, and about the future.
primacy of private capital. Career progres-
sion has depended on working effectively While the creativity of start-up
and creatively within a governing logic culture can be exaggerated, new insti-
established by Thatcher and elaborated tutions provide opportunities to escape
Common Wealth
by her successors. While many individu- bureaucratic organisation and the stifling
als will welcome the opportunity to think effects of hierarchy. The BDC will be able
and act more expansively, some will not, to hire from the existing state and from the
and resistance to any reform agenda will private sector. But it will be able to sidestep
recruiting norms that filter out potentially
20 21valuable workers, and to experiment with
new forms of workplace organisation. It A new institution begins without
will also be able to try out new ways of an accumulation of internal assumptions
contracting labour from a global pool of and unspoken taboos about who can, and
talent through mission prizes and remote cannot, contribute and how. It provides an
working. After the shambles of the Brexit opportunity to think creatively about how to
A New Model Public Sector Institution
referendum and its aftermath, the BDC give expression to fundamental principles
will demonstrate Britain’s openness to and values, while addressing vitally import-
the world in its structure as well as in its ant problems. Justice, and the demands of
mission. the moment, call for an institution in which
talent, public spiritedness, and achieve-
A new institution offers skilled work- ment count for more than cultural capital,
ers a chance to escape the stultifying seniority, and conformity. By establishing
demands of venture capital. Technicians the BDC on these lines we will present both
and software engineers who have been a template and a challenge to the rest of
encouraged to think in terms of an IPO or the state.
a Google buyout will have a chance to put
their talents and energy to use creating a Operating away from the metropoli-
new economic and political order, compat- tan core, the BDC will be able to develop a
ible with the survival of human civilisation different understanding of the UK’s political
at scale. People are all too easily demor- economy and its various potentials, and
alised and depressed by the small-mind- work with local government and other
edness of neoliberal ambition. The BDC institutions to ensure that reindustrializa-
will be a place where people can live well tion does not simply add to the advantages
and be celebrated for their contribution enjoyed by London and its periphery. It will
to the common good. And aAn institu- also be able to assemble land and proper-
tion founded with an explicit mission to ties so that the uplift from local economic
promote democracy will be better able to growth can be captured for the public, and
resist those who want digital technology to it will be able to work with other institutions
The British Digital Cooperative:
remain an instrument of oligarchic domi- without the burden of a shared history.
nation than institutions predicated on the Crucially, people will learn to exercise new
idea of ‘smart’ collaboration with transna- powers through their participation in the
tional capital. democratic structures of the BDC. It is to
these structures that we now turn.
The BDC is an opportunity to break
with the chauvinistic and status-obsessed
culture of parts of the technology sector.
As a public institution with an urgent
mission, the BDC will be able to combine
accountability and the highest standards
of workplace civility with intense creativ-
ity. Relatedly, the BDC will also be able to
develop novel relationships with the end
users of its products. This is a chance to tie
research teams to co-designing publics so
that innovation tracks the expressed needs
of the citizenry on which it depends. In
Common Wealth
this way the BDC will model a relationship
between public expertise and the citizen
body that will become more familiar as the
UK becomes more fully democratic.
22 234
We will establish a British Digital from employees in confidence, and attend
Cooperative with a mission to develop the to representations from the general public.
technical infrastructure for economic, polit- Members of this assembly will be free to
ical and cultural democracy. conduct research, hold public and private
—Manifesto of a reforming admin- hearings, and publish reports and recom-
istration mendations.
A New Model Public Sector Institution
— Notes on Structure The first chief executive of the BDC
The transformative mission of the will establish Research, Development and
British Digital Cooperative (BDC) must Production (RD&P) centres in severely
dictate both its structure and spatial organ- deprived local authority areas. The physi-
isation. Legally, it will be established by cal geography covered will include cities,
Parliament as a public cooperative whose towns, villages, coastal resorts, and rural
members are the citizens and residents of areas. Mirroring the national structure, the
the United Kingdom. The responsibility for centres will have an operations officer, an
managing this cooperative will be borne executive board, and an oversight board
jointly by its workforce and by the public. selected by lot from local residents. These
The powers of the latter will be exercised assemblies will be responsible for ensuring
by assemblies formed through random that the BDC acts in accordance with its
selection. statutory responsibility to promote work-
ing relationships based on civic equality.
Parliament will create this public They will also be responsible for establish-
cooperative with a mandate to develop the ing and testing the governing principles of
infrastructure of a more complete social, the platform architecture as it relates to
economic, and political democracy. It will privacy, civility, security, and so on.
impose a particular duty on the BDC to
establish working relationships based on Product design and development
civic equality. In the first instance, the Prime will be structured as a partnership between
Minister will appoint a chief executive to the BDC and the communities in which it is
The British Digital Cooperative:
deliver on detailed articles of instruction based. Technologies will meet the needs,
that elaborate on its fundamental mission. and defend the interests of citizens, in
The chief executive will serve for a single part because citizens will be involved
four-year term. They will appoint an exec- throughout the development process as
utive board, and after one year, a quarter both participants and invigilators. Through
of these board members will be elected their involvement in product design, resi-
by the workforce. dents will be familiar from the outset with
the potential of new technologies to build
The chief executive will be required community wealth. The centres will act as
by statute to convene an oversight assem- transfer points for new skills and capaci-
bly of thirty people selected by lot from each ties, and the duty to promote equality will
one of the local authority areas in which require them to establish educational proj-
it operates.[39] All assembly members will ects wherever they operate.[40]
be paid at the national living wage for the
equivalent of one day’s work per week. The RD&P centres will have a defined
They will serve one year. This assembly, mission under the articles of instruction
supported by its own secretariat, will be and will be free to establish subsidiary insti-
responsible for invigilating the operations tutions, including land trusts, to ensure that
Common Wealth
of the BDC to ensure that it meets the they meet their objectives in a timely and
obligations imposed on it by Parliament. thrifty manner. They will liaise with public
It will have general powers to summon the sector institutions to improve the physical
company’s officers, and to hear complaints infrastructure for data collection, and to
24 25develop municipal resources. Local public “a complex system designed from scratch” from the workforce and the public, and to
sector institutions will have defined rights which “never works, and cannot be made publish their own findings. During this time
to representation on each RD&P centre’s to work.”[41] it will also confer honours on employees
consultative boards. and citizens nominated by the various other
In the fourth year of their term the assemblies.
Each centre will also be required chief executive will convene a large assem-
A New Model Public Sector Institution
to establish ‘high street hubs’ where the bly drawn by random selection from the UK If the first oversight assembly .
public can use free software, open hard- population. This 100-person assembly will decides that the BDC is failing to pursue its
ware, and other resources. BDC employ- draft new articles of instruction within the articles of instruction with sufficient vigour
ees will be free to spend up to two days a terms established by statute. It will sit for it will be able to begin recall proceedings
week in these collaborative spaces work- six months and take evidence from staff, against the chief executive. If the move to
ing on their own projects, provided these from the other BDC assemblies, and from recall is confirmed by the large assembly,
are consistent with the overall mission of the public. Its deliberations will be public the chief executive will be removed and the
the BDC. Beginning with these production and the new public infrastructure and the workforce will elect a replacement for the
hubs, the BDC will also experiment in ways other digital resources outlined above will rest of that term.
of using technology to promote diverse bring the drafting process to the attention
forms of online and offline sociability. of a large and engaged audience in the UK — Funding the British Digital
and beyond. Cooperative
The chief executive will have overall The BDC will be established with
responsibility for ensuring that each centre In this way, every four years the BDC a grant from the National Transformation
meets its obligations under the articles of will host a widely shared discussion about Fund. It will also be responsible for admin-
instruction, and for ensuring that all tech- the future of the digital sector, which will istering the revenues from any charge on
nologies are deployed in ways that maxi- shape its operations for the next four years. broadband or mobile internet access.
mise the public good in a manner defined This conversation will inform the country’s
by statute. They will decide how to spin broader industrial strategy by providing a
out new institutions and promote the work venue in which organised labour, the coop-
of the BDC nationally and internation- erative sector, private industry, and other
ally. They will maintain an overall view of interests can articulate their needs in a
the centres’ projects and to ensure that, manner that the public can understand
The British Digital Cooperative:
wherever possible, resources are shared and assess. The BDC will be mandated to
between centres. They will also be required give the deliberations of the large assem-
to build and maintain connections between bly due prominence in the communicative
the BDC and the rest of the public sector. resources it controls.
Their office will ensure that, wherever
possible, the BDC proceeds by adapting Once new articles of instruction
existing free software resources in a way have been published, all candidates for
that helps socialist and non-profit projects chief executive will be interviewed first
worldwide. by one of the RD&Ps’ assemblies, which
will send a confidential note to the large
Operational details are beyond the assembly. The large assembly will inter-
scope of this paper, but the chief execu- view the candidates it wishes to consider. It
tive will want to draw on best practices will then appoint a chief executive to a new
in the private sector and in civil society four-year term. Past service to the public
to ensure that the collection of public and a plausible agenda for the future will
resources envisaged here starts with what count for more in this selection process
John Gall called “a working simple system” than a talent for office politics.
and grows rapidly to achieve considerable
Common Wealth
scope and sophistication. The emphasis The large assembly responsible for
on adopting and adapting existing open appointing the chief executive will meet
source and free software resources means once a year during their term to receive a
that the BDC won’t be tempted to develop report on progress, hear representations
26 27You can also read
