6.3.3.1 Responsiveness

(This is an archived extract from the book Patterns of Power: Edition 2)

Politicians are servants of the people; as Rousseau wrote:

“It is … beyond dispute, and indeed the fundamental maxim of all political right, that people have set up chiefs to protect their liberty, and not to enslave them.”[1]

But, although they should act on behalf of the people, the politicians’ role is partly one of leadership – so they cannot be solely reactive to people's wishes. Circumstances affect the degree of responsiveness which is appropriate; it can be characterised on a scale, as illustrated below, from the purely reactive administration, which tries to ensure that the wishes of the people are met, to the coercive, which tells the people what is going to happen and tries to ensure that it does happen.

Government departments have different requirements. The politicians who lead them face two ways: towards the population and towards public servants. They should match appropriate styles to the tasks in hand: consulting and listening as they develop policy, then showing leadership in having it implemented and in persuading people to accept it. A dictatorial style will very rarely be appropriate – and then only towards public servants who are reluctant to accept agreed policies.