Marshall Review

There is a question that has followed me through trade union education, universities and politics, though it rarely appears directly in policy documents or party manifestos. – How do people come to believe that their own judgement matters?

Over the years I have watched people discover a confidence they did not know they possessed. Sometimes it happened in a union classroom. Sometimes in a seminar room. Often it began when people recognised that their own experiences were not isolated incidents but part of a wider pattern shared by others.

That confidence was never simply personal. It emerged through recognition, conversation and collective understanding. People who had considered themselves spectators began to see themselves differently. They became participants.

The experience has made me increasingly sceptical of political arguments that focus exclusively on leadership. Leadership matters, of course. But politics is also shaped by assumptions about the public itself. Do we imagine people as capable of acting together, or primarily as recipients of decisions made elsewhere?

Much of our political culture is organised around representation. Others will speak. Others will decide. Others will carry the burden. There is a certain comfort in that arrangement, particularly during periods of uncertainty.

Yet there remains another tradition: one that places participation at the centre of public life and assumes that democracy is strongest when people exercise agency rather than merely delegate it. The tension between these traditions runs through many political institutions, including Labour.

I've explored that argument at greater length in a new essay, looking at confidence, participation and the cultural assumptions that shape political life. Read the full essay here: https://go.marshall.ie/acting-for-acting-with-marshall-review