David Cameron Promises End to Big Government in U.K.

British Prime Minister David Cameron was the talk of the town Wednesday as he held his first face to face meeting with President Obama at the White House. But while foreign policy and the oil spill dominated the discussion between the two leaders in Washington, back in the U.K., Cameron was in the news for his domestic policy agenda. Shortly before leaving for Washington, the new prime minister unveiled a plan to dramatically redistribute power in Britain from the central government to local community organizations.

In what is being billed as his most meaty policy speech since taking office in May, Cameron on Monday launched his "Big Society" initiative. The idea is centered on giving voluntary groups and communities power to run public services and was a key theme in the Conservative Party's general election campaign. In Cameron's words, it will devolve authority "away from elites in Whitehall and towards the man and woman on the street" by creating "communities of 'oomph.' "

The program rests on three key pillars: 1) providing government support to create a culture of volunteerism and philanthropy; 2) shifting planning and resources from central to local governments to oversee that process; and 3) empowering communities so that volunteers from civil society will operate many services once provided by the government.

Big Society is being tried out in four communities throughout the U.K. These municipalities will serve as national pilots for the so-called "ultra local power" that "turns government completely on its head." Examples include recruiting volunteers to keep museums open, raising money from pub and club owners to pay for extra police, and giving residents more power over local government spending. Expert organizers and dedicated civil servants will be assigned to ensure that these "people power" initiatives get off the ground. Once the idea takes hold within these four communities -- and assuming it works -- the hope is that it will be scaled up across other parts of the country.

Funding will come primarily from a Big Society Bank, which will essentially operate as a social investment fund. This bank will have an initial balance sheet of £350 million to £400 million (roughly $535 million to $611 million dollars), all taken from U.K. bank accounts that have been dormant for 15 years or more. This money will be made available to charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups as they take over public services. Over time, the British public will also be encouraged to open Big Society savings accounts to provide further funding for such initiatives, along with private sector financing.

In the few days since the initiative was announced, it has already generated a lot of criticism. Many have accused the prime minister of using it as window dressing to paper over the massive budget cuts that are just around the corner. The government has recently launched an austerity drive to tackle the country's £155 billion ($237 billion) deficit. Are these volunteers merely a cheap replacement for soon-to-be out of work civil servants?

Some also wonder whether these "vanguard" community groups are up to the task of coping with greater demands for their services. There will invariably be set-up costs, expenses and training, all in an environment of diminished government financing. Some ask whether voluntary organizations can really tackle this agenda without raising taxes?

Then there's the question of implementation. Many are worried that the U.K.'s onerous system of health and safety regulations will make it very difficult for local groups to carry out some government services -- like snow-clearing, for example -- for fear of liability concerns. (The government has promised to set up some kind of insurance certificate for Big Society volunteers.)

It's also unclear how this new model of local planning will interact with pre-existing regional planning arrangements. A friend of mine works for one of the London boroughs. She notes that in many key policy areas -- such as social housing, energy and waste removal -- local authorities' development frameworks will now be disconnected from the regional strategies that governed these policies under the previous (Labour) administration. Which means that some communities that share a road with another one will no longer be able to jointly plan where to put low-income housing or how to deal with sewage. According to her, some kind of planning disaster awaits and it's only a question of time before it kicks in.

And yet, despite all the flak the Big Society initiative is generating, there are some grounds for hope. I, for one, think it can only be a good thing for the British government to take a more aggressive stance in promoting philanthropy and volunteering, both of which lag far behind those efforts the United States. And there's some evidence that local community initiatives have already worked quite well to improve public services in the U.K.

It's also refreshing to see a Conservative leader who "talks the talk" of ending big government actually walking the walk. Anne Applebaum had an interesting column in Slate the other day in which she observed that despite the rhetoric of limited government, Americans of all stripes -- conservatives included -- actually look to the U.S. government to do way too much. (The counter-terrorism behemoth unearthed by the Washington Post this week is a case in point.)

In contrast, David Cameron seems to be taking concrete steps to at least see if that much-vaunted phrase -- "community empowerment" -- really has legs (or, as he might put it, "oomph").

He may well fail. But he is, at the very least, adopting policies that are consistent with his rhetoric.

Amen to that.

Follow Delia on Twitter.