Against private power: a democracy agenda beyond Charter 88

Since Charter 88, democratisation efforts in the UK have focused on constitutional reform to change the internal structures of the Westminster state. Today, however, the major challenge for democracy comes from our degraded public sphere, and from the emergence of new forms of private power operating outside of the state. This article therefore argues for the development of a new kind of democracy agenda – one that looks beyond the state itself, and focuses instead on rebuilding the public sphere and on confronting the new forms of private power.