Summary Of Phil Parvin's Essay Against Localism

Phil Parvin’s article ‘Against Localism: Does Decentralising Power to Communities Fail Minorities?’ effectively outlines the drawbacks of localism by contrasting the views of established politicians and academics with his own in order to strengthen his argument. Moreover, the use of facts and real world examples within the article, allow the author to formulate an educated opinion on why localism threatens minorities. Due to the articles nature of being part of the political journal ‘Political Quarterly’ it can, therefore, be anticipated that its purpose is to discuss current political issues. For example the Political Quarterly blog states, “It aims to provide access to current academic debates and draw on critical intellectual arguments ,” which is evident within the article as it addresses the current issue of the decline in political participation. Moreover the use of up to date statistics (relevant to the time which the article was written) such as “35 per cent of English voters turned out in the 2008 local elections ,” aids the articles purpose of discussing current affairs.

For example, the article mentions how “ 17 per cent of those who voted in Barking voted for the British National Party .” This is significant considering the fact Barking has a population of “25,000 non-white people ,” which, therefore, provides evidence of how localism could “condemn minorities to the whims of local majorities .” From this example it is evident that one of the ways in which Parvin succeeds in conveying his argument is through the use of relevant facts and