Exit, voice, loyalty: What’s a LibDem to do?

For the second day running a confluence of events got me thinking. At lunchtime yesterday I had an interesting discussion triggered by a recent paper (here for those who can access it) that uses Hirschman’s famous Exit, Voice, Loyalty framework to examine recent developments in education policy in the UK. Hirschman’s framework has been applied in a number of policy fields including, probably most prominently, the reform of public services.

Later on, in the aftermath of the tuition fee vote, I was mooching around the LibDem blogosphere and encountered a thought-provoking post by Richard Huzzey on LibDemVoice, explaining why he felt that resigning from the party was the only way he could register his unhappiness at the direction policy/the party appeared to be heading.

It seems to me that Hirschman’s framework could have something to say to any member of the party thinking about how to respond to the way the Coalition is evolving, and in particular those who are deeply unhappy with the leadership’s approach to the tuition fees issue (among others).