Big Society

The Big Society was a sociopolitical concept of the first 15 years of the 21st century, developed by the populist Steve Hilton, that sought to integrate free market economics with a conservative paternalist conception of the social contract that was influenced by the 1990s civic conservatism of David Willetts. The Big Society influenced the 2010 UK Conservative Party general election manifesto and the legislative programme of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement. The relevant policy areas were devolved in Northern Ireland, in Scotland and in Wales, to, respectively, the Northern Ireland Executive, the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government.

British PM David Cameron, and subsequent British Governments, declined to publicly use the term "Big Society" after 2013. The Big Society Network was dissolved in 2014 and the unfavourable conclusive Big Society audit, by Civil Exchange, was published in January 2015.