Hope motivates, guilt doesn't, says Labour councillor and aid campaigner.

'Hope sells, but guilt absolutely doesn't. Guilt is not a sustainable way of generating political momentum', councillor Kirsty McNeill told the Fabian New Year conference session on democracy.

McNeill, a Southwark Labour councillor who works for the aid campaigning group DATA, told the session that parties would fail to revitalise themselves because they did not understand how to recruit and mobilise voluntary activism. Single-issue groups and charities were often now more effective at this.

'Political parties continue to use guilt as their primary organisational strategy. One friend described attending his first Labour party meeting as like being mugged because he was subject to a such a ferocity of martyrdom that he felt he had to sign up to be a officer and to leaflet every week and those were obligations he didn't have time for', she told the session.

The 'where were you when?' frame of mind needed to be replaced with an acceptance that different people had different contributions to make, whether it was running a coffee morning or a mums and toddlers group, said McNeill. Political ideas were sold at school gates and bus stops, and to people directly, she added. An effective example of this was the way that the US Republican Party had gained support by campaigning at local level.

Michael Wills MP also argued for change. He said that "we are at a critical time in our democracy" and "we need to look at the way the legislature operates: and the relationship between the executive and legislature."

He added that that he felt that there needed to be a rebalancing of power with the current political system with some power moving away from MPs to give 'people more direct control'.

He felt that the Labour Party could learn from the Liberal Democrats and Conservative Party in how they campaigned locally and looked for new ways of encouraging participation.

Gerry Stoker, professor of politics and author, argued that improving the public's understanding of politics was vital for the future and would help increase belief in democracy. Representative democracy was 'not very good at the moment' and needed to do more to tell people 'when decisions are being made', he said.

He described politics as 'a complex exchange' and added 'I think we could do a lot more to make representative politics better'.

Democracy: what would restore trust? with Michael Wills MP; Kirsty McNeill, Soutwark Councillor and DATA; Gerry Stoker, University of Southampton; Chair: Meg Russell (UCL and Fabian Executive). This panel debate took part at the Fabian New Year Conference 'The Next Decade; on January 13, 2007, at Imperial College London.

Event report by Rachael Jolley.