Demos was founded in 1993 by former
Marxism Today editor
Martin Jacques, and
Geoff Mulgan, who became its first director. It was formed in response to what Mulgan, Jacques and others saw as a crisis in politics in Britain, with voter engagement in decline and political institutions unable in their view to adapt to major social changes. Demos was conceived as a network of networks which could draw together different sources of ideas and expertise to improve public policy. In the run-up to the
1997 general election it was seen as being close to the
Labour Party, in particular its then leader
Tony Blair. It defines itself, however, as independent of any political party. Geoff Mulgan went on to work inside
Downing Street in 1997. At that time Demos was seen as central to
New Labour's vision for Britain. Between 1998 and 2006, under Director
Tom Bentley, it moved away from being just a think tank and an increasing part of its workload was described as 'public interest consultancy'. On 9 August 2006, in a speech at a Demos conference, British
Home Secretary Dr
John Reid stated that
Britons 'may have to modify their notion of
freedom', as a result of his plans, claiming that freedom is 'misused and abused by
terrorists'. Over the summer of 2008, Demos cut back its workforce (from 23 full-time staff in January 2008 to 17 by September 2008) and did not attend any political party conferences, leading to speculation that it was in financial difficulty. In 2010,
David Cameron, then leader of the opposition Conservative Party, launched Demos's Character Inquiry, giving a speech on the importance of parenting and early years support. Following his appointment in 2010, as Special Adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister,
Nick Clegg,
Richard Reeves stepped down as Demos's Director and was replaced by former Economic Secretary to the Treasury
Kitty Ussher. She left Demos in 2012, with
David Goodhart taking over as director. In 2011 Ben Rogers created
Centre for London within Demos, before establishing it as an independent registered charity in 2013. In January 2012, Demos set up the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media (CASM) to research trends in social media, and the role online conversations can play in political engagement and social policy research. CASM lead digital media monitoring for the 2015 British Election and focuses on how the rise of the digital world affects politics, policy and decision-making. In January 2014, Claudia Wood became Demos's Chief Executive. She joined Demos in 2009, after leading policy in other UK think tanks and in Tony Blair's strategy unit.
Polly Mackenzie joined Demos as the new Director in January 2018. She previously worked for Nick Clegg from 2006 to 2015, helping to write the 2010 Coalition Agreement, and served as Director of Policy to the Deputy Prime Minister from 2010 to 2015.
List of Directors and Chief Executives == Research ==