- The Big Society was a core theme of the Conservative Party leading up to the 2010 UK election but confusion arose around its meaning on the campaign trail. - After forming a coalition government, the Conservatives continued promoting the Big Society agenda through the new Office for Civil Society and related policy papers, but significant cuts to public and third sector funding posed challenges to its vision. - While some policies built on existing trends around public services, community organizing, and social enterprises, analysts debate whether the Big Society represents a truly new direction or is more rhetoric than substance given tensions between its decentralized, bottom-up ideals and top-down policy implementation amid spending reductions.