Participative democracy

The participative democracy recovers concepts making it possible to increase the implication and the participation of the Citoyen S in the public debate and the decision making policies which is followed from there. The participative democracy takes as a starting point the concepts set up since 1960 in many companies on the organization and the improvement of the work stations (Ergomotricité). Compared to the Representative democracy (sometimes indicated under the name of " democracy délégative" and d'" aristocracy élective"), the participative democracy is an analog and digital system in which, according to one of the meanings of the term, the people delegate his power (representatives are thus charged to propose and vote laws and nominations), while preserving it (the people seize itself directly such questions, via a petition of a fraction of the electorate or an interactivity in the form of debates of proximity). It is interesting to understand that means of interactivity suggested by the various media (telephone Internet, press, messages, cat, etc…) can be controlled and do not have a democratic vocation inevitably. Moreover, the other systems claiming itself of this title inevitably do not require the use of this type of means, and develop others exchanges ensuring the bijective transparency between concerned and decision makers.

Bases of participative democracy are

right wide and frequent of Vote, which makes it possible to directly provide the legislative Initiative to the citizens (see low the Swiss system of the Direct democracy)
the dynamic dialog, which results in free debates of function professional and/or institutional, treating as well the decisions with local scales as those having a national impact.
an organized system guaranteeing that all the constructive ideas (and news) of the inhabitants will be examined in an effective way. The absence of such a system often causes the failure of the experiments, by discouragement of the citizens and the elected officials.

An important constraint is that all measurements are acceptable, as far as possible, by the large majority of the people concerned and in the direction of the " Community property ". The implication of the citizen in the debate or the controversy which precedes political decision making, is carried out indeed on several levels and within several frameworks.

The technological means brought and developed currently make it possible to apply in particular these principles via Internet, and taking into account the exponential vocation of these media to share the questionings and problems of any nature, it inevitably implies an interest for this mode of sociological composition.

Which is the contribution of a thorough participative democracy?

The elected assemblies obtain appendices gathering of the representatives of the “civil society”.

Thus the National Assembly has her Economic and Social Council (THESE), the Région also (the CESR). the Department of Ille-et-Vilaine as surely of others recently established Advisory committees. The agglomerations were made associate the Councils of Development. Many cities have Advisory committees, the Councils of Districts, etc

In these councils and committees, the participations are of two types:

to carry a particular word of a category of citizen (people of the district, partisans of such opinion, employees, users, consumers, etc)
to confront its action with the other actors of the public life: political elected officials, public administrations and other participants in the committee or council.

The majority of the participants places itself as an expert of a lived situation (In the name of which speaks?) and as an actor of ground (in what this organized confrontation will influence the action which it takes itself and those of the others?) going even until tying Partnership S credits on particular subjects. This consciously or not.

Does the experiment enable us to say that the participants who confine themselves with the first aspect tire quickly, feel “democratic alibi” (But which is most representative? The elected official of the vote for all or the car-indicated citizen?) and often leave their seat empties… except if their participation is remunerated!

The organization of the composition of these councils or committees should take account of these two aspects. Too much often, only the aspect “consultation” is proposed and one forgets the aspect “exchanges between actors”, therefore to invite certain actors (As for example the two actors of the social dialog who are wage earners associations and employers!)

The contribution of the participative democracy can develop with several levels: · in the opinion of expert citizen of a typical location, or who has good ideas without being necessarily experts · actions prolonging and deepening in quantity and quality the public action · initiatives developing the social action. This contribution is an essential and essential contribution for social cohesion.

Including/understanding this appreciation, the funds of a company European obliges the carriers of projects to obtain an advisory committee which follows and evaluates the action: quality, conformity with the posted objectives, council with the actors, places users, etc in an ambition of Sustainable development being pressed on the three pillars, economic, social and environmental.

Participative democracy and direct democracy

A mode is not a Direct democracy that if it removed any delegation of powers, in particular legislature, or all at least if it has a very limited Représentation.

The concept of participative democracy does not imply necessarily this removal of the national representation, but it makes it coexist with decision-making processes characteristic of the Direct democracy. In this direction the concept of participative democracy halfway recovers organizations between the representation and the Auto-gestion.

One of the theorists who posed the philosophical bases of the Direct democracy is Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Perverse effects induced by the participative democracy

the term of participative democracy has been essential for a few years in the political language. It is besides called upon to indicate extremely varied realities, and tends to becoming a simple tool rhetoric, masking a vacuity of the political discourse.

the development of a participative procedure, by associating the most citizens possible with decision making, atomizes this one. That, with a certain degree, creates an infinity of poles of decision and can cancel the possibility even of an effective decision making. In fine , the capacity is likely to return to the authority which initiated the procedure to know, generally, the traditional political power in evil of recognition.

In the participative procedure, it is difficult to know if the opinion of the people concerned is based on objective considerations, or if they only act to defend their personal interests. Moreover the veracity of information which was used as a basis for the argumentation of the individuals cannot be easily established in the participative process. Thus, the excessive implication of Recipients of the type ONG, in a procedure of participative democracy interesting the relations of the companies with the territories, excluding the traditional actors from the State and the areas, which they are elected or members of central administrations or decentralized, can hide an indirect influence international organizations, and lead to a weakening of the decision-making processes related to the Souveraineté, and to a reduction in the authority of the State and actors regional.

To a certain extent, the participative democracy is sometimes associated with the Populisme (political): it is a call to the people, without the mediations offered by the representative democracy (Parliament, elections, vote).

Participative procedures

General states

Example: general states of research.

COPCEL

The communal Councils of development

Example: Common/Sangkat Councils Development Processes related to decentralization to the Kampuchea.

The Councils of children and young people

Example: councils and authorities gathered in France within the Anacej (National association of the councils of children and young people).

There are also the CDJSVA (the Departmental Council of the Youth of the Sports and Community life) in which elderly from 16 to 26 years, named by the prefect, work on problems of youth.

CNJ (National council of Youth) gathers as for him 170 young people of all France (a representative of each CDJSVA, members of association of the CNAJEP, parties policy, trade unions, other associations). Elected for two years, the members work in 4 commissions. They draw up every 6 months a relationship with their proposals which is sent to the members of Parliament, with the members of the government like to the presidents of general advices and regional. Its proposals can give rise to new laws or new decrees. CNJ is chaired by the minister in charge for youth

Source: www.conseilsdelajeunesse.org

There also exists of the other shapes of participation of the children, in particular through workshops of participative town planning. The Institute of Town and country planning and Environment of the University of Rheims undertook during nearly six months a participative experiment with the children of the school pole Jean Monnet to Bréviandes in the Aube. In this manner, the children could discover and include/understand the operation of the communal territory like working out in the form of drawings and of models of the proposals for an installation of the accesses of the school pole. Loïc VOLUER, student of IATEUR produced a research besides on the relevance of the participation of the children in a local project of installation after having observed and having analyzed the experiment of Bréviandes.

Source: Internet site of the IATEUR

Conferences of consensus

The conferences of consensus, also called conferences of citizens, bring together citizens drawn with the fate and charged with delivering a report on a project. They are organized by a public authority (administration, parliamentary commission) which has a decision-making power on the project. Contrary to the conciliation meetings or the simple public briefings, the conferences of consensus suppose:

an implication of citizens who are not necessarily concerned directly by the project
thorough information given to these citizens by experts

The citizens who take part in the conference of consensus return a report/ratio which does not have an obligatory force for the administration.

The conferences of consensus aim to enrich the debate by confronting the points of view by people of various origins. The intervention of the experts makes it possible to avoid the risk of amateurism.

The conferences of consensus were launched to the Denmark in the years 1980 and are practiced today in other countries, in particular in the field of the public health. They are particularly adapted on subjects to at the same time technical and ethical dimension, on which the projects can profit from an opinion of citizens themselves lit by the information given by the experts.

Elements of the participative procedures

Drawing lot (sortition or Stochocratie)

Some participative democracies

The experiments of participative democracy undertaken in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre were largely imitated in the whole world, and always have the appearance of a model.

The Venezuela even presents aspects of participative democracy registered in its constitution. The preamble to the constitution fixes thus like supreme primary goal of:

" refonder the Republic to establish an democratic society, participative and actress multi-ethnic and pluri-cultural protagonist, in a State of justice, federal and decentralized which consolidates the values of freedom, independence, peace, solidarity, the community property, the territorial integrity, the user-friendliness and the authority of the law for this generation and the future generations; to guarantee the right to the life, work, the culture, education, social justice and the equality without discrimination, nor subordination none; "
(Constitution bolivarienne of the Republic of Venezuela, Caracas December 15th, 1999.)

In practice, the participation is established through the town councils which allow the communities organized (200 to 400 families in urban areas) to manage they same the public policies which relate to them (Development, implemented, control, evaluation). The assembly of the citizens is sovereign when it is a question of making the great decisions, to elect the doors words, as well as the members of the various bodies which compose the town council: the executive body, the financial unit of management, the control unit of the town council. Set up at the month of April 2006, to mitigate the deficiencies of the Local Councils of Public Planning (which were only equipped with an advisory capacity and Co-manager), but especially with an aim of putting an end to corruption and the clientelism which characterize the administration of Venezuela, the number of the town councils is currently established with 22.000 units. Within 2 years they should however net the whole of the territory and be stabilized in the neighborhoods from the 50.000. If they manage to be institutionalized, i.e. to return in manners of the company vénézuélienne, the town councils will be at the origin of a small revolution in the history of the democracy. As Blondiaux and Manin underline it, the legitimacy of a measurement would not depend only any more on the nature of the authority which takes it but in the way in which it is taken, of the procedure in which it fits. It would represent a qualitative jump then since it would tend to democratize the democracy, to redefine its horizon towards the reinforcement of the capacity citizen, heard like elective capacity but also, and it is that the innovation, legislature and executive.

See the political reform of the Kampuchea

The Suisse presents in its institutions a certain number of procedures concerned with the participative democracy.

For 30 years, have created for themselves autonomous District committees, association S inhabitants, with Roubaix which remains a city with the avant-garde of the participative democracy and social progresses. Thus, one finds there also a Fund of Participation of Inhabitants (FPH), the Councils of districts, and intense community life. For example, the District committee of Hommelet regularly organizes visits of district, animations festive, meetings on the projects of town planning, and manages a divided garden, in heart of small island. It carries in particular the collective " I Thus Think I Vote " who proposes debates in relation to the elections.

Swiss example, the Direct democracy

The Direct democracy is practiced in Suisse, in its cantons and its communes.

The most important laws (in particular those concerning the international treaties) are subjected automatically to the popular vote (obligatory Référendum); any other law (except for certain reserved domains) also can the being if a definite number citizens requires it by a petition (optional Référendum). Moreover, one number fixed citizens can require (from where the popular term of Initiative) the vote of a revision partial of the Constitution (constitutional Initiative), or, in certain cantons only, the legiferation in a particular field (legislative Initiative). In certain communes and cantons, the people are sometimes consulted for the expenditure higher than a certain amount.

A Swiss citizen goes to the ballot boxes several times per year and comes to a conclusion most of the time about several objects (between one and eight each time). For as much, the participation in these Votation S is often weak (often lower than 50%), even if in several cantons the vote can from now on be done by correspondence. In the Canton of Schaffhouse the vote is obligatory and the failure with this obligation is sanctioned by a fine (symbolic system). The participation is higher if the objects subjected to the vote are of great importance.

This system, as practiced in Switzerland, is not a residue of a broader democracy: during the formation of the Swiss Federal state in 1848, country, and the cantons practitioner not the Landsgemeinde, was a Representative democracy pure. It is little by little that the popular rights were gradually wide.

Regional examples

Many communes and areas of the world apply under one or the other form the principle of the participative democracy. See like examples: in France

Lille,
Pont-de-Claix, the Budgetary Advisory counsel
Villard-of-Lans,
Roubaix, pionnière city of the North of France
Poitou-Charentes
Vandoeuvre,
Large-Dijon,
St-Etienne
Grigny 69520
Ivry-sur-Seine
Montataire
Grenoble
Nantes
Turns
Bréviandes

in Belgium

Walloon region

in Germany

Potsdam

in Brazil

Porto Alegre

in Dominican Republic

Villa Gonzalez
Cibao

with the Venezuela

Constitutional forecasts in Europe

Until now, no national constitution of the State-Nation of Europe envisages the participative democracy. It is only the " Treaty carrying a Constitution européenne" , in its article I-47 mentions this principle:

Article I-47: Principle of the participative democracy

1. The institutions give, by the adapted ways, with the citizens and citizens and with representative associations the possibility of making known and of exchanging theirs publicly opinions in all the fields of action of the Union.

2. The institutions maintain an opened, transparent and regular dialog with representative associations and the civil society.

3. In order to ensure the coherence and the transparency of the actions of the Union, the Commission hold broad consultations of the parts concerned.

4. Citizens and citizens of the Union, with the number of a million at least, amenable to one significant number of Member States, can take the initiative to ask the Commission, within the framework of its attributions, to submit a suitable proposal on questions for which these citizens and citizens consider that a legal document of the Union is necessary to the ends of the application of the Constitution. The European law stops the relative tendencies with the procedures and requirements for the presentation of such an initiative citizen, including the minimum number of Member States whose citizens and citizens who present it must come.

The United States

Barack Obama, one of the candidates démocrattes to the presidential nomination of 2008, takes as a starting point the ideas of the American sociologist Saul Alinsky by using the concept of “participative democracy”.

See too

External bonds

the project of National Brainstorming Québécois site.
Public debate: observatory of the public debates (particularly those having a shutter Internet)
Enitiatives.ch - the site of Participative democracy in Switzerland, where each citizen can express, vote for the ideas of the others and even launch his initiative!
Panel of Citizens European on the roles of the rural territories in Europe of tomorrow

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