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5.3.1. What is participative democracy?

Participative democracy is the term for the active part played by the people in the working of democracy.  It is the willing contribution of citizens, individually or in groups and organisations making up what’s called “civil society”, to the political and social life of their society. It is also the so-called the “horizontal” links in a society, as opposed to the hierarchical or “vertical” links of representative democracy.  It does not replace representative democracy, but it does enrich it by restoring power of proposal to the citizens and organisations of civil society (OCS).

In order to guarantee this enrichment of representative democracy, it is necessary to improve five main processes of dialogue between citizens and OCS, on the one hand, and their elected representatives, on the other.

• CONDUCTING THE REFLECTION on the major social challenges which any society must always confront.
• LISTENING TO AND DEBATING with the public, gathering their opinions and bringing out the essential elements and the broad lines of agreement on the matter in question.
• DECIDING.  This process is the intrinsic responsibility of representative democracy.  Those elected are particularly responsible for respecting the values and undertakings on the basis of which they have been elected and, finally, formulating an answer which, in a democracy, will inevitably be the result of a compromise.  
• ACCOUNTING FOR the decision finally taken, being sure to identify properly and explain clearly the reasons which have led to the acceptance of any compromise and the work that remains to be done.
• CHECKING AND EVALUATING the implementation of the decisions finally taken.  This is a process in which the OCS ought to play a much bigger part.   

5.3.2. Why has participative democracy become a topical question ?

Because, at the beginning of this 21st Century, the public, being more and more educated, feel capable of taking part in the decision-making process.  They no longer wish to be thought of as “individuals by right” but rather as “participants”.  They aspire towards more direct democracy.  It is one of the attractions of the building of Europe, which has progressively developed the World politics level of the European Union and the local regional level of its citizens at the expense of the national level, which has become largely obsolete.   

Because, over the last decades of the past century, the elected representatives have given the impression that they look upon themselves increasingly as “owning the power” and less and less as those to whom “the power is conceded” to “serve” the electors.

See also: The WIKIPEDIA free encyclopaedia.
The discussions on  this subject in the The Permanent Forum of European Civil Society.

5.3.3. In what writings are the principles of this type of democracy to be found set out ?

In the Treaty on the European Union,  of Nice, which is currently in force,  the first article of Chapter 1 stipulates that “…. decisions are taken with the greatest possible respect for openness and as near as possible to the citizens.  The Union is founded on the European Communities complemented by the policies and forms of cooperation established by the present Treaty. Its task is to organise coherently and in solidarity relations between (and among?) the member states and their peoples   

You will notice that the words “participative democracy” aren’t there.

1. The first, explicit and formal, reference to the principle of participative democracy has been introduced in the Constitutional Treaty, in its article 1-47 (Part 1):
2. The institutions give, through the appropriate channels, to the citizens and the representative associations the possibility of making known and exchanging their opinions publicly in all fields of action of the Union.
3. The institutions hold an open, transparent and regular dialogue with the associations representing civil society.
4. With a view to guaranteeing the coherence and transparency of the actions of the Union, the Commission holds broad consultations of the parties concerned. Citizens of the Union, at least a million in number, nationals of a significant number of member states, can take the initiative of inviting the Commission, within the scope of its powers, to submit a suitable proposal on matters where these citizens consider that a juridical act of the Union is required for the purposes of the application of the Constitution. The  European law lays down the provisions concerning the procedures and conditions required for the presentation of such a citizens’ initiative, including the minimum number of member states from which the citizens presenting it must emanate.

This principle shall be formally applicable within the EU at such time as the Constitutional Treaty shall formally come into force.  It could also be so if the European authorities were freely to choose to put it into effect, particularly within the framework of the Commission’s dialogue with civil society.

5.3.4. What are the juridical and institutional conditions for a participative democracy?

There are two possible ways of looking at this question:

• One limits oneself to the principles set out in article 1-47 of the Constitutional Treaty (Part I) (idem : does not give the article in question), or
• One  considers that this article 1-47 is too restrictive.

 
If one limits oneself to the principles enunciated in article 1-47 (Part I) of the Constitutional Treaty, it is necessary at least that

• As far as paragraph. 4 of article 1-47 (right of initiative of European citizens) is concerned, a European law should be voted in and put into force to define the conditions for bringing this right into effect,
• That this law should oblige the European Commission to state publicly the grounds for the decision that it will take in response to the petition that it will receive from at least a million citizens and

• That this law should grant to the petitioners the right of appeal to an authority to be explicitly named (the Court of Justice, perhaps), should they feel that the grounds for the decision are contestable.

If, on the other hand, the principles set out in article 1-47 (Part 1) of the Constitutional Treaty are deemed too restrictive – which is what a lot of people think – it is up to civil society, to the European citizens, to set out a plan of action aimed at obtaining satisfaction of their demands.

This action plan should concentrate, for instance, on the five processes described in 5.3.1. and/or on those mentioned in 5.3.5.

5.3.5. Is participative democracy important and how could it be improved ?

Nowadays it is considered as the heart of democracy, which cannot be limited to free votes at regular intervals. For a democracy to live, the people need to be involved in the life of their society and in the decision-making networks. Some sociologists go so far as to say that a society can develop only when its citizens agree to devote themselves to it without charge. Since regular jobs give rise to remuneration, they have a neutralising effect, whereas the contributions of the members of a society without payment have an enriching effect. They also think that the “horizontal” links (see 5.3.1.) are more productive than the  “vertical”, or hierarchical links in a society.

The citizens are also entitled to wonder whether the European Commission should enjoy the exclusive right of initiative (i.e. the right to initiate a legislative process).  Shouldn’t this right also be also be recognised for Parliament and the European citizens (through referenda)?

In this connection see the discussion on the site of the Permanent Forum of European Civil Society)
      
Since the EU is a union of citizens and member states, is it fair that new treaties should be ratified  only by the member states and not also or first by the European citizens, either by the European Parliament, which represents them, or through a Pan-European referendum?

5.3.6. What is civil society?

Debate and opinions about this broad subject are still very confused..

To start the discussion, let’s say that, whilst it may be generally known what “social dialogue” is (dialogue among the State, the employers and the workers about economic questions), it is becoming increasing urgent, in this 21st century, to widen it to cover all those parties involved in generating “well-being for all” in our society.

In order to define just what this “well-being for all” is, the dialogue must no longer be merely “social” (in the restricted sense of the word) but must become “societal”.

From this point of view, civil society would represent all those concerned parties who are not represented in social dialogue as we have known it for nearly half a century.

Here, by way of information, are different references with a view to clarifying this concept:

• The definition of it that the European Commission gives.
• The definition given by the free encyclopaedia WIKIPEDIA
• The WIKI-EUROPA definition of the Permanent Forum
• The book “Towards a European Civil Society” published on the site of the Tribune of Civil Society (“Tribune de la Societe Civile”)

5.3.7. How does Civil Society participate now at the different European institutional levels:

There are two stumbling blocks to be overcome:  

• Civil Society is increasingly calling for participative democracy in order to make its voice heard.  Unfortunately, the failure of the legislator to recognise its power arises from the fact that it is still seen as a “pebble in the works” and those in charge in representative democracy too often look upon participative democracy as a competitor and not complementary.  It is true that you can’t be the judge of a case and a party to it: if civil society wishes to play its role as a counter-weight to power, it can’t participate in power.  There’s a tricky little dilemma to be resolved here.

• If the draft Constitution states that the institutions of the Union give to the citizens and the representative associations, through the appropriate channels, the possibility of making known and publicly exchanging their opinions on all fields of action of the Union, one keeps coming up against the idea of “the representative nature of the organisations of civil society”.

This notion of their “representative nature”, as far as the OCS and participative democracy are concerned, must be different from that accepted in relation to representative democracy.  The two essential criteria should be :

1. The credibility of the experience and knowledge that a given OCS can call upon in a specific problematical situation, and
2. its capacity to make people appreciate the power they have to resolve a specific problem. This last point is just a matter of how many effective members this or that OCS has.

Despite these difficulties, we should not overlook two paths towards participation existing today:

• The dialogue with civil society as it is already organised bu the Commission (see 5.2.10.) and

• The initiative taken by the European Economic and Social Committee in meeting civil society in a special LIAISON GROUP.