Contents
• Citizen
Participation: Brief Background and Concept
• Public
Activity Spaces for Citizen Participation
• Institutional
Conditions for Citizen Participation
• Advantages
and Difficulties of Citizen Participation
• Participatory
Democracy versus Representative Democracy?
• Is
Citizen Participation the Alternative?
The complex Latin American
reality is still characterized by poverty, social exclusion, high levels of
public and private corruption, human rights violations, and widespread
governmental inefficiency. This situation undoubtedly requires a new approach
that involves establishing institutional mechanisms that allow for the
unification of efforts between the State, citizens, and civil society to
construct viable short, medium, and long-term solutions in an environment of
freedom, inclusion, responsibility, and efficiency. In this context of needs,
specialists and experts have turned their attention to the possibility of
citizens participating in public management as an alternative for institutional
change and "improvement" of our democracies.
Is
it possible, then, to promote a new democratic functioning scheme where the
citizen, the people, and civil society take a leading role in front of the
State, its institutions, and its government? Can citizen participation
contribute to achieving the path of development, prosperity, and modernity in
our countries? Let's explore some of its distinctive features and perhaps then
draw conclusions.
Citizen Participation: Brief Background and
Concept
The incorporation of the
participation topic into the agenda of various governments in our region has
been progressive and motivated by several reasons. One of them was the
recognition of the State's inability to effectively and efficiently address the
diversity of demands and problems in its specific environment. This situation
led governments in the region to promote deregulation, privatization,
decentralization, and administrative deconcentration measures, trying to
incorporate the private sector in resolving an agenda full of unresolved
Issues.
Another
motivating cause for participation was the need to democratize relations
between the State and civil society as a modernizing element and a refreshing
of democracy as a political system (Venezuela was a typical case of this type
of initiative starting in the late 1980s).
A third path resulted
from the development of civil society itself, which, combined with the
emergence of new political leaderships in Latin America, also contributed to
opening spaces for individuals to participate in public management.
The
emergence of new managerial approaches and State reform fostered new forms of
accountability and control of public management through the incorporation of
communities and specific social sectors (New Public Management from the 1990s).
Finally, the presence of multilateral development and technical
cooperation organizations (the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank,
the Andean Development Corporation, or the United Nations Development
Programme) has also contributed to the expansion of this participatory trend
through training programs and even financing local development projects that
involve co-management of official and private entities.
In
very simple terms, citizen participation is the process by which citizens,
directly or through their associative expressions, influence certain
governmental processes that define public policies. That is, through citizen
participation, individuals, communities, and organized social sectors have the
opportunity to intervene in various ways in resolving certain matters of
collective interest. But being even more direct, we must indicate that this
citizen intervention in public affairs translates into the possibility of
participating in three fundamental events: namely, the formulation, execution,
and control of public policies. We will make some very brief comments on these
three aspects.
Citizen participation in the
formulation of public policies implies the obligation of governmental entities
to: i) define the administrative acts that may be subject to consultation
(laws, regulations, plans, programs, or investment projects, urban or urban
planning ordinances, to name a few); and ii) establish the conditions,
mechanisms, procedures, and duration of each respective public consultation. It
should be added that the complexity of these civic consultation processes will
depend on the political-territorial scope where they are carried out, whether
at the national, state (provincial, state, departmental), and municipal (local)
levels.
On the
other hand, citizen participation in the execution of public policies is
somewhat clearer. Indeed, there is much more experience in this area in the
Latin American region. In this regard, it is enough to recall the processes of
privatization, public concessions, decentralization, or agreements with private
parties (with or without profit motives) for the provision of certain services.
Finally, the concept of
citizen participation directly implies the exercise of social control. This
social control involves the participation of citizens, communities, and
organized social sectors in the supervision, control, and monitoring of public
policies with national, regional, local, and community impact, with special
emphasis on those aimed at human development. Social control is an important
and strategic segment of citizen participation that requires extensive and
urgent technical and legislative development to make it a reality effectively
and efficiently.
Public Activity Spaces for Citizen Participation
On the other hand, and to reflect on the relevance of citizen
participation as a new paradigm of democratic functioning, we must distinguish
its different areas of impact within governmental activity. Indeed, citizen
participation initiatives for better understanding can be located in six
distinct areas of public activity that are clearly distinguishable. Let's see.
One
of them is citizen participation linked to the social sector. Here, citizen
initiatives, those driven by organized communities and other specific sectors
of society, would have the right to co-manage public educational, health,
cultural, sports policies, and those related to housing construction and
related services.
A
second area of operation is the economic one, which also offers the possibility
for the incorporation of civil society in the management of public programs
related to the so-called social economy, such as the development of
agricultural cooperatives, popular markets, savings banks, and
micro-enterprises.
A third
area for citizen participation is represented by the defense of human rights
against the State, more specifically against the judicial and
penal-penitentiary system, and against possible abuses from entities within the
private sphere of society. The defense of gender, children's and adolescents'
rights, the elderly, political or conscience prisoners, freedom of expression,
and environmental rights, among others, are a field where social volunteering
and thematic organizations have consolidated their presence and operational
capacity.
Another
sector for the development of citizen participation is linked to local
planning, which includes municipal planning, urban development, urban planning,
and the incorporation of citizens and organized communities in the discussion
of public budgets. In this particular sector, notable successes have been
achieved in our America, such as the participatory budget experiences in the
Municipality of Caron( (ALMACARONI) in the state of Bolivar (Venezuela) and, of
course, the renowned and more well-known participatory budget experience
carried out in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Citizen
participation in the processes of electing peace judges and community
representatives to local management bodies (urban or environmental authorities)
is another significant segment for the exercise of a citizen democracy.
Finally, we
must mention the classic form of citizen participation (this of a political
nature and directly linked to the democratic system) that refers to the
possibility of electing members and components of the different branches of the
State. Here we refer to the possibility of electing Presidents, Vice
Presidents, Governors, and Mayors within the executive branch. To select
Senators, Deputies, State Representatives, and Councilors in the legislative
power and to elect other officials such as Magistrates within the judicial
power or Rectors or members of electoral bodies. Political participation would
also imply the right to convene and conduct referendums, constitutional,
constituent, and even recall consultations (as in the Venezuelan case) and also
the possibility of presenting legislative initiatives by citizens in the
different legislative bodies that each Republic possesses.
Institutional Conditions for Citizen
Participation
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Participation as a citizen event, as a social process, requires the fulfillment
of a series of conditions for its full exercise. A first institutional
condition is the indispensable existence of a democratic legal framework that
supports, promotes, and supports the exercise of citizen participation directly
or semi-directly (through their associations) in an environment of equality,
transparency, simple procedures, and timely responses. A second condition is
that the practice of citizen participation develops within ethical principles
based on honesty, solidarity, tolerance, free criticism, and responsibility.
Thirdly, citizen participation requires the development of educational programs
aimed at raising the civic and participatory capacities of citizens,
communities, and organized social sectors in a democratic, plural, and free
framework. But also, and linked to the previous point, the participatory
process requires the implementation of a training and training process for
members of public bureaucracies as a direct counterpart to the technical
processes and events that would derive from the new participatory condition of
the administration. Fourthly, the State and its institutions must facilitate
organizational, technical, and technological resources, informational and
computer resources, and physical spaces for the effective fulfillment of
citizen participation processes. A fifth condition is the timely and sufficient
provision by the State of budgetary resources to guarantee the functioning of
the different citizen participation bodies. Finally, for the realization of
citizen participation processes, strong support and political commitment from
governmental forces in alliance with organized civil society are needed.
Without a firm political conviction, citizen participation will only be a
declaration of well-intentioned principles.
Advantages and Difficulties of Citizen
Participation
The
practice of citizen participation in its transcendence entails a series of
advantages and risks that should not be avoided in this global overview we have
undertaken around the topic.
Let's start
with the most relevant advantages.
One
of the benefits of citizen participation is its direct contribution to the
increase of Social
Capital.
Indeed, participation strengthens citizen associativity, cooperation, and
solidarity, civic
awaæness,
anu values. UI coulse, Mils conuluon requires an Insuwuonal e1101L 
governmental agencies to
consolidate these established links and their benefits. Similarly,
participation favors the Empowerment of Citizenship and the most vulnerable
Communities. Under a governmental paradigm based on participation, it allows
the fulfillment of four key characteristics of empowerment, such as access to
information, inclusion, responsibility, and civic organization capacities.
Thirdly, participation also
allows the articulation of Networks as alternative and autonomous
organizational means of communities and organized social sectors in solving
their problems. Networks contribute to the exchange of experiences among
citizens, thus strengthening their negotiation capacity and independence from
the State. Lastly, a participatory scheme substantially redefines the
relationships between the State and civil society, under a framework of
belonging, co-responsibility, and mutual accountability and control.
Citizen participation has
some difficulties. The first, which is obvious, is the possible hindrance of
government management due to the presumed continuous realization of
consultation processes and hearings with the citizenry. Added to this is (and
it is not a risk but a reality) the resistance of the public bureaucracy in our
countries to accept "the invasion" of an external agent (the
citizenry) into their patrimonial domain. Similarly, it must be mentioned that
citizen participation is prone to being manipulated for clientelist and
political-party purposes, thus distorting its essence of citizen protagonism.
Lastly, citizen participation cannot be seen or idealized as a panacea under
the risk of wanting to replace it with the natural instances of government
without any result.
Participatory Democracy versus Representative
Democracy?
A redefinition of the
functioning of democracy should not be based on the false dichotomy of "a
representative democracy versus a participatory one." Participation and
representation are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, they are two intimately
linked and even inseparable qualities. All democracy is based on the
combination of three strategic aspects, such as: i) the direct and/or
semi-direct participation of its citizens; ii) the presence of representative
public entities, and iii) the separation and independence of the executive,
legislative, and judicial powers. As we have seen, through participation,
citizens have the opportunity to influence the events that occur in the
instances that make up a democratic model of government. Therefore, there is no
antagonism between participation and representation.
Is Citizen Participation the Alternative?
And
why not? The path to prosperity and development of our continent is a shared
responsibility between citizens and their associative expressions in a leading
role and the State as the ultimate guarantor of the nation's order. This
historical situation is unavoidable.
Continuing under statist
models, where the will of the citizenry remains hijacked by the omnipresence of
a single actor, is to continue navigating in failure, blaming external factors
for our own mistakes and our lack of future vision. The time for citizens has
come. The opportunity to start a new model of government open to citizens:
responsible, democratic, plural, and inclusive is in front of us. The only
possible mistake is not to embark on this path.
Miguel
Gonzålez Marregot. Venezuelan educator, with postgraduate studies in Political
Science at Simon Bolivar University. Specialist in Public Management from the
Venezuelan Institute of Planning, IVEPLAN. Elected representative to the Local
Council of Public Planning (CLPP) of the Baruta Municipality (2004-2006
period). President of the Permanent Commission of
Institutional
Affairs and Public Security of the CLPP. Advisor to the Chacao Municipality,
Miranda
state, in the area of Citizen Participation and Social Capital. ciudadanolibre@gmail.com
Rights
reserved PADH - UASB Andean Human Rights Program - Andean University Simon
Bolivar
Andean Contributions Journal No. 14. Participation and Citizenship. July 2005
http://www.uasb.edu.ec/padh
