By Simone Galimberti*
KATHMANDU, Nepal | 30 October 2024 (IDN) — Slowly around the world, a new approach to democracy is spreading. Moving from academic circles, led by innovative political scientists to mainstream society, it is a dynamic that is centered on a myriad of different but equally important practices on the ground.
This process of democratic renewal could be defined as the rise of deliberative democracy where citizens have the opportunity, through a variety of modalities, to openly and inclusively discuss and decide on matters that they care and attach importance to. In truth, it is much more than that.
Be it climate action or new regulations that could improve the health care or issues pertaining homelessness, deliberative practices bring people representing the whole segments of the society, including those who never ever got involved into public policies. They come together to learn and discuss through an unbiased approach based on reasoning.
This, while it can be easily discounted, can instead make a whole difference. Old biases and preconcepts that participants might have held before the start of proceedings, give away to respectful discussions, including through group work that, at the end, will lay the foundations for solutions to be agreed by the majority.
Democracy Next
For example, DemocracyNext, recently partnered with the MIT Center for Constructive Communication, Healthy Democracy and a consortium of civic organizations from Oregon, USA to bring citizens together to talk about and propose recommendations on homelessness, a pressing issue with devastating effects.
As explained by George Anders for the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the process was literally transformative for the vast majority of the participants. Though the recommendations emerging from the exercise, conducted over two weekends, are not binding, local authorities are positive and remain open to discuss them.
Democracy Next is also innovating throughout the world and not only in the Global North.
At the end of September, it announced that it will start working in three more cities, including Kerewan in The Gambia.
Part of DemocracyNext Cities Program, the effort will be at turning around, bit by bit, the way local governments work not by advocating a total radical approach that completely parts ways with the current procedures and practices.
Rather, based on the organization’s own publication, Six Ways to Democratize City Planning—Enabling Thriving and Healthy Cities, the cities will embrace innovative democratic practices from the within. These are just few of the many initiatives emerging around the world.
There is an increasing number of not-for-profits and local governments, and also national governments, like Ireland and Iceland and Mongolia, are trying to fix the way traditional democracy works by opening up and being inclusive also by considering changes in the constitution.
Democracy Innovation Forum
For example, just few weeks ago, between the 9th and 11th of October, the Democracy Innovation Forum was held in Spain with panel discussions, presentations on the emerging patterns that are shaping all the efforts aimed at changing democracy for better.
To really have new democratic practices to emerge and consolidate, we need a variety of approaches and a clear open mindset on co-creating and adjusting new solutions to the different circumstances, also depending on the issues being tried to solve.
In a recent event, some key common lesson learned were highlighted, what I would call as “foundational aspects” that must be taken into consideration while doing and promoting democracy innovations.
Led by People Powered and the BAN KI-moon Foundation, the Climate Democracy Forum that brought together many key experts on democratic innovation and climate action, highlighted the fact that “effective climate solutions cannot be imposed from above—they need to be built with impacted communities”.
Working with local governments and civil societies to change the way decisions are made by involving the people, meaningfully rather than through tokenistic fashion, is paramount.
And it must be at the core of any broader reforms of democracy but there are also efforts beyond what it is now referred to deliberative democracy.
This is what the Open Government Partnership is trying to do since its initiation in 2011.
With a unique governance that brings together national and local governments and civil society organizations, the Partnership promotes key reforms that can greatly make governance more effective and inclusive.
Working on policy areas like inclusion, anti-corruption and integrity, justice and digital spaces, the members of the OGP commit to a two year Action Plan Cycles where they collaboratively work with local stakeholders to reform their institutions and approaches.
In an attempt at making the whole process truly impactful and real, the members have to commit to an accountability mechanism through which they must report their progresses and challenges.
Leaders Roundtable
On the sidelines of the 79th General Assembly, the OGP Leaders Roundtable was held with Helen Clark, OGP Ambassador and former Prime Minister of New Zealand, moderating the event.
Attendees from some of the most prominent philanthropic organizations working on democracy and representatives of local and national governments that are members of the initiative, discussed ways to promote citizen’s engagement and participation in the civic life.
According to the web site of the OGP, one of the participants, Vinicius Marques de Carvalho, Minister of the Office of the Comptroller General, Federative Republic of Brazil underscored how “by increasing openness, transparency, and access to information, we encourage greater participation which itself reinforced the protection of civic space and ultimately, safeguard democracy”.
In February next year, the Government and the civil society of the Philippines will organize the 2025 OGP Asia and Pacific Regional Meeting. This type of initiative where ownership of the organizing the event is shared by multiple stakeholders that are not so often very inclined to work together on the ground, can tremendously help the conversation on reforming democracy in a region that often disregard and neglect democratic practices and human rights.
To support the process of change, the OGP has initiated the so-called Open Government Challenge, a “call to action for all members of OGP to raise ambition in ten areas of open government to help strengthen our democracies”.
Democracy is under stress in many parts of the world. We need a steadfast commitment to re-thinking it through an open attitude and mindset that would encourage different but complementary approaches that operate from the bottom of the society and from the within the government.
There are many ways of improving the way decision making works and thy way governments operate. Working, for example on anti-corruption or access to information cannot be done in a silo as it often happens. Citizens’ assemblies are a part of the solution that can support other reforms outside and within the government’s structures.
What is needed is a long vision and enduring capacity and willingness at coordinating standing alone initiatives that, put together and coordinated, can truly mark a change and ensure that democracy is truly by the people and with the people, not just in words but in real deeds.
*Simone Galimberti writes about the SDGs, youth-centered policy-making and a stronger and better United Nations. [IDN-InDepthNews]
Image source: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
