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5 December 1991
Doc. 6537
Report
on citizens' participation in politics
(Rapporteur : Mrs HAGLUND, Sweden, Conservative)
SUMMARY
Continuing its action to promote the deepening and broadening of the concept and practice of democracy, the Parliamentary Assembly, in co-operation with the Liaison Committee of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) enjoying consultative status with the Council of Europe, held a conference on the theme of "Politics and Citizens" in Budapest from 15 to 17 May 1991.
In the light of the proceedings of the Conference, which was attended by parliamentarians and NGO and media representatives from throughout Europe, the Assembly has noted a growing apathy towards politics among citizens in all countries. While some of the reasons for this are debatable, others are the subject of a consensus, viz: the difficulty of dialoguing with public authorities; the shortcomings of the media as a channel of information about citizens' concerns and aspirations, NGOs' initiatives and parliamentary activities; and the inadequacy of the facilities available to elected representatives for meeting their consultation and documentation needs.
In its resolution, the Assembly encourages national parliaments to obtain the means necessary to the implementation of their role and makes proposals with a view to improving the conditions in which NGOs participate in public life, providing the resources they need to perform their roles and ensuring that the training of responsible citizens starts at school. In a recommendation, it also requests the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to strengthen its co-operation with NGOs.
I. DRAFT RESOLUTION
1. During a conference held in the Budapest Parliament building from 15 to 17 May 1991, the Parliamentary Assembly convened elected representatives and NGOs1 and media representatives from Western, Central and Eastern Europe to analyse the situation of long-standing and recently-established pluralistic democracies.
2. The Assembly recalls the keen concern expressed in its Resolution 800 (1983): "Democracy atrophies without frequent participation by citizens who should wherever possible, be consulted on matters concerning them, through appropriate mechanisms", and notes that the present situation, as revealed by the work of the conference, is far from satisfactory.
3. Democracies consolidated by decades of existence are suffering from the growing indifference of citizens to political life and the decline in the rate of citizens' participation in elections.
4. Among the reasons cited for this state of affairs, particular emphasis was laid on:
i. the insufficient attention paid to NGOs by elected representatives, parties and government authorities. Greater heeding of NGOs which comprise the active members of society, would facilitate the conduct of the political process;
ii. the insufficient means granted to parliamentarians to meet their needs for information and consultation vis-à-vis citizens and NGOs;
iii. the failings of the media and particularly the audio-visual media which concentrate on "sensational stories", confine themselves to a superficial and "slanted" presentation of news items and neglect their role as a means of expression and participation at the service of citizens and their associations.
5. The countries of Eastern and Central Europe have to contend with the considerable problems generated by reforms that are required to change not only structures but also attitudes. The instilling of a sense of responsibility in citizens in the face of the implications of the democratisation of society on the one hand, and recognition of the emancipation of citizens and their needs by the public authorities on the other, are at their early stages.
6. The Assembly notes however that:
i. denunciation of the shortcomings of parliamentary democracies does not call into question attachment to the representative system "considered to be the best and the only one acceptable"; ii. the conference revealed a number of gaps in relations between elected representatives and NGOs which, if they were filled, would pave the way for the advent of a civil society in Western Europe and for the regeneration of citizens' movements which have led to representative democracy in Central and Eastern Europe.
7. It firmly stresses the fact that relations between parliamentarians and NGOs should not lead to a confusion of roles and that only parliamentarians in their legislative capacity represent general interest.
8. In order to strengthen parliamentary democracy the Assembly considers it necessary to foster and support the development of voluntary, unpaid activities by NGOs, which may, through their role as a means of information on social problems and of citizens' participation in politics, help elected representatives to be more in touch with the budding aspirations of citizens.
9. It appeals to political parties and to the media to review their relations with NGOs so that they can be more effectively informed of their needs and aspirations and more fully take them into account.
10. Moreover, the Assembly asks member parliaments to prepare legislative measures:
i. allowing NGOs to be granted resources that will enable them to discharge specific tasks of public interest in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, in other words, tasks which may be competently performed at their level to the satisfaction of citizens;
ii. laying down the conditions for NGOs to have access to these resources: type of status, modes of election, methods of democratic management, etc;
iii. guaranteeing impartiality in the application of measures concerning the assistance provided for NGOs and their independence once they have obtained it;
iv. granting parliamentarians adequate means to meet their needs for information and consultation vis-a-vis citizens and NGOs;
v. encouraging regular access to the media by elected representatives and NGOs;
vi. creating the conditions whereby voluntary organisations' non-commercial radio stations can exercise their activities;
vii. ensuring that school curricula include civics courses which would develop a sense of social solidarity, an understanding of how the representative democratic system operates and an analytical and critical approach to the information system and to the content of such information.
II. DRAFT RECOMMENDATION
1. The Assembly is gratified by the opportunity it had to cooperate with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) holding consultative status with the Council of Europe in organising the Conference on "Politics and Citizens" (Budapest, 15-17 May 1991).
2. It draws the attention of the Committee of Ministers to the Conference's Final Declaration and to its own Resolution .... (1991), which note an increasingly passive attitude on the part of European citizens towards political life and stress the need to recognise the important role of NGOs in developing participation by citizens.
3. It considers that co-operation between the Council of Europe and NGOs should help to enhance the role played by the latter in the operation of their countries' democratic institutions.
4. It notes that the resources made available to NGOs by the Council of Europe are inadequate, as are those allocated to the European Youth Centre, where organisations learn to shoulder their responsibilities towards society and the public authorities.
5. The Assembly therefore recommends that the Committee of Ministers consider increasing these resources in the next budget.
III. EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
by Mrs Haglund
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
A. INTRODUCTION ........................................... 6
B. THE ROLE OF NGOS IN ENCOURAGING CITIZENS' PARTICIPATION
IN POLITICAL LIFE ...................................... 6
C. THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA .................................. 9
D. THE ROLE OF EDUCATION .................................. 10
E. EUROPEAN CO-OPERATION OF THE NGOs WITHIN
THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE .................................. 11
F. CONCLUSIONS ............................................ 11
A. INTRODUCTION
1. This conference can be considered an original event, in so far as no previous initiative had ever been taken to hold a meeting between parliamentarians and non-governmental organisations from the wider Europe. In addition to these participants, there were media experts - since the media constituted one of the major themes of the conference - as well as political economists, historians and sociologists, who were known for their expertise in the domain of participatory democracy.
2. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe was a particularly appropriate framework for this conference, since all the countries of the wider Europe are represented in it and it has working relations with a liaison committee of 320 NGOs enjoying consultative status with the Council of Europe.
3. The conference was prompted by a paradoxical need and an equally paradoxical finding: the need felt by the countries of Central and Eastern Europe to compare their recent experience of democracy with the longer-standing experience of the West European countries, and the realisation that the Western democracies, essentially adopted as models, function inadequately, the consequences of this being inter alia the disillusionment of their citizens with political life and a decline in the numbers participating in elections.
4. A further paradox is that the change of regime in the ex-communist countries was largely brought about by citizens' movements, whereas their Western models only attribute a marginal role to NGOs in the democratic process by which society operates.
5. The media, as channels of information, communication and freedom of expression, are to a certain extent considered in both East and West as a means of disinformation and manipulation.
6. The questions raised by these paradoxes were also addressed to the political parties, as pillars of democracy and as means of access to both parliament and government. The questions centred on two sub-themes:
- the role of the NGOs in encouraging citizens' participation,
- NGOs, citizens' right of expression: what access to the
audio-visual media?
B. THE ROLE OF NGOs IN ENCOURAGING CITIZENS' PARTICIPATION
IN POLITICAL LIFE
7. Parliamentary Assembly Resolution 800, adopted in 1983, on "the principles of democracy", felicitously expressed the concept of the NGOs' role which was worked out during the conference. As an example, I shall quote two paragraphs:
"Such elections, though indispensable, are not in themselves sufficient, since the citizen's political rights cannot be limited to the act of casting a vote at intervals of some years. On the contrary, democracy atrophies without frequent participation by citizens who should wherever possible, be consulted on matters closely
concerning them, through appropriate mechanisms; only full political participation enables democracy to attain that adaptability to changing circumstances which justifies our faith in its material, as well as moral superiority".
"The tendency of citizens to organise, in sometimes highly militant pressure groups and "single-interest" groups, outside the political parties, is a salutary warning, fully compatible with the democratic principle of freedom, to the parties that they must not fail in their essential function of articulating the real concerns of their electors".
a. Responsibility of the political milieu
i) Western Europe
8. About 10 years have since gone by. In the light of the reports by Mr B Goodey (general report), Mr D Jarré (introductory report) and a certain number of statements by NGO representatives, the situation in the Western democracies has not evolved along the lines indicated in Resolution 800. Responsibility for this - though not exclusive responsibility - is attributed to the political milieu. Hence the decline in the rate of participation in elections in a large number of countries and the increasing disillusionment of citizens with political life are allegedly to a large extent attributable to a lack of communication between electors and elected representatives, whose contacts are restricted to electoral periods.
9. These criticisms demonstrate by their excessive acrimoniousness ignorance about a parliamentarian's daily life. Parliamentarians' report on how they divide their time between their home base, the party, the administration and parliament, have shown that they continually attempt to remain in touch with their voters; also that difficulties arise more frequently in connection with possibilities for concrete action and limitations imposed on the legislature by other powers than as a result of lack of initiative.
10. Hence stress has been laid on the following factors: the power of the administration, by dint of the technical (and other) means at its disposal, to draw up and implement increasingly complex policies, by comparison with which parliamentary means of control seem singularly inadequate; the power of the parties, whose general objectives include a strategy for gaining access to power conducive to concessions or compromises which are not always palatable to the electors of a given parliamentarian; the power of the mass media which give priority to the sometimes anecdotal and pejorative aspects of parliamentary life, to the detriment of describing the serious work carried out in national parliaments.
11. Furthermore, mention has been made of the citizens' own share of responsibility for the functioning of the democratic system. Certain failings on the part of the public authorities explain the citizens' difficulties in making themselves heard, but do not justify their resignation: it is up to them to react.
ii) Central and Eastern Europe
12. The evidence adduced by members of the various NGOs from Central and East European countries has demonstrated the enormous difficulties associated with the transition from one regime to another. A change of constitution or the introduction of political pluralism are not in themselves sufficient to eradicate the attributes of the previous regime. Ways of life and mentalities which have become established over the years, resistance to change on the part of vested interests and pre-existing power centres, and misuse of the new-found freedom of the press, are so many obstacles in the path of a desirable pace of development towards true democracy.
13. The civic movements have been transformed into parties. In view of the vast range of tasks which has to be accomplished by parliaments in order to make democracy effective and to change the economic system, politicians are less readily accessible to their constituents. The advent of a civil society arising out of movements which were reluctant even to use the word "party" has not come about.
b. Respective roles of the NGOs, parliamentarians and parties
14. Despite these findings of a negative kind, the participants unanimously expressed their conviction that there was no alternative to the pluralist parliamentary system, and that it was consequently vital to encourage progress so as to make it more dynamic and exemplary in the eyes of the recent democracies.
15. Yes, but how? And with whom? The replies to these two questions can be summarised as follows: making political circles more accessible to NGOs and harmonising the latters' activities with public action. Over and above this message, the conference sheds light on a certain number of factors relating to the respective roles of the various protagonists in society.
16. In complex societies where communication between elected representatives and the electorate is problematic, the NGOs, as movements representing spontaneous associations, constitute an independent and vital link by conveying information on individual aspirations or needs. With their assistance, it may be possible to identify opposition movements before they get out of hand. The NGOs also represent a potential of competence based on local knowledge which may be valuable to decision-takers.
17. However, the conference made a point of stressing the need to draw a definite distinction between the respective roles of the elected representatives of the political parties and the NGOs.
18. If, in order to encourage participation by citizens, it may be advantageous to confer responsibility for specific actions on NGOs and to create conditions conducive to consultation, it should however be borne in mind that there are certain responsibilities which lie exclusively with the elected representatives by virtue of their mandate.
19. Furthermore, the parties - which in the legal sense of the term are NGOs - cannot be compared with the other NGOs insofar as their action involves aspects of public life as a whole, whereas generally speaking, the associations are engaged in sectorial activities which may possibly be of minor interest, and they are not obliged to respect democratic principles in the running of their own affairs. The general interest arising out of the compound of the varying interests represented in society is ultimately the concern of the parties.
20. It has rightly been remarked that most of the dissident movements in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe were turned into parties after the toppling of the communist regimes. The efforts made by the civic committees in Poland to lay the foundations for a civil society do not appear to be particularly successful. As Mr Kurczewski's report shows, the links between the civic committees and "Solidarity", the political force now in power, have resulted in a certain amount of confusion as to their respective roles.
21. The NGOs are required to be independent of political manoeuvring. As the product of spontaneous movements, they are mutatis mutandis able to issue warnings, challenge, propose and co-operate. It is by ringing the changes of their multifarious role that they are in a position to encourage democracy and to avoid the two pitfalls, ie "a representative system in which the elector has too frequent and sensitive means of endorsing or rejecting the member, and stability may be threatened. Distance the elector and member too far, and democracy itself is threatened". (Mr Brian Goodey)
22. To establish the point of equidistance between the two extremes, parliamentarians are also required to make a contribution, through legislative measures, to creating an institutional framework in which NGOs are able to exercise their critical function and to obtain the funds required to carry out their tasks: in the public interest which would not be implemented by the administration. Naturally, access to these possibilities would involve complying with the conditions justifying the use of the taxpayers' money.
23. These conditions include a democratically inspired constitution and internal methods of management, as well as supporters whose objectives and number are sufficient to lend some credence to the NGOs.
24. But in order to improve the functioning of the pluralist democratic system, measures have also to be taken involving parliamentary institutions. We are particularly referring to the electoral system and the political scope of parliamentary debates.
25. In regard to the first point, the uninominal system establishes a closer link between the member and his constituents than the proportional system, where the electorate has candidates foisted upon it by the parties. This may result in democracy drifting towards government by party, thereby alienating citizens from political life.
26. Parliamentary debates in their present form are not likely to rouse the interest of the public: it has to be acknowledged that they are boring. An effort should be made to invent novel forms of discussion capable of captivating the public's attention.
C. THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA
a) In Western Europe
27. There was no controversy on this subject; dissatisfaction both with the information system and with the selection and handling of information was universal, not excluding the media experts. One sentence in Mr Ramonet's introductory report seems to me an appropriate illustration of the criticisms levelled at the media: "the mass media, above all television, have gradually grown accustomed to organising themselves as purveyors of fiction, show business and entertainment with the main aim of allowing their audiences to escape from reality rather than informing them".
28. The desire to entertain goes hand in hand with the need to abbreviate, to be clear at the cost of oversimplification, in short, to opt for the "superficial".
29. As all these aspects are interconnected, consideration was also given to the economic context which determines such a trend in mass media production. Both television and press are conditioned by a substantial concentration of economic resources. In Europe, one single financial group controls 25% of the European media; 75 financial groups, most of them American or Japanese, control all the media at the world level. Hence one of the conclusions drawn by the Rapporteur: Mr Ignacio Ramonet, from this situation: "Consequently, it is not surprising that the NGOs encounter a certain amount of resistance when they attempt to convey messages about sensitive issues which generally embarrass the media". The NGOs are moreover not alone in experiencing such resistance.
b) In Central and Eastern Europe
30. In Central and Eastern Europe, the position of the media is equally worrying. Journalism as a career attracts newcomers whose chief aim is to earn easy money. The best way of promoting massive and consequently profitable sales is to choose risqué subjects, inter alia pornography.
31. In addition to this aspect of information policy, there are other considerations of a material kind which do not encourage hopes that the situation will rapidly improve: antiquated newspaper equipment, obsolete printing technology and almost non-existent computerisation. A concerted effort must be made to modernise: this cannot bypass foreign press groups. Nowadays, almost all the large Hungarian dailies are dependent on financing by Maxwell, Hersant and Axel Springer-Verlag.
32. However, the participants did not merely describe and deplore this state of affairs. Experiments carried out in various countries to encourage citizens' and NGOs' access to the media ("access programme") broadcast by RAI (Italian radio and television) were analysed during the conference, along with other possibilities such as the creation of media - in particular radio - within the NGOs themselves.
D. THE ROLE OF EDUCATION
33. Although this was not a sub-theme of the conference, the role of education was dealt with in a written contribution by Mr Caffin which was discussed during the conference: with good reason, as its role is an essential one. We were saying in paragraph 11 that citizens had to shoulder their share of responsibility by approaching public authorities. They also need a training in citizenship which would inculcate the inclinations, or even the "reflexes", which are expected of them.
34. As Mrs Thomas-Fontaine says in her speech: "Schools also have to be concerned with turning children into social beings, making them aware of others, developing their capacities for communication and for listening to others ... for showing solidarity ...".
35. In addition to this social training, schools also have to cultivate the critical faculties, particularly with regard to the media. Democracy cannot flourish without citizens capable of judging impartially the messages with which they are bombarded. As supply is conditioned by demand, the information policy of the media can beinfluenced by readers' requirements.
E. EUROPEAN CO-OPERATION OF THE NGOs WITHIN THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE
36. During the conference, tribute was frequently paid to civic movements which, in Central and Eastern Europe, worked successfully to bring about democracy. The consolidation of the new democratic regimes largely depends on developing a civil society which, if it is to flourish, in turn depends on the dynamism of the NGOs.
37. Yet we have seen that in these countries, the NGOs have lost their drive, and some of them have become parties. The aim of European co-operation between the NGOs enjoying consultative status with the Council of Europe must be to assist those which remain to fulfil their role more satisfactorily and to encourage the setting up of new NGOs.
38. But the funds earmarked by the Council of Europe for such co-operation are not sufficient to cover the new requirements.
39. However, through its vocation and experience acquired in implementing activities involving European and international NGOs, the Council of Europe is the only institution capable of breathing life into a co-operation which is expected to culminate in the advent of a genuine civil society in Eastern as well as Central and Western Europe.
40. The Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers ought to attach more importance to this type of co-operation and give the organisation further backing, both as regards the skills required and as regards material resources.
F. CONCLUSIONS
41. It is no exaggeration to say that Europe is living through a decisive period, revealing the changes which have taken place in the former communist countries to be mere interim stages and not, as might have been supposed, a historical denouement.
42. The first steps towards democracy in Eastern and Central Europe are being taken on a terrain riddled with the difficulties inherent in a transition from a planned to a market economy and marked by inter-ethnic strife.
43. In the West, systems have to question their raison d'être if they are to adapt to greater need for participation and to the new forms of communication which are transforming the relations of force between the various protagonists in society.
44. It is up to the countries with a democratic tradition to take the lead so as to ensure that the clock cannot be turned back in the budding democracies. The efforts on improvement have to be encouraged by parliaments which have legislative powers.
45. The aim of the measures they might adopt should be to strengthen the parliamentary system by making representative democracy more participatory along the following lines:
- establishing criteria enabling the NGOs to be provided with the means to carry out their tasks: definition of their statutes, methods of election, democratic management techniques;
- guaranteeing impartiality in applying measures conducive to obtaining those means, as well as the independence of the NGOs benefiting from them;
- providing parliamentarians exercising their mandates with adequate means to cover their requirements in terms of information, consultation with citizens and NGOs, and independence;
- reforming parliamentary debates so as to arouse the interest of the public;
- enabling elected representatives and NGOs to obtain access to the audio-visual media with a public status which would regularly publicise their activities;
- introducing or reintroducing into school curricula courses on civic education which would encourage appreciation of social solidarity, awareness of how the representative democratic system operates, as well as an analytical and critical approach to the information system and to the content of such information.
*
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Reporting committee: Committee on Parliamentary and Public Relations.
Budgetary implications for the Assembly: None.
Reference: Standing terms of reference of the committee.
Draft resolution: Unanimously adopted by the committee.
Members of the committee: Mr Stegagnini (Chairman), Sir William Shelton, Mr Roman (Vice-Chairmen), MM. Amaral, Angelopoulos, Büchler, Cassar, Collart, Columberg, Diaz Aguilar, Durand, Eversdijk, Fiorini, Mrs Haglund, Mrs Hawlicek, MM. Hjortnaes, Hughes, Jindrich Konecny, Laakso, Lummer, O'Brien, Pecchioli (Alternate: Fioret), Mrs Ragnardottir, MM. Regenwetter, Szent-Ivanyi, Tanriyar, Vial-Massat, Mrs Willoch.
N.B. The names of those members who took part in the vote are underlined.
Secretary to the committee: Mr La Porta
1 1 Non-Governmental Organisations : associations, foundations, movements or groups independent of government, constituted on a non-profit-making basis to defend specific interest.