Participatory Democracy Spreads in Italy: The Case of Grottammare

Experiments in direct and participatory democracy in local governance have been proliferating across Italy for some time. The following article highlights the case of Grottamarre on the Adriatic coast. For more information see our previous post related to the institution of direct democracy in Tuscany, Italy in an effort coordinated with Poitou Charentes, France, and Catalonia, Spain (CLICK HERE). Also visit the Italy section of our links resource page (CLICK HERE)

Local Democracy Italian Style

Source: http://www.redpepper.org.uk/article202.html

Hilary Wainwright savours the political and cultural dolce vita in the Adriatic town of Grottammare.

Casilda, an elderly but agile woman, accosts the former mayor in the medieval centre of the seaside Italian town of Grottammare. She shouts passionately after Massimo Rossi, a radical leftist elected for his full two terms with one of the biggest popular mandates in Italy. But she doesn’t want to complain about her house or her drains. She wants to make him stop and look at what has happened to the sculpture near her house.

Made three years ago by the Bolognese sculptor Marco Pellizzola, the sculpture is a cage, an elongated version of the bell-shaped devices used in medieval times to carry around pet falcons. The cage is empty. At night it is lit up. Clustered on top of it there used to be eight or so birds, which were seemingly free but uncertain where to go. "They face new choices," said Pellizzola by way of explanation of the ambiguities of the piece’s title - "Prospettiva di Volo" ("the prospect of flight"). The artist chose commonplace birds - pigeons, blackbirds, swallows, and though the sculpture was first exhibited in Grottammare’s medieval main square, he subsequently moved it to a more ordinary part of the old town. The birds became easy prey to passing youth. Now there is only one sad and solitary blackbird left. Casilda wants something done. In Grottammare, an attractive town on Italy’s Adriatic coast, the municipal government is checked and part-controlled by local committees elected by open neighbourhood assemblies. The future of the town’s culture is a vital matter of everyday life.

And culture is broadly interpreted in Grottammare. It ranges from the ruins of the castle built to stave off the Saracens and the network of grottoes installed to reinforce those defences in the Middle Ages (the grottoes are now used to keep bottles of the local wines cool), to the town’s restored art nouveau-style villas and its Orange Theatre, whose last performance was in 1908 when the wooden boards of the stage were ripped up and used to make coffins during an epidemic of Spanish flu. It also includes the beach, which is now set off with a broad, palm-lined promenade with a sky-blue cycle track bordered by a trail of pink oleanders. The seafront is as impressive as Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana, but instead of swanky hotels surrounded by extreme poverty there are enticing "chalets" selling local culinary specialities like fat olives stuffed with fish and lightly fried in breadcrumbs.

Historically, when people in Europe and North America demanded the rights to democratic government in the 18th and 19th centuries, the ideologues of the then ruling aristocracies evoked fear of the mob and the threats popular rule posed to culture. In Grottammare over the past 10 years an extension of citizens" rights has been culture’s protector.

In the late 1980s local construction interests teamed up with bigger companies from Milan to turn Grottammare into an upmarket Rimini: there"d be a mega marina with the biggest yacht park on the coast - a tourist playground of big hotels with a cable car running to the medieval town. Rossi and his mates, radical teachers, doctors, journalists and community workers deeply committed to their town, got wind of this. They were well known because of their involvement with a housing rights centre and the independent local radio station Radio Creativa. Two or three of them had already been elected to the council. They mounted a successful campaign against the development plans.

"We knew people didn’t want this kind of tourism. We argued for a tranquil tourism that was about nature, culture and human relationships - not consumerism," says Rossi, who is a notably innovative member of Rifondazione Comunista, the party that developed out of the Italian Communist Party in the 1980s and which is now heavily involved in the European Social Forum and local social forums across Italy. This group of radical socialists touched a nerve. The people of Grottammare refer to Rimini as if it were a haunting nightmare, and Rossi and company had a reputation for getting things done. In 1994 the Christian Democrats, whose clientelism had dominated the town since the 1960s, were ousted and the Participation and Solidarity (PS) coalition of untried, but also uncorrupted men and women, started work to recreate their town.

The coalition’s first task was to develop a new urban plan for a town that was becoming cluttered with concrete and which was losing its magnetism for tranquillity-seeking Romans and Milanese. (Since PS took office, the number of tourists visiting Grottammare has more than doubled from 254,000 to more than 500,000 a year.) The new government combined a professional efficiency - surveying the threats to the environment, taking sewage treatment back into municipal ownership - with participatory democracy - calling open assemblies in every neighbourhood. "We told [the people] we don’t know what to do any more than you," says Luigi Merli, Rossi’s successor as mayor and an independent-minded socialist who runs a large vegetable market garden.

Out of these neighbourhood assemblies came committees that reported back to recalled assemblies twice a year. "Our job is to put together ideas to discuss with the council, and to check that they carry out their work," says Morena, the president of the Ischia neighbourhood committee. She took me on a tour of the projects that her committee have worked on with the council, proudly describing the integration of tourism with the life of the town: here, a piazza designed by local children where before there was just a church and a car park; there, a space where dog owners could let their pets run free without offending the neighbours; and over there, "the 1 May park" where previously the land was abbandone. In the evening the local youth, wearing T-shirts announcing "summer party Ischia quarter", put on a party on the beach. "We make the town better for us, and it’s better for tourists," Morena explains.

And it’s true: tourists and citizens both benefit from Grottammare’s very un-corporate style of regulation. Work has now begun on converting the previously disused 18th century convent in the old town into 15 or so council houses. The luxurious garden of the villa-turned-town hall now hosts regular festivals, the best touring operettas from Rome, and events to celebrate the culture of the growing number of immigrants living in the town. And while I was staying in the town, I didn’t feel like an outsider at all. The mayor even gave me the keys to the town hall so I could access my email.

Sometimes the enthusiasm to recuperate the past has meant a certain airbrushing of history, however. The guidebooks wax lyrical in praise of the town’s most famous son - Felice Peretti, otherwise known as Pope Sixtus V. By all accounts, Peretti was indeed a pioneering urban planner (he would have blessed the radical socialists whose style of government is now transforming his home town), but he also ran such an authoritarian regime that the pallbearers at his funeral are said to have tipped his body into the Tiber.

Now Grottammare is providing a beacon to other municipalities searching for strategies to resist the privatisation favoured by Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. The conditions in the town make it a natural political laboratory. With a population of 15,000, it is cohesive but not parochial. A network of small and medium-sized industries and local traditions of design and invention have enabled the regional economy to weather Berlusconi’s low-tax-induced recession relatively unharmed. And, surrounded by towns of cultural interest, like Macerata with its open-air opera, Grottammare is an ideal base for creative tourism.

But there are problems, too. As PS has fulfilled its commitments, popular participation in Grottammare’s system of local government has dropped. There is talk of decentralising budgets to the neighbourhood committees to reinvigorate the process. The people of Grottammare have gained their freedom. Like the birds on top of Pellazzola’s cage (and now restored to their perch), they are ready to fly. But, with all the relaxed humour of an Italian seaside town, they are pondering where to go.

Thanks to Angela Logue, Vittorio Longhi and Derek Clarke for help with translation and more.

Participatory Budgeting in Matam, Senegal

The following abstract and summary of a presentation by Mayor Adoulaya Drame of Matam, Senegal provides another example of the many participatory budgeting initiatives underway in Africa. - Editor

PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING IN MATAM, SENEGAL




Abstract from a Presentation made by Mayor of Matam, Hon. Abdoulaya Drame during a PB Conference held in Malaga Spain from 28 March – 1 April 2007.

Source: http://www.asaaf.org.zw/newsletter3/page19.htm

Matam is a small town in Senegal with 20,000 inhabitants. Before 2002, the city didn’t know its budget – no one tracked it. The PB process in Matam involves a constant exchange between the city and neighborhood committees. The city asks committees to prioritize projects and decide their costs, then the committees and city employees develop the budget together through many meetings (co-management). The city council even includes one spot for a councilor from the town’s international diaspora, who mobilizes resources from the diaspora that are used for the PB.

Presentation by Abdoulaye Drame, Mayor of Matam Senegal

Source: http://www.asaaf.org.zw/archive/Africities2006/Africities2006.pdf

Following a brief introduction about the City of Matam, the Mayor went on the describe the motivation for introducing participatory budgeting. He pointed out that previously, local governments draw up their budget in a small circle and most of the time, the information was not shared with the populations. The few who were consulted for data-gathering were not present during the budgetary orientation meetings or during the budget vote meeting. He pointed out that beside the local population, even sometimes local elected officials had no information about the financial capacities of their municipality, or about the use of these financial resources. Furthermore, the results of theprevious budget were not looked into. There was an enormous deficit of communication between the elected officials and the inhabitants about the use of public resources. Such failures turned out to be obstacles to realising good local governance – efficiency, participation, transparency and equity.

It was against this background that during the budgetary orientation meeting (2005), the local elected officials deplored this situation and decided to try out the participatory budgeting. It was the determination of the councillors to get the community to:

• Determine the assignment of whole or part of the available public resources and
• Participate in subsequent decisions related to expenditure assignment

The local authority asked ENDA ECOPOP to monitor the process of participatory budgeting and to provide capacity building for both council officials and the community. Among the activities was a four-day workshop organised in Matam to elaborate on the investment opportunities as part of the budget with all the different actors – local elected officials, local technicians, state technicians, women, youngsters, traders, carriers, old aged people, delegates, handicapped people and other stakeholders.

A second workshop with all the actors was organised to analyse the best follow-up strategies of the activities which were started through participatory budgeting. The idea was to reflect on the obstacles to local financial resources mobilization and also the collection strategies. The working groups were created during the workshop which constitute an interface between the council and the populations.

The Mayor highlighted some capacity building challenges. He stressed that citizens have a crucial role to play in the financial resources mobilization of their community. However, whilst they are fullfledged actors in the budgetary process, they do not know what they must do and how they must do it.

Mayor Drame outlined the lessons learned as follows:

• The mayor plays a key role in encouraging citizens to participate in the budgetary process.


• A budget committee must be set up to follow up on the process


• The participatory budget is voted for and priorities are discussed in public


• The priorities should be in line with programmes of the state

Among the Impacts and lessons learnt are the following:

• People now appreciate that there is transparency in the budgetary process


• Financial and technical assistance from ENDA was very useful


• The mayor plays a key role in implementing participatory budgeting

In his final remarks, Mayor Drame said “PB is a reality that reconciles peoples’ dreams with the resource realities they are in”. He went on to say that participatory budgeting is an instrument of democratization in public management and has two fundamental principles namely; participation and transparency.

Venezuela: Frente Popular Revolucionario del Sur

Esta convocatoria es de una nueva agrupación de organizacines sociales que se formó en Enero de este año en ciertos parroquias del sur del capital de Venezuela, Caracas. Representa un nuevo esfuerzo que busca unir todas las organizaciones 'grass roots' del pais para “conquistar en esas calles lo que no logramos en el referéndum,” o sea, lograr por acción directa y participativa en solidaridad con el presidente Chávez lo que el referendum del 2 de Diciembre no pudo lograr. La meta de este proyecto es mejorar la coordinación entre los grupos sociales para avancar el proceso bolivariano, continuar el fortalecimiento del poder popular, acelerar la formación de las estructuras de la democracia participativa, y eliminar los elementos coruptos y burocráticos dentro del movimiento que estan poniendo en peligro el proceso. - Editor

Frente Popular Revolucionario del Sur Solicita Apoyo para Realización de Asamblea Popular este Fin de Semana en Caracas

Fuente: Aporrea.org
Fecha de publicación: 16/01/08

El Frente Popular Revolucionario del Sur, agrupa a diversas organizaciones sociales de base en Caracas.

Credito: Frente Popular Revolucionario del Sur

Caracas, 16 de enero de 2008 (Aporrea.org).- El Frente Popular Revolucionario del Sur, integrado por organizaciones y activistas de los sectores El Valle, Baruta, 23 de Enero, Coche, La Vega y San Agustín de la capital del país, está convocando a todos los militantes y organizaciones sociales y políticas de Caracas comprometidas con la revolución Bolivariana a una gran Asamblea Popular este sábado 19 y domingo 20 de enero a partir de las 9:00AM en la Universidad Simón Rodríguez de El Valle.

La asamblea busca la articulación de las organizaciones populares de la capital, hasta ahora fragmentadas, para la construcción inmediata de un plan de lucha y un programa revolucionario de acción permanente que sean realmente participativo.

Igualmente, esta asamblea a nivel de la capital, busca ser un primer paso hacia una gran asamblea nacional de movimientos populares.

El Frente, a través de una nota enviada a esta redacción, hace un especial llamado a los militantes del PSUV "que sabemos están dando la batalla por acabar con las roscas internas del partido y avanzar en su depuración de burócratas, corruptos y capitalistas infiltrados, que son los principales responsables de la derrota del 2D. Queremos combatir hombro a hombro contigo en esa batalla y que nos acompañes en la lucha y articulación de los movimientos sociales."

El Frente ha hecho un conjunto de propuestas con el fin de abrir el debate. "No pretendemos imponerlas, lo que queremos es que los demás traigan las suyas para construir todo este espacio de articulación y lucha permanente."

Fortalecer la formación política e ideológica de las bases populares.
Fortalecer y hacer aportes bien estructurados a las políticas del camarada Presidente.
La creación de las Comunas, para garantizar nuestras luchas territoriales.
La creación del Parlamento Nacional de Legislación popular para promover nuestras leyes.
La creación de un Consejo Popular de Gobierno para articúlanos con el camarada Presidente.
La creación de tribunales Populares para procesar denuncias de corrupción entre otras.
La creación de milicias Populares como forma de autodefensa territorial.
Continuar en la lucha interna por la construcción del PSUV.
El Frente pide que los que piensan participar envíen sus propuestas a los correos electrónicos: frente.socialistas.sur@gmail.com y apr.caracas@gmail.com, para ir sistematizando toda la información.

Igualmente, el Frente puede ser contactado a los teléfonos 0416-705-3149 , 0414-847-7915, 0412-601-7771 o 0416-012-0824.

En vista de que los organizadores no cuentan con la logística necesaria para que nuestra asamblea sea un éxito total, solicitan ayuda para en la obtención de:

4 Toldos grandes
500 Sillas plásticas.
50 Mesas con mánteles
1000 botellas de agua potable o botellones con vasos
10 Kilos de café.
100 Colchonetas.
Para más detalles sobre la asamblea consulte http://www.aporrea.org/poderpopular/n107651.html

Venezuela: Update on Participatory Democracy and the Bolivarian Revolution

The following two articles provide an update on the current challenges facing the Bolivarian Revolution and its attempts to cement and institutionalize socialism and participatory democracy in Venezuela. In the wake of the defeat of the constitutional reform package on Dec 2nd, 2007, which would have deepened the transfer of power to the grassroots, Chavistas (Chavez supporters) have been engaged in a deep examination of their identity and of the challenges before them. Those in the opposition have seized upon the opportunity to continue their destabilization efforts, including hoarding and exporting foodstuffs in the midst of food shortages brought on by declining poverty rates and the resulting increased demand for basic commodities. Meanwhile, there are divisions within the Bolivarian movement, with those in the grassroots intensifying their efforts to advance participatory democracy from the bottom up, and those elements in the Chavez government who are corrupt bureaucrats slowing the transition and the transfer of power from the top down. This complex situation is but the latest chapter in what has been a relentless struggle to see this bold Venezuelan experiment in participatory democracy become entrenched and permanent. The first article examines the new dynamic within the grassroots of the Bolivarian revolution, and the second provides an broad overview of the current situation. - Editor

Grass-roots Chávismo Awakes

February 12th 2008, by Reinaldo Iturriza López

Source: http://www.redpepper.org.uk/article1000.html

I’ve been reading John Reed’s wonderful book, Ten Days That Shook The World, about the Russian revolution. Writing in July 1917, Reed refers to the Bolsheviks as being still only ‘a small political sect’. I couldn’t but smile when I read the footnote the book’s publishers had added to this description: ‘Reed uses the word “sect” wanting to underscore that immediately after the March 1917 Democratic-Bourgeois Revolution, the Bolshevik Party, which had just come out of hiding, was still relatively small.’

Despite this clarification, the truth is that the Bolsheviks were just that: a sect, a small group of revolutionaries, who through the strength of their audacity and tenacity would change the history of humanity. The important issue lies in that they would have to do it sooner rather than later: only three months later, in October. How was this possible? This is where Reed’s book’s historic value comes to the fore. This may serve as a taster: ‘In July they were harassed and spurned; in September the workers in the capital, the marines of the Baltic Fleet and the soldiers had in their majority embraced their cause.’

Today, despite the best attempts of many throughout the decades, no one can convince us that the Bolsheviks were predestined to lead the Russian revolution. It is clear that in revolutions, vanguards, leaders and movements play a role. But so does uncertainty, chance and surprise. In fact, leaders are tested precisely at these times when indecision and perplexity reign. That’s why it is said that revolutionary countries always ‘sense’ the moment to act and how.

Nothing is written Those of us who are activists in the Bolivarian revolution have been wasting our time if at this stage we are not able to understand that nothing is written. We were getting used to winning; and as we were always faced with the task of beating the adversary, we postponed the struggle within the movement, as if Chávismo were one and indivisible, headed by an infallible leader.

The constitutional reform referendum defeat on 2 December, which I’ll now refer to as ‘2D’, has taken our side by surprise. We could obviously evaluate and determine what the main causes of this defeat were. But the result, without a doubt, has surprised us all: Chávismo was always sure of victory, even when it thought it would be tight.

The challenge we now therefore have within the Bolivarian camp, within the government, that Chávez himself has, but most importantly that we have within democratic, revolutionary, grassroots Chávismo, is to know how to deal with this surprise. That is precisely what the political moment that opened up following 2D consists of.

Of course revolutionary leadership does not depend exclusively on the capacity to act with audacity and aptitude in the face of chance and surprise. On the contrary, it depends on the ability to become the advocate and defender of demands from the grassroots.

John Reed himself recounts that the efficacy of the policy that the Bolsheviks implemented in the weeks preceding the October revolution lay in the way that ‘they took the simple and vague desires of the workers, soldiers and peasants, and with this built their immediate programme’ – all power to the soviets, peace on all fronts, land for the peasants, worker control in industry.

The people’s reform On 3 December 2006, following the annmouncement of his comprehensive victory in the presidential elections, Chávez addressed those gathered at the Miraflores presidential palace: ‘Today is a starting point, today … a new era begins … [It] will have as its central aim … as its central strategic line, the deepening, the widening and the expansion of the Bolivarian revolution, of revolutionary democracy, in the Venezuelan path to socialism.’

A few minutes earlier he had said: ‘You have re-elected yourselves; the people are in control. I will always lead obeying the Venezuelan people.’ Chávez also made a call to increase the battle ‘against the bureaucratic counter-revolution and against corruption, old vices which have always threatened the republic.’ We were all convinced we had achieved a new and resounding ‘people’s’ victory.

On 17 January 2007, as he swore in the members of the presidential commission for constitutional reform, Chávez reminded people that, as stipulated in the Bolivian constitution, three entities are allowed to propose a constitutional reform: the president, the national assembly and the people. Chávez said he had opted for the first convinced that he was ‘interpreting and collecting the feeling of the majorities’.

Seven months later, on 15 August 2007, in his speech presenting the constitutional reform proposal to the national assembly, Chávez expressed himself in very similar terms: ‘The reform belongs to the people, it doesn’t belong to Chávez. I am sure that our people will embrace it; everything I am going to say is said with the Venezuelan people and their most sacred interests in mind, and thinking of our revolution and its strengthening.’

If anything has been made clear by 2D it is that what could effectively have been ‘the reform of the people’ was in reality Chávez’s reform. It is true that during his speech on 15 August Chávez reiterated the need to initiate the ‘great debate on the Bolivarian reform’. It is equally true that the national assembly was far from being the catalysing space for this debate. The PSUV [United Socialist Party of Venezuela] wasn’t either. The PSUV’s ‘battalion assemblies’ were conceived as instruments to disseminate and defend the reform proposal, but at no point as a space where the reform could be criticised, corrected or supplemented.

Nevertheless, the key to the 2D defeat lies in the fact that a basic rule of revolutionary politics was missing: ‘It is the people who rule.’ That same people, who in Chávez’s words, were re-elected in December 2006; the same people he swore he would obey while leading. These people were not called on to participate in the creation of the reform proposal. This is why a considerable sector of Chávismo never made Chávez’s proposal their own. And this is why another important sector opted only to critically support the proposal.

Grass-roots Chávismo There has been much debate, both before and after 2D, about the reform’s content. Some of us pointed out that one of the problematic aspects of Chávez’s proposal was the concentration of powers in the figure of the president. Indeed, the idea of the infallible leader is one that has been promoted by the right wing of Chávismo, a right wing that could eventually opt to get rid of Chávez himself once its main objective – to isolate democratic and revolutionary grass-roots Chávismo – has been achieved. At the same time, though, many of us opted to support a proposal that had enough in its content to turn it into a programme for grass-roots struggles.

Nevertheless, this debate should not distract us from the most important point: if the reform proposal had been the product of grass-roots participation and protagonism, there is no doubt that the content would have been different, much closer to the demands and desires of revolutionary grass-roots Chávismo. Had this occurred, the result of 2D would undoubtedly have been favourable for those of us who struggle for the democratic radicalisation of the Bolivarian process.

Today there is talk of relaunching the reform proposal, not from the presidency but from the grassroots or the national assembly. And the convening of a constituent national assembly has not been discounted. Given the national assembly’s lack of legitimacy and popular support, there would, in principle, seem to be two alternatives: reform by grass-roots initiative or via a constituent process.

Whichever route is followed, it is clear that if we repeat the same exclusionary logic that bypassed the grassroots last time, any future proposal could suffer similar resistance. If we insist on promoting the same reform proposal through a flawed ‘grass-roots initiative’, we could be making a tactical error of incalculable proportions.

But these tactical considerations are merely the tip of the iceberg.

Underneath is a giant that lay dormant under the troubled waters of 2D: grass-roots Chávismo, the only guarantee of the revolutionary deepening of the Bolivarian process. 2D found us dispersed, such as we had not been in many years. But from the very morning of 3 December the multitude that makes up grass-roots Chávismo has been the protagonist of an effervescent process of deliberation that the most conservative sectors of Chávismo will find very hard to silence. The sleeping giant has awoken and before it lies the opportunity to become more than just a ‘small political sect’. John Reed dixit.

Source:
Red Pepper


The next article provides a more comprehensive and detailed outlook on the current challenges facing the Bolivarian Revolution and the instituitionalization of popular power and participatory democracy... - Editor

Venezuela: Danger Signs for the Revolution

Source: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/3193

February 24th 2008, by Kiraz Janicke - Venezuelanalysis.com & Federico Fuentes - Green Left Weekly

In recent weeks, external and internal pressure against Venezuela's Bolivarian revolution, has intensified dramatically. It is clear that US imperialism and the US-backed Venezuelan opposition see the defeat of Chavez's proposed constitutional reforms on December 2 as a green light to push forward their plans to destabilize the government. In addition, growing internal problems, with a strengthening of the right-wing of the Chavista movement - known as the "endogenous right", who support implementing some reforms without breaking with capitalism - pose a serious threat to the survival of the revolution. Chavez's proposed constitutional reforms were aimed at institutionalising greater popular power and increasing restrictions on capitalists to the benefit of working people. In response, the capitalist-owned private media, spearheaded by virulently anti-government private television channel Globovision, launched a campaign based on lies and disinformation aimed at confusing the Venezuelan people. ...To read full article click HERE

Women's Role in Participatory Governance in India

The following article discusses the difficulties that have been encountered in many cases in ensuring the active involvement of women in the system of participatory governance being instituted in India, known as Panchayati Raj or Gram Swaraj. For more information on the history and current status of the Panchayati Raj movement, see our previous post on the subject (here) and our links resource page, India section (here). The system was brought into law by constitutional amendment in 1993, and since then has been steadily expanding throughout India - Editor

Reality Check on Panchayati Raj

Source: http://www.boloji.com/wfs4/wfs465.htm

Three panchayat elections in 12 years have resulted in a million women being elected as grassroots leaders. In several states, elected women representatives have even crossed the 33.3 per cent reservation quota for women leaders.

But how is Panchayati Raj (local governance) working in India? Are women sarpanchs (heads of village councils) still remote-controlled by their husbands or male relatives? Do women leaders really have the power to change things in their villages? The Union Minister of Panchayati Raj Mani Shankar Aiyar's numerous panchayat baithaks (discussions) are trying to do precisely this: Do a reality check on Panchayati Raj.

Aiyar started the baithaks as soon as he tookover as minister in 2004. Aiyar has held seven round table conferences with state ministers of Panchayati Raj within 150 days and has come up with 150 `action points'. Chhattisgarh is one of the chain of states he visited to rejuvenate and evolve Panchayati Raj institutions.

A peep into some of these interactions with the villagers in Chhattisgarh...At a meeting in Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh, Aiyar is flamboyant and unconventional in his style. He quits the comfortable stage and sits on the floor amidst the villagers. "I haven't come here to give any speech, but to hear you and know how Panchayati Raj is working for you," he says, asking the woman sarpanch, Shiv Kali Bai, to speak on the work she has done in her village. The sarpanch remains silent and the crowd waits restlessly, until a soft male voice is heard describing the work done.

"Who is that?" Aiyar asks."

The sarpanch pati (husband)," the crowd says in unison. Aiyar invites him to sit next to his wife. The man sits down and claims he does all the work in the village, as he has been the sarpanch for 25 years. His wife was elected sarpanch on a reserved seat. "My wife is not educated, so I do all the work."

"In the last 25 years, you have been a sarpanch but you didn't once think of educating your wife? What work would you have done for village education!" asks the minister. The crowd breaks into spontaneous applause.

"Is there a woman panch (panchyat member)?" the minister wants to know. A young woman emerges from the crowd. Dressed in a blue saree, she stands confidently in front of the minister. When asked about the biggest problem of her village, she says, "There is just one primary teacher for 140 students." The state officials present at the baithak try to stop her and start giving explanations, but Aiyar encourages the woman to continue. She says that the women of the village have often petitioned to the panchayat head, asking for a teacher, a small clinic, toilets and water facilities, but they have not received any response. The women have also demanded a stop to child marriages. "These are issues that involve the family and community as a whole. But the panchayat does not care to discuss these issues," she says.

"Why didn't you stand for the sarpanch's post? You are young, educated and capable?" he asks the woman in the blue saree. The woman looks down and remains silent. The crowd speaks for her, "She is the sarpanch's bahu (daughter-in-law)."

At another tribal panchayat in Gundaderi village, the woman sarpanch, Nirmala Devi, speaks about her village and its problems. She asks for the minister's help in building a clinic in the village, where people have to travel 10 kms to see a doctor. When she is finished, the minister turns to the crowd and says, "Look at your sarpanch in her beautiful saree, she is so competent." Then holding her hand aloft he adds, "I want you all to be proud of her." The crowd again bursts into applause.

Bhoj Rani, janpad adhyaksh (people's representative at the block level) now stands up to say her piece. "The government sanctioned 760,000 for a janpad panchayat, but I was not informed. Even after 58 years of independence, I don't seem to have any rights." Her words leave many officials red-faced.

In several panchayats across the country, women have often been re-elected on a general seat. People have realised that when women become leaders, they challenge status quo and address basic issues of water, food security and education. The last round of panchayat elections has thrown up women who are more aware of their rights and duties, and determined to stand up and deliver as leaders.

However, despite their growing confidence, women still have to fight the overwhelming cynicism and scepticism about their abilities as leaders. "In every village, there are always a large number of women ready to enter a political system," says Aiyar. "But their effectiveness in running the government depends upon the powers they get, not on their capacity as panchayat leaders. For, it is this process - of getting these powers and responsibilities that becomes the single-most important capacity building exercise. It is like throwing a child into the deep end of the pool to make her swim. There will be some who will sink but many will swim. Now this is really the only way institutions of local self-governance can be formed."

Aiyar is quite dismissive about literacy being a must for good leadership. "Look at our Parliament. The Members are so different, in their characteristics, abilities, backgrounds and ambition. The same will be true of Panchayati Raj institutions. All over the world, the most important thing about democratic institutions is not their efficiency but their representativeness. You get a larger kind of efficiency, an efficiency that is not mechanically measured, but rests on changing the very nature of society. We should look upon empowerment of women through panchayats in this light."

– Madhu Gurung, October 9, 2005

Neighborhood Assemblies Encourage Communal Participation

Out of the mass protests against corrupt politicians during Argentina's economic crisis in 2001 sprang communal participation in the form of neighborhood assemblies. Finding themselves without accountable representation in the government and having no safety net upon which to rely, citizens worked together to confront hyper-inflation and food shortages. While these types of organizations have mostly disintegrated since 2003 due to outside factors such as co-optation by political parties and a slight upward trend in the economy, the formation of neighborhood assemblies is an important example of interdependence and cooperation necessary to face economic crisis and political corruption in representation. Athough these particular assemblies themselves may have been a somewhat transitory response to a crisis, the lessons of self-empowerment learned by these communities will permanently be a part of their political activism and participation. - Editor

Argentina's Rebellion in the Neighborhoods

Source: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0214-04.htm

Published on Thursday, February 14, 2002 by the Inter Press Service

by Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 13 - Neighborhood assemblies are springing up in cities throughout Argentina, particularly in the capital and surrounding areas, as a groundswell of people seek to change the political landscape amidst the country's social and economic collapse.

Many assembly participants are young people who are fed up with the political parties they say have betrayed their ideals. But there are also many unemployed, out-of-business shopkeepers, retirees, teachers and professionals also taking an active role in the meetings. Many had never taken part in any citizen-based mobilization before in their lives.

There are several common denominators among the assemblies held each week since late December in more than 50 neighborhoods, such as the rising anxieties of the most desperate and the increasing calm among those attempting to organize grassroots participation to make their demands heard.

The vast majority of the neighbors participating in the assemblies believe that political leaders are ignorant of the people's needs. In many cases residents do not personally know their elected city council members and local legislators, nor where they live. They are seen as mere representatives of political parties.

Now, however, independent citizens are adopting the terminology characteristic of party politics: assemblies, agendas, motion for order, moderators, committees, and liaison commissions.

But few assembly participants have grand hopes for change. They say, at least, that they want to remain alert to the government's measures, channel their need for participation and expression, and try to put some new faces in the political arena, even if the new politicians lack experience.

"Everyone is completely fed up with corrupt politicians. We are not against democracy, but the neighbors seem to be allergic to anything that smells like politics," Carmen Fernández, a teacher from Buenos Aires' Palermo neighborhood and head of her district's Education Committee, told IPS.

There is a great deal of talk at the assemblies about the "common enemy", which everyone agrees are Argentina's political leaders. The neighborhood organizations have been careful to maintain a horizontal structure, in which everyone has the right to make proposals, and leaders seem to emerge based on who best facilitates participation.

Usually someone offers a warehouse for a meeting site in case of rain, and someone else offers a printing press to print posters or a newsletter. At one assembly, young filmmakers proposed to record the sessions for a documentary. Attorneys, accountants and doctors offer their professional services.

The slogan heard most often is "all the politicians out", but the assembly-goers insist this is not a call for an end to the democratic system.

"On the contrary. To get out of this crisis requires more politics, but real politics. These meetings of common people on the street are the fundamental form of doing politics," Roli Sampieri, an accountant in charge of the Press Committee for the Almagro neighborhood assembly in the capital, told IPS.

"When a married couple decides to separate, that doesn't mean that they won't go on to marry someone else. This is the same thing: we don't want these politicians. We want a change," Sampieri said.

Only the ongoing street protests by the Argentine people can convince the career politicians to think of the common good and not about personal gain, according to the activist. In the long term, there will have to be a change in leadership that is founded on a more community-based conception of politics, he added.

Another Almagro neighbor, Mario Colombati, agrees. "We are not satisfied with merely casting a vote at election time. We want to participate and we want them to listen to us more often, because that is the main problem, they don't listen to us," he said in a conversation with IPS.

In last October's legislative elections (the vote is compulsory in Argentina), Colombati annulled his ballot in protest to express his discontent with the political parties. But, he said, "we cannot live without politicians, because that would be anarchy. We want those who robbed us to leave, and we want to closely monitor those who replace them," he said.

Most of the neighborhood assemblies were founded after the first major "caceroleo" protest, when Argentines came out in masses, banging pots and pans in protest against then president Fernando de la Rúa, who resigned Dec 20.

At first it was just a handful of neighbors who gathered together, concerned about preventing the new government from being made up of the same leaders with a different disguise.

With the series of political turnovers and the ever-deepening social and economic crisis, the meetings have achieved greater impact, and new leaders are emerging. The neighbors at the assemblies choose delegates who participate every Sunday in an inter-neighbourhood plenary session, which draws some 4,000 people.

There, representatives from middle-class districts mix with those from the wealthiest and the poorest neighborhoods Their proposals often become radicalized, and protests are expressed on behalf of an array of groups: the unemployed, merchants, former party activists, and savers who have been hurt by the government's economic measures of the last two months.

The non-governmental organization 'Poder Ciudadano' (Citizen Power) offered the assembly participants a free course in institutional monitoring. The program is called "Citizens as protagonists of change" and seeks to provide practical tools to the movement that expresses itself in 'cacerolazos', neighborhood meetings and marches.

But there are many who appear already to possess some working knowledge as a result of their activism in student organizations, political parties or labor unions.

"The assembly shall be considered constituted when at least 20 neighbors are present. All who live in the neighborhood may participate with voice and vote," reads a woman, aided by a brand- new megaphone, on a street corner where more than a hundred residents have gathered.

"The executive committee shall meet 15 minutes prior to the assembly to draft the agenda with the proposals provided by the neighbors," she says, handing the word - and the megaphone - over to the "moderator". It is clarified repeatedly that "here, no one is in charge, we are going to take turns."

One of the proposals made during the assembly was to set aside 15 minutes each week on a neighborhood radio program to provide updates about the movement. The proposal was readily accepted.

But when the moderate announced that a television news program has sent a reporter and a camera operator, the reaction is one of absolute rejection, with the neighbors shouting for the media representatives to leave.

The reporter is from a program whose host has supported the government's economic reforms in the past few years and who now is seen as inciting protest with a right-wing discourse. The neighbors make it clear they do not want anyone to use them to advance a cause they do not agree with.

In fact, in the assemblies and in mass e-mails, Argentines are calling not only for the removal of the career politicians and entrenched union leaders, but also for the rejection of the privatized entities entrusted with public services and of the news media which, they say, are not accurately portraying the population's suffering.

"I am very surprised because there are people participating who otherwise never left their homes. My 70-year-old neighbor had never taken part in anything, but now she has such an extremist stance that it is truly astonishing," said Palermo neighborhood assembly participant Fernández.
She said one of the slogans repeated in her neighborhood is "the politicians must go because they do not understand a thing." Fernández explained that this reflects the sentiment that political leaders no longer comprehend, nor can they express, the citizenry's problems because they are too far removed from that reality.

For Sampieri, the national crisis was a long time in the making and these assemblies are a response to the loss of credibility of the political system in general. "Politics continues to be the only way to express one's self, but the people reject the political parties, and therefore are gathering in the streets," he said.

Some of the initiatives coming out of the assemblies include organizing a volunteer corps to provide assistance to retirees and the unemployed and to help with the needs outlined by hospital personnel, but the priority is ultimately to take their proposals to the national level.

The neighborhood assemblies are planning a march on the legislative palace when the lawmakers gather to debate the government budget, protests outside bank headquarters to protest the transfer to pesos - the national currency - of dollar deposits, and demonstrations against the representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) who visit Argentina.

"I don't know if this will lead to change, but at least it is teaching us to be more alert," said one resident as she headed home after an assembly meeting.

Copyright © 2001 IPS-Inter Press Service

España: Los Presupuestos Participativos se Expanden por Andalucía

Los Presupuestos Participativos se expanden por Andalucía

Localidades como Algeciras, Gines y Fuentes de Andalucía están programando el comienzo de los presupuestos participativos para sus municipios. Algeciras y Fuentes de Andalucía van a comenzar con un diagnóstico participado para el estudio de la implantación de los presupuestos participativos. El caso de Gines, pueblo metropolitano del Aljarafe, es diferente pues ya tiene previsto un gasto a decidir por la ciudadanía en materia de arreglos y propuestas de urbanismo. Prepara para dentro de poco unas jornadas iniciales del proceso y contará con la ayuda metodológica del curso Derecho a la Ciudad de la universidad Pablo de Olavide. Otros municipios están todavía definiendo cómo y cuándo empezar. Así el municipio de Torredonjimeno (Jaén) organizó el día 8 y 9 de febrero unas jornadas sobre participación donde estuvo presente el Presupuesto Participativo de Sevilla. La experiencia de Sevilla es muy importante para estos municipios, que ven cómo se ha desarrollado en una ciudad grande un proceso que activa a l@s ciudadan@s y los hace más críticos y conscientes de su ciudad. Así también ha estado presente la experiencia de Sevilla en otras jornadas como las desarrolladas en un encuentro de cargos públicos de Portugal , celebrado en Lisboa, o las más recientes de la FAMP en Jaén ciudad.

Fuente:presparsevilla.org.es/prespar/index.php

Action Network: BBC Adventures in e-Democracy

The following article examines the role of the BBC in promoting citizen participation through their BBC Action Network. An e-democracy promoting website which facilitates grassroots organizing. Evidently some activists have reservations about using a site constructed by a state sponsored institution. The article examines the complexities of a major news organization with links to the state backing such an effort. - Editor

Laurence Pawley - Horizontal politics in a vertical world: The BBC and Action Network

Source: http://www.re-public.gr/en/?p=146

Examining the BBC’s experiments on facilitating participatory e-democracy, Laurence Pawley finds that such re-imaginings of political action must be accompanied by a re-imagination of the institutions that provide them.

The growth of the ‘new’ politics enabled by technological developments like blogs and wikis has, generally speaking, emerged from outside of established nodes of political power. The informal, collaborative methods of action proposed by these spaces have predominantly been taken up by looser social movements and individuals, with the anti-capitalist movement and maverick ‘political bloggers’ serving as obvious examples.

But what happens when similar opportunities are facilitated by a national institution, with substantial links to the state? Can active citizenship be promoted through an organisation associated with a centralised, linear mission to ‘inform, educate and entertain’? This is the question raised by the BBC’s Action Network mini-site (originally launched in 2003 as iCan).

The site takes the form of a facilitative space, aimed in at individuals who wish to develop single-issue campaigns in their local area. Users can leave ‘notices’ (effectively equivalent to a standard online messageboard) or create more permanent ‘campaign’ pages in a collaborative blog format. The site has won several awards for its contribution to e-democracy, and its founder Martin Vogel claimed in late 2005 that Action Network was receiving 175,000 unique users per month.

In itself, this appears relatively unproblematic. Action Network is a well-organised and relatively simple site, with clear ground-rules that forbid (party) political activity and encourage a collaborative, dialogical dynamic. As such, it shares good practices with other successful examples of online campaign activity, and exudes the ethos of equitable participation central to the ideals behind wiki politics. However, if we begin to institutionally contextualise Action Network within the contemporary BBC, a series of tensions emerge with potential implications for the site, its users, and the BBC itself.

For the latter, Action Network appears to have emerged as part of a concerted effort to integrate notions of participation and public agency into the BBC’s practice. This much was made clear in the Corporation’s 2004 mission statement Building Public Value, which identified Action Network as a key initiative within its new goal of ‘supporting active and informed citizenship’. But how does such a notion function within the BBC? The organisation has long been associated with a centralised and sometimes paternalistic approach to the delivery of public service to a passive public, and has been subject to consistent critique on these grounds. Indeed, one might argue that the BBC is in fact reliant on this position, insofar as only the presumption of a uniform, passive citizenry justifies the continuing prominence of a single public service broadcaster.

Within Building Public Value, this issue is never fully resolved. On the one hand, the BBC (evidently responding to external pressures including media fragmentation, and the development of new discourses of citizenship) is keen to develop a more active, decentred conceptualisation of the public sphere- concluding with the aim to build ‘new civic avenues and town squares… places where we can celebrate, debate and reflect’. Simultaneously however, it lauds the historical success both of the national BBC structure and its successful relationship with Parliament and state institutions, and places considerable emphasis on its ability to set both political and cultural agendas.

In this context, the BBC’s support for initiatives like Action Network implies a contestation of its own position. Put simply, the ideas that underlay Action Network and similar projects (a ‘bottom-up’ approach to citizenship, localism, and the achievement of political goals through non-traditional strategies) exist at least in contradiction – if not in fact in direct opposition - to the precepts that have previously bulwarked the Corporation.

In practice, I would suggest that this contradiction has been largely ignored, with the result that both Action Network and the wider BBC appear somewhat compromised. Although the site maintains a certain level of independence from the BBC, the Corporation maintains the right to place its own postings, provide ‘expert’ advice on campaign methods, and editorialises content (for example, the featured campaigns on the front page). The BBC also clearly views the site’s activity as a potential source of content- in 2006 for example, BBC1’s Breakfast ran a series of reports based on Action Network projects. Even as it encourages open participation, it maintains a strong branded presence.

One argument of course is that such links are beneficial- providing advice and the potential for wider exposure for groups and individuals utilising the site. This however comes at a price, insofar as the BBC ‘preferences’ certain types of action in its advice pages, and certain elements of content in its editorial work. This at least carries the potential to skew the success or failure of certain campaigns, and the types of causes to which the site is deemed amenable. One can argue that any attempt to provide similar forums through a state (or in this case, quasi-state) organisation would carry the same risks, if only because the discursive association between provider and service would seem to privilege particular strands of thought.

In addition, there is a risk that sites like Action Network, because of their particular location, will become as much a complaints forum as a place to ‘celebrate, debate and reflect’. A cursory search for ‘BBC’ on the site leads to campaigns called for the Corporation to be banned, or demanding changes in programming. While such entries don’t necessarily undermine the site’s broader potential, their frequency is illustrative of the difficulties it faces in ‘shaking off’ the legacy of its provider (a fact undoubtedly known to Tony Blair’s government after the recent e-petition on road pricing). If such sites become increasingly ‘hijacked’ as a means to attack their founders, it is possible that other users will seek alternative platforms without such strong associations.

So, there appear to be some definite obstacles in the development of online political networks through an established national body. And should it attempt to resolve them, the BBC – by virtue of the more centralised aspect of its institutional logic – may find itself in an awkward situation. It could for example step back from Action Network, removing the obvious links with BBC content and leaving the site truly ‘open’ to participation. Yet while this might alleviate the concerns of some users, it is unlikely to benefit the BBC itself. If such a move succeeded, it would give ammunition to those who wish to see a more general scaling back of the BBC’s role in UK life. And if it failed (for example because users appreciated the guidance offered by the BBC content), then the Corporation has both failed in its attempt to support active citizenship, and wasted licence-payers money in doing so. Meanwhile, to continue with the current format exposes the BBC to the charge of interference with an ostensibly public-led platform.

This article, it should be stressed, is not intended as a condemnation of Action Network, or of the BBC’s intentions in its establishment. The site has much to commend it, and a glance around it will quickly prove that much useful work is being done, both via the campaigns themselves and the broader encouragement of civic responsibility. Nonetheless, it is perhaps the case that to be optimally effective, such re-imaginings of political action must be accompanied by a re-imagination of the institutions that provide them. Such a solution, while optimistic, offers the best chance of transcending tensions between participation and passivity, centralisation and subsidiarity, and past and future.

Further links:
Action network wins e-democracy award
The BBC plans for digital democracy
BBC Action Network

Peru: Participatory Monitoring of Mining Royalties

Peruvian law requires that 50% of income taxes paid by mining companies be contributed to regional (25%) and municipal (75%) governments, but communities have not clearly associated mining with potential communal resources. Little information on this has been provided by the municipal governments which have no incentive to disclose such information to the public and therefore these funds have not been used to undertake local development projects. However, a new project is underway that will provide communities with the necessary information to take advantage of these funds, which have been increasing due to a rise in market prices for minerals and higher levels of investment and production, in order to positively impact mining communities. Civil society in Peru is currently being asked to participate in an Independent Monitoring Mechanism which will track municipal management of mining royalties. This effort to involve citizens in the distribution of funds will create transparency in the local government while it fosters individual investment in the well-being of the community. The project has the potential to provoke further participation in the local government as people discover success in controlling public funds. While it is scheduled to last only two years and by the looks of the webpage is somehow connected to the exploitative bureaucracy of the World Bank, citizens should approach this opportunity as a foot in the door that will create inroads to participatory democracy on the local level. -Editor

For more on this specific project and others like it, see:

http://commdev.org/section/projects/revenue_peru

10 Downing Street's e-Petitions

10 Downing St. has set up a website where british citizenry can post their petitions to the prime minister. The petitions can gather signatories on the site, and completed petitions generate a response from the Prime Minister. It is unclear whether this site has in fact been a means for the public to influence policy, or merely a gimmick to allow people to believe that they have a voice in government. It's mere existence however is yet another example of how the internet can be a revolutionary tool in bringing direct democracy to bear on a large scale. The trick is to make the popular will binding, and create a system in which representatives are merely executors of that popular will. Barack Obama in the U.S.A. has proposed measures in his platform that would allow for much more significant citizen participation and transparency than this somewhat symbolic british measure. To learn more about his proposals see our previous post on the subject. (click here) It is encouraging to see such proposals reaching the mainstream but we must continue to build upon them and push for deeper direct democracy. - Editor


Click here to visit the P.M's e-petitions site

Source: http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page11051.asp

13 November 2007

There is a long-established tradition of members of the public presenting petitions at the door of Number 10 Downing Street. The e-Petitions service has been designed to offer a modern parallel, which is more convenient for the petitioner. Unlike paper-based petitions, this service also provides an opportunity for Number 10 to respond to every petitioner via email.

Since its launch in November 2006, the ePetitions site has proved to be a highly popular innovation, helping people communicate with Government and with the Prime Minister's Office. ePetitions has become a part of the landscape of debate in the UK.

The service allows any UK citizen to create a petition and collect signatures via the website. Petitioners are asked to meet basic criteria, but we aim to accept most petitions. The principal reasons for rejecting petitions so far have been obscenity, potential to cause offence, libel or duplication.

Facts and figures

Since its launch, the site has been very busy. The facts and figures to the end of October show:
Over 29,000 petitions have been submitted, of which over 8,500 are currently live and available for signing, over 6,000 have finished and 14,601 have been rejected outright.
There have been over 5.8 million signatures, originating from over 3.9 million different email addresses.

The most common reason for rejection is duplication - many users have commented that there are petitions on similar subjects clogging up the site. We are trying to eliminate too much duplication or overlap, although we need to balance that with the need to allow for the nuances of similar petitions.
The other common reasons for rejection are: legal issues, offensive language, party political content and issues outside the government's remit.

If a petition is rejected, petitioners are given a chance to reword their petition. Some users choose to resubmit their petitions, some prefer not to.

Learning from Contemporary Social Movements

The article linked below in its introduction gives an excellent outline of some South American social movements and how they were formed. What makes current movements unique is the demand of diverse and historically oppressed peoples to participate in democratic political processes. As Petras points out, Argentina's Workers movement exemplifies the organization of groups that were previously thought to be impossible to organize. In that specific case it required the desperation caused by the economic crisis of 2001 to encourage people to break class and social barriers to unite against the corrupt government. A unique form of organization and democratic participation in the workplace rose from the mayhem of crisis that provides an example that we should learn from as the world economy begins its downward spiral. See the article to learn the inspirational qualities of this recent movement toward participatory democracy. -Editor

The Unemployed Workers Movement in Argentina

By James Petras

Source: http://www.monthlyreview.org/0102petras.htm

Introduction

Latin America has witnessed three waves of overlapping and interrelated social movements over the last twenty-five years. The first wave, roughly from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, was largely composed of what were called “the new social movements.” They included human rights, ecology, feminist, and ethnic movements as well as Non-Government Organizations (NGOs). Their leadership was largely lower middle class professionals, and their policies and strategies revolved around challenging the military and civilian authoritarian regimes of the time.

The second wave developed into a powerful political force from the mid-1980s to the present. Largely composed of and led by peasants and rural workers, the mass organizations of the second wave engaged in direct action to promote and defend the economic interests of their supporters... (Click here to read full article)

La Democracia Verdadera y Participativa Llega a Bolivia

Hace un poco más de 25 años la supuesta democracia llegó a Bolivia. Pero una serie de presidentes y gobiernos corruptos y represivos resultó en decadas más de lucha y opresión. Ahora con el gobierno de Evo Morales la democracia viene llegando de verdad, y en la forma más pura, la democracia directa y participativa. Estos dos articulos siguientes hablan de la historia de la lucha Boliviana por la democracia verdadera, y la nueva era que por fin estan experimentando ahora con la reforma y los cambios que estan levantando el pueblo Boliviano. - Editor

Sectores Sociales Aseguran que la Democracia Participativa se Fortalece en Bolivia

Fuente: http://www.tarijalibre.tarijaindustrial.com/

La Paz, 08 oct 2007(ABI).- La Confederación Indígena del Oriente Boliviano (Cidob), la Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) y el Comité Cívico Popular en Santa Cruz, aseguraron este lunes que la democracia participativa se ha fortalecido en el país, con un cambio contundente en la inclusión, igualdad y soberanía.

Faltando dos días para celebrar los 25 años de democracia en Bolivia, desde el año 1982, las tres organizaciones sociales coincidieron por separado, que a través de las políticas de inclusión que realiza el Gobierno nacional, se hizo posible la participación en las decisiones de todos los pueblos indígenas, campesinos y trabajadores.

El presidente de la Cidob, Adolfo Chávez, indicó que la reivindicación de los derechos de los pueblos indígenas, la lucha por la igualdad social y el respeto a sus decisiones, es una parte complementaria en el marco de una democracia con participación de todos ellos.

“Es mas notoria la participación con el actual Gobierno, porque tenemos participación en la Comunidad Andina (CAN), somos interlocutores válidos para hacer conocer nuestras propuestas con algunos ministros incluso con el presidente Morales”, indicó.

De su parte, el secretario general de la COB, Felipe Machaca, remarcó que los trabajadores se sienten más comprometidos con la democracia participativa, porque “ahora tenemos derecho a emitir nuestras ideas y no como antes con los gobiernos fascistas que nos coartaban la voz y el pensamiento del movimiento popular”.

Entretanto, el presidente del Comité Cívico Popular en Santa Cruz, Saturnino Pinto, explicó que la desigualdad, la intolerancia y el racismo, son temas que se están superando con el respaldo de la lucha que realiza el Gobierno para todos los bolivianos, “principalmente por los trabajadores, campesinos e indígenas”.

“Estamos de acuerdo con el actual Gobierno que está luchando contra los grandes intereses de algunas personas, pero ahora nos favorece respetando nuestra soberanía”, precisó.

Faq/Pta ABI

En 25 años, Bolivia Pagó Alto Precio Para Pasar de la Democracia Pactada a la Participativa

El pueblo se cansó de que sólo lo tomen en cuenta para el voto. Quería más y entonces un líder político comprendió y canalizó esa demanda. Evo Morales, el primer mandatario indígena con el 53,7% de votos, llegó a Palacio Quemado sin tener que negociar con nadie.

La Paz, 10 oct (ABI).- En 25 años de democracia, Bolivia pagó un alto precio para pasar de la democracia representativa pactada a la democracia participativa. Hubo marchas, movilizaciones, huelgas, heridos y muertos de por medio.

En ese período, Bolivia tuvo nueve presidentes constitucionales y sólo el actual mandatario, Evo Morales, llegó a Palacio Quemado con el 53,7% de votos producto de las urnas.

La historia boliviana del último cuarto de siglo muestra situaciones políticas inéditas con seis mandatarios producto de elecciones nacionales, de las cuales Morales Ayma no recurrió a la democracia pactada, que fue la característica de los años precedentes.

Desde que el 10 de octubre de 1982, grandes multitudes celebraran el acceso de Hernán Siles Zuazo al poder, se registraron cientos de hitos que -cuestionando la democracia formal- dieron lugar a nuevas formas de participación, hasta que el 18 de diciembre de 2005 se dio el gran salto a la democracia participativa.

“Estamos acá en democracia, y quiero que sepan que queremos cambiar Bolivia no con balas sino con votos, y esa es la revolución democrática”, dijo entonces el presidente Morales.

En los 25 años de democracia se registraron miles de movilizaciones, huelgas, marchas y enfrentamientos en el territorio nacional, pero los hechos más violentos correspondieron a las zonas del altiplano paceño y el Chapare cochabambino.

La Marcha por la Vida de 1985; la Marcha de los Pueblos Indígenas de 1992, la Guerra del Agua de Cochabamba de 2002, más las arrolladoras revueltas callejeras de febrero de 2002 y octubre de 2003, configuran los hitos fundamentales de 25 años de democracia.

Sólo la movilización de octubre de 2003 -en demanda de mayor
democracia para decidir el destino del gas- fue posible a un costo de 67 muertos y al menos 400 heridos.

EVO MORALES, PRESIDENTE INDÍGENA

En una jornada memorable, el líder indígena Evo Morales logró el 18 de diciembre de 2005 la mayor votación en la historia democrática, desde que Hernán Siles Zuazo llegara al poder. Ni en sueños, sus familiares de la población de Orinoca imaginaron ver a Evo como Primer Mandatario boliviano. Quienes sí tal vez lo hayan advertido son los cocaleros que lo eligieron para que los representara.

Cuando el hambre arrasó con toda esperanza, Evo y su familia se mudaron al trópico cochabambino, en donde encontraron en el cultivo de hoja de coca la subsistencia. En 1997, Morales llegó al Parlamento como diputado uninominal por Cochabamba con el 70% de los votos.

Por presión de la Embajada de EEUU, en enero de 2002, cuando Jorge Tuto Quiroga estaba en la Presidencia, tras la renuncia por enfermedad de Hugo Banzer, Evo debió abandonar su curul en el Congreso por una acusación de narcoterrorismo.

Ocurrió luego de un sangriento episodio en el que murieron cuatro cocaleros, tres militares y un policía.

La democracia formal y representativa de los 23 años precedentes, tuvo una característica fundamental en el divorcio entre el discurso y la práctica política. Elección tras elección la gente sentía que cada vez más se alejaba la democracia y los partidos sólo utilizaban al pueblo para el momento del voto.

Esa utilización del voto fue planteando un progresivo deterioro de la democracia y una profunda crisis que derivó en pactos políticos que acababan en difíciles como oscuras negociaciones para la elección de los gobiernos de turno.

Desde 1995 y en sucesivas actuaciones políticas el hoy presidente Morales, fue haciendo notar la separación entre discurso político y práctica política y paralelamente fue mostrando señales diferentes en su accionar político personal.

Criticaba a los partidos por “servirse del pueblo” y mantenía cercano contacto con las bases del trópico y otros movimientos campesinos y sociales de diferentes puntos del país.

Hacía ver que era posible construir una democracia en la cual los gobernantes sean la expresión de los deseos y demandas del pueblo.

Su “mandar obedeciendo”, inspirado en la concepciones políticas del Sub comandante Marcos, fue decisivo para dar en la campaña electoral del 2005, un nuevo perfil de la democracia: la democracia participativa e inclusiva, donde el pueblo, a través de sus representaciones más activas, no es adorno, sino su pilar central. ABI//

Participatory Budgeting in Dondo, Mozambique

The following article describes one of several participatory budgeting initiatives underway in the countries of southern Africa. - Editor

PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING IN DONDO MUNICIPAL COUNCIL, MOZAMBIQUE




This Article was prepared by Mr. Manuel Cambezo, Mayor of Dondo Municipality

Source: http://www.asaaf.org.zw/newsletter3/page17.htm






Background

The Municipality of Dondo is located in the Province of Sofala in Mozambique. It occupies an area of 382 km² and has a population of about 71.644 inhabitants. The Participatory Budgeting process in Dondo started in 1999, during the first municipal term. The motivation for this approach was the request by the citizens to see their interests realized. Dondo municipal council decided to involve citizens in the budgetary because it realized the following benefits:

• It improves efficiency and efficacy in the use of public resources
• It promotes sustainable allocation of resources;
• It promotes socio-economic growth of the communities themselves;

Citizens should always be part of the decision-making process because they play active role in municipal development and are responsible for the success of development projects.

Modalities of Participation in Dondo

• Provision of services by the private sector i.e. Education, health, water supply, etc.
• Monetary or in-kind contribution for construction, maintenance and operations of public infrastructures by the communities, NGOs and the private sector
• Payment of the municipal property taxes
• Contribution for the expenses for operations and maintenance of public services

In order to provide sound and rational solutions for the needs of the citizens the following institutional and community measures were taken:

• At institutional level: Establishment of an advisory and studies office (GEA), Community Affairs as an instrument for permanent liaison with the communities;
• At the neighborhoods level: Neighborhoods Development Nucleus (NDB), Association of Community Services – local non-governmental organization (ASSERCO).

The main actors in the process of Participatory Budgeting include:

• The civil society
• Non-governmental Organizations
• The private sector

Organization of the Participatory Budgeting Process in Dondo – 2007

Participatory budgeting in Dondo takes the following phases:

• Organizational activities of the population on territorial or thematic basis
• Assessment of he activities undertaken by the municipality
• Municipal diagnostic
• Preparation of PESOM and PIM
• Discussion of the proposals of PESOM and PIM at the Municipal Council.
• Final drafting of the proposals
• Submission of the proposals to the Municipal Assembly

Advantages of Participatory Budgeting and Planning in Dondo:

• More investment initiatives mainly in the area of socio-economic development;
• More flexibility in the response to the citizens concerns;
• More involvement of the citizens in finding local solutions for local problems

Constraints:

• Weak representation of the various concerned groups;
• Weak understanding of the main issues to be addressed in the process,
• Use of the same methodology for different type of problems and target population

The municipality has the following challenges:

• Spread the concept of Participatory Budgeting;
• Promote public awareness on the role of the municipalities;
• Involvement of the citizens in Participatory Budgeting;
• Establishment of civic education processes using the media;
• Capacity building of the members of the Municipal Council and Assembly as well as the communities.

How to overcome the challenges:

• Production of manuals, brochures and other instruments to be used in spreading the concept of Participatory Budgeting;
• Involvement of Community Radio and other social communication means in dissemination and increasing of the awareness of the communities and the members of the Municipal Council and Assembly on Participatory Budgeting;
• Mobilize internal and external resources to support the implementation of the municipal Participatory Budgeting;
• Use part of the municipal revenues for technical capacity building; and
  Liaise with the local government ad other partners in order to improve the municipal model on Participatory Budgeting

Perspectives:

• With the Participatory Budgeting we want to improve transparency in municipal management;
• Democratize the decision-making process;
• Share the responsibility for municipal management (Municipal government and the citizens)

By. Manuel Cambezo (Presidente do CMD)