Topic selected: Citizens participation as an important tool to strength democracy

Presented by:
Adv.Blendi Dibra,
Master in Public Law
PhD Candidate

Abstract

Citizen’s participation, it’s a fundamental right which shall be considered both from citizens and
government officials to strength the democracy. That’s why its important to engage citizens in the local
decision-making process. This paper presents why and how communities should be actively involved in
governance not simply as a way to find solution of their concerns but as an important channel to build
communication and cooperation with government and strength democracy. This safeguard was put in
place to ensure that citizens have an opportunity to provide input on local decisions before they go into
effect. In spite of this public notice requirement, many towns and cities around the country still conduct
policy-making without full disclosure to the public. In some instances, this occurs due to time constraints
or lack of understanding of the public’s role in the decision-making process. In other cases, public officials
intentionally neglect to engage the public, as the public might derail their agenda.

In this presentation will be presented some of the arguments why its so important to engage citizens in
local decision making process not only to guarantee the development of democratic system but as well
its promote as well the sustainable development. Respect toward human right cannot be achieved in a
society if citizens do not have full access in governance by offering them all opportunities to participate
as important tool for the development of a democratic system.

First of all, local citizens know best what the local needs and issues are. Secondly, engaging the public in
the decision-making process serves to educate both citizens and policy-makers about the various facts of
a particular decision or issue from a variety of perspectives. Third, engaging citizens in decision-making
makes the implementation of a decision or policy more likely and build trust among them. Finally,
engaging the public helps to build accountability for both public officials and the citizens.

So, the question remains, how can our community effectively engage citizens in local decision-making,
whether these decisions focus on Master Plans, local schools, capital improvement projects, economic
development, or other local issues? The paper will try answering this question by promoting a variety of
tools that public officials can use to engage citizens in decision-making but as well it will be a good
“apperitif” for promoting the debate among experts in the field.

Key words: citizens, community, participation, government, governance, decision-making

Overview
On democracy, as a concept and political doctrine, there are many different definitions, but in all
these its easly found in common the irreplaceable role of the citizens. It’s clear that democracy and
social development cannot be achieved through romantic words and political speeches. A key
prerequisite for development and functioning of a democratic state is the formation of civic
consciousness and responsibility that every citizen as member of his community had and should
actively use to protect the democratic principles.

A century ago, U.S. President Wilson, would declare:

"The history of liberty is the history of the limitation of government power, not its growth."

The above mention statement, in a democratic political system, apply the limitation of government
power by using control in several ways which includes:
1. Constitutional and legal control.
2. Parliamentary control.
3. Political party control.
4. Legal-economic control.
5. Trade Marks Unions and business control.
6. Public civil society, media and civic participation control.

In democratic system an increasing role is playing the public civic participation control, synthesized
as a citizen response toward the government activitity by influencing for good governance. Citizens'
opinions are related, firstly, with elections and election results from which comes governing bodies.
What elections do is the transformation in numbers of the citizen’s opinions regarding the
government activity.

In this paper will be further analyzed some of the element for citizens participation by focusing in
the progress made in the case of Albania.

1. Why do citizens play an important role for good governance?

The citizens right to participate in governance has it origin in the ancient Greek right since the time
of Plato's Republic1. Such principle is further transferred to the Roman era as a special Republican
right, while later is resized by the French Revolution leaders. That got a full political meaning in the
20-century, to be transformed into a fundamental feature of modern democracy. Modern forms of
citizenship have been developed dynamically by an intermediate public participation in a direct and
wider involvement into the governance.

One of the most important policy instruments today, is the governance through participation,
consultation and dialogue through exchange of ideas and best alternatives. Strengthening the
relationship between government and citizens has a clear priority for today's democracies. In order
to increase public participation in governance its important to further develop the process of
decentralization as a good option for spreading the responsibilities and powers into different levels
of governance.

1 Platonian concept on freedom of speech, assembly, voting, and equal representation, etc.
The right of the public to participate in governance included in the basic human rights guaranteed
by international documents, of which most important are: "Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights European Convention on Human Rights. So
these rights are included in the catalog of the most important rights guaranteed by international law
as well as from positive right ndryshme.ndikojnë countries in their daily lives.

An important document which constitutes an important source of reference remains the European
Charter of Local Self-Government which in its preamble states that: "The right of citizens to
participate in the development of public works is part of the democratic principles common to all
member states of the Council of Europe "and the direct realization of this right is just possible
locally. So the government closest to citizens and local government is exactly where the citizens
have the opportunity to influence the adoption of decisions that affect the environment they live.

Regarding public participation exist different definitions of the different insights. One of the more
general definitions, defines public participation as a process of open, accountable, through which
individuals and groups within communities can exchange views and influence decision-making
through a democratic process of engaging people who play an active role in planning, development
and operation of services that affect their daily lives.

Citizen participation is represented in three main stages:

1) Starting with the simple one, where the citizen is in the role of a consumer which is
displayed in different views, like for example through the implementation of the law,
paying taxes, environmental protection etc.
2) The second is participation through mediation among institutionalized structures
3) The third one is the model of direct citizen’s participation.

In the third stage is better managed the demand of individuals. The involvement in the decision
making aims to influence the quality and volume of public services at the benefit of citizens. At this
stage more voluntary contribution is requested as for example: direct citizen’s participation into
governance through development and protection of the community or the environment.
Furthermore, in accordance with the level of participation is made the distinguishment between
active and passive citizens2.

1.1.Citizens as partner in governance

The most important principles of local development are citizen’s participation. There are several
reasons why participation is important for community development such as:

1) Citizen participation is not only a way to help citizens for improving their life quality
but it serves as well the government itself, to improve its performance quality.
2) It helps government to find out which are the public's preferences by making it more
effective, democratic, tranparente and legal.
3) It plays an important role in the decision-making process, by improving decisions
through collection of considerations among local knowledge.
2 Meidani, Rexhep. 2009. “Mbi qeverisjen”, Tiranë: Dudaj, page 359
 4) The process of participation helps to protect as well equality and justice.

This is why, it’s so important to share the governance with citizens, giving to them more space
where their inputs can be provided. Citizens should be considered as partner in governance sharing
with them responsabilities and elaborating together local plans of actions. Some of these reasons to
engage citizens in local decision-making process are:

a) Citizen’s inputs are best resources, who know best what the local needs and issues are.
So far engaging citizens in policy-making allows governments to obtain new sources of
ideas and exchange information, during decision-making process.
b) It develop a process of education where citizens and policy-makers when working
together during the decision making process by trying through serious efforts to do the
best for their community, reflects about various issues.
c) Although the process of citizen’s participation is not simple, engaging them in the
decision-making it’s important because it results that citizen’s involvement makes the
implementation of a decision or a policy more likely.
d) The public would be not likely to assist with implementation of a decision, plan or
policy unless public officials have their constituents on board with a particular
decision plan.
e) Citizen’s involvement in governance helps to build accountability and responsabilities
for both public officials and the citizens.

So far that’s why it’s important to engage effectively citizens in decision-making. For that purpose
governments must invest adequate time and resources on building legislation, policy and
institutional frameworks. They should develop and use appropriate tools, ranging from surveys to
conferences and workshops with small groups of interest up to wide participation level which
includes even the right for referendumes3.

Key factors for success in citizen engagement in politics include:

1) Exchange of information,
2) Consultation by public participation.

The given information should be objective, complete, updated, easy to be found and easy to be
understood. Quantity and quality of government information to the public has grown tremendously
over the last 20 years. But there are still countries such as Germany, Luxembourg, Mexico, Poland,
Switzerland and Turkey - which have yet to complete legal framework of the freedom of
information.

To assess the impact of new laws in some countries such as Canada, Finland and Japan, the
government is required to consult with citizens. Indeed the process of discussion should be as soon
as possible in the point of view of making laws applicable and acceptable. During the preparations
of the Freedom of Information Law, passed in 2000, the United Kingdom Government conducted
extensive public consultations where parliament received 2 248 comments on the bill.

3
Article 150 of Albanian Constitution says: “The people, through 50 thousand citizens who enjoy the right to vote, have the right
to a referendum for the abrogation of a law, as well as to request the President of the Republic to hold a referendum about
issues of special importance.“
Today, is going to be developed rapidly so called e-government where the activity of government is
provided online. Through online platforms are promoted and developed online debates,
consultations, although it presents several limitations as far as not everyone have the possibility of
using the Internet in due time.

However, governments everywhere have been criticized for creating distance with people, for their
lack of sensitivities regarding civic concerns, leaving them out from governance. There is a need for
a greater government transparency and accountability, especially by promoting public media
scrutiny of government actions.

The public should have access to the meetings at community level and notifications are required by
law to be posted prior to the meetings. That’s important to ensure the opportunity of citizens to
provide their inputs on local decisions before they go into effect. In several cases such tasks public
officials intentionally neglect to engage the public by not informing them regarding the decision-
making process.

In such situations there are several cases when decisions are taken without consultation and
development of absorption of citizens thought. There are some governments tendencies to focus
public debate on some specific issues where sensitivity is high, such as the environment or
consumer protection, but which are not enough for a good governance. In the developed democratic
systems there is a constant pressure for inclusion of citizens in the consultation and participation in
all aspects of governance, from budget to foreign policy.

At the other side citizens should not only expect to be invited they should become visible by
playing their role in ensuring that they are actively engaged. This shall be done in a regularly base.
They should not neglect issues which belong to them. Citizens should be aware to ask the
responsabilities of whom belong which have the task to respect their right. Even a simply
participation in the city town councils or other public buildings where meeting notices are posted to
keep informed of local decision-making, or writing letters to public officials to make them
accountable, asking key questions at town meetings, and encouraging officials to develop an
effective process to engage local citizens are very strong signals which makes governance
understand the power of citizens in participation. Effective public participation processes maintain
the following attributes:

1) Inputs from public are collected at various stages of the process.

2) Transform decision making process as a multifunctional one by informing, educating
and trainining not only citizens but even public official ones.
3) Particular decisons or policies give to the impacted stakeholder’s equal opportunity to
participate in the process.
4) Public participation should be leaded from real needs of citizens not from guides given
from political leaders simply to formalise the process. So far the process shall be a real
to be considered as an important step in decision or policy, and not simply to be a
formal process where the decision is already finalised in the politician’s offices.
2. Role of civil society and media to promote civic participation
2.1.The role of civil society in promoting civic participation

In modern democratic societies, associations and groups who are independent from government
plays an important role in the development of civil society and strengthening the democratic system
by contributing into the development of sustainable institutions4. These associations seek to create
mechanisms of rules of law which allows their independent existence and encourage their growth.
But as Julie Mertus has written, “Civil society cannot flourish where there are inadequate legal
assurances of their ability to operate autonomously from government”5. The power of NGOs,
mostly results in the mobilization of public pressure. They influence decisions at local and national
level. The increased role of civil society marks a shift from "government" to "governance"
including the power of a larger group of participants and activists.

The United Nation Development Program notes that: “Good governance is, among other things,
participatory, transparent and accountable. It is also effective and equitable. And it promotes the
rule of law. Good governance ensures that political, social and economic priorities are based on
broad consensus in society and that the voices of the poorest and the most vulnerable are heard in
decision-making over the allocation of development resources.”6

In our country there have been some signals that leading politicians as prime minister or even
opposition leaders have shown attention to civil society to show publicly that they are taking into
account their views. In some other cases very active NGO had the courage to denounce what they
see as a campaign of pressure of the government against them.

However it is worth emphasizing those efforts that civil society can do to influence the governance
system in our country, is still very weak. Efforts to strengthen governance and promote civic
participation in the governance process are still needed at both central and local, in order that civil
groups to be able to fully play the role of observers and to seek support for improvements in their
quality of life.

2.2.Role of Media promoting civic participation

Modern politics is mainly associated with civic engagement by recognizing them through
transmission on the print and visual media. Researches about democracy in contemporary
conditions are associated with how does the media report and interpret political events and issues of
the day, and how media influence in political processes and encourage public opinion expression.
Thus, the media has taken a central role in politics and in contemporary democracies.

Media may apply its power through exercising influence in society in a negative way, by darkening
the motives and interests that hide political decisions, or in a positive way, enhancing the people's
political decisions. In this sense the media and the governing equation becomes important.

4 Article 46, paragraph 1 of Albanian Constitution says: „Everyone has the right to organize collectively for any lawful purpose.“
5 Monroe E. Price & Peter Krug. 2000 “The Enabling Environment For Free and Independent Media” Oxford University: USAID, pg 39
6 http://magnet.undp.org/
Democracy means participatory governance, so media inform citizens about various problems of
society, making government officials more accountable and responsible to citizens.

Access to information is essential to the health of democracy for at least two reasons:

Firstly, it ensures that citizens become responsible, informed regarding decisions in order to prevent
their action out of ignorance or misinformation.

Secondly, information serves to the function of "control over government activity", ensuring the
realization of the promises made by elected representatives.

In today's society, the relationship between media and government represents a vital element in the
development of democracy function. While many consider the Media as a part of civil society, it
follows and influences many functions of democracy and government. For example, the media
gives a contribution to support the results of government activities, especially those related to
decentralization, anti-corruption, citizen participation in policy processes, etc. The development of
an independent media which essentially has the rule of law can give positive results in control over
the judiciary system by creating a suitable legal environment for press freedom. Article 19 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the year 1948 states that "Every person has the right to
freedom of opinion and expression: this right includes freedom to hold opinions without
interference and to seek receive and give information and ideas in any media regardless of frontiers"

The purpose of the development of media in general need to move from a media that is clearly
directed or controlled by government or private interests, in terms of an open media with a degree
of editorial independence that serves the public interest. They have to develop different views
through reliable voices. Creating a trust allows greater civic participation by giving them
information that is needed to take appropriate decisions.

In order to exercise its functions in the control of the executive power and encourage citizens
participation media should have a greater degree of economic and editorial independence including
numerous and diverse voices which serve to the public interest. Public interest is defined as
representative of a majority of the diversity of views which converge towards common solutions.

3. Albanian tradition of citizen’s participation

In the Albanian tradition “community” has been the basis of social regulation7. The household was
the first level of community and basic institution of Albanian society. The second level of the
community was “village community” which has been taken as cohabitation of households. To
achieve so, step by step higher forms of organization, such as provinces, to the principalities, which
were in fact as "a community of communities", a term used by Aristotle and by today's researchers
of community8.

Actually Albania is developing a number of reforms to realise the process of decentralisation which
aims to make more stable democratic system, by enhancing government efficiency, to stimulate the

7 Sokoli, Leke, 2006, " Komunitarizmi rasti i Shqiperise ", Tirana Observer, 28 September
8 Kicmari, Sabri. 2004 “Drejtpeshimi”. Tirane: Koci
creation of a stable basis for economic development, to make government more transparent and to
ensure citizens participation in the public life at local and regional level9.

In general the strategy of decentralization and undertaken reforms have created legal space for
wider participation of citizens in decision-making processes which have a direct impact to increase
the quality of services for the benefit of communities . However one of the main obstacles to the
decentralization process remains the strengthening of direct participation of communities in local
governance.

According to Alexis de Tocquevill in his book "Democracy in America" the common denominator
of every community organization is the willingness to be organized volunterly and solve problems
of public interest10.

From this perspective we can say that Albania has had a tradition of community organization, but
more limited in a local stage and not very well organised. Moreover the way that various forms of
community organization were applied in Albania, especially in the communist system but even later
on during the transition from did not represent the real values of community organisation.

While in the period that followed the collapse of communism, any value set during the preceding
order was faced with the extreme antagonism of comprehensive transition, thus replacing extreme
collectivism with extreme individualism. Albania is already in a stage of re-organizing community,
where according to the current context characterized by the wide internal migration, take advantage
other elements such as neighborhood, manufacturing or service units, groups of interest,
associations, different focus groups of civil society, etc11.

During the last years Albania did progress on establishing the necessary infrastructure which offers
different opportunities for community mobilization. However, the main challenge remains to
change the mentality related to individualism as a reaction to each voluntary act and readiness for
joint civic engagement for the benefit of the community, by increasing the community level of
sensitivity toward improvement of local government.

For good local governance is necessary for a serious and wide involvement of the community in
decision-making process. In the Albanian environment, this approach becomes a necessity,
considering the mentality inherited from authoritary society. So, in a context where the
consolidation of democratic policy-making institutions, remains a challenge and their performance
is still poor, through the inclusion of the citizens in decision-making, not only would increase the
transparency of local structures to the public but it will break the current stereotypes on local
governance structures and rebuild trust among these institutions and citizens.

9 As defined to the law nr. 8652, date 31.07.2000, “On administrative-territorial division of local government of the Republic", the
local government in Albania is organized into two levels of government. Communes and municipalities are the basic units of local
government and constitute the first level, while the county is the second level of this government. Local entities are decentralized
public authorities and autonomous, responsible for issuing and distributing public goods and services. As defined to the law nr.
8652, date 31.07.2000, today in Albania counted 309 communes, 65 municipalities and 12 counties.
10Tokevil, Aleksis. 2002. “Demokracia ne Amerike”, Tirane; Fondacioni Soros & Kristalina - KH
11 Sokoli, Leke. 2006. “Komunitarizmi, modelet e organizimit dhe Ndërlidhësit Komunitarë”. Tirane: Instituti për Demokraci dhe

Ndërmjetësim.
4. How can we increase citizen’s participation?
Today on of the most important issues for well functioning of democracies is how to effectively
engage citizens in decision-making processes, whether these decisions focus local or national
issues?

As mentioned above it’s important to create a good environment for citizen’s participation. This
starts with elaboration of a good framework legislation which encourage and transforms in a task
for governance to invite citizens and encourage their participation. An encouraging legislation shall
give the maximum of space to the citizen’s participation providing as well the possibility for
referendums it’s important that governance shall be near to citizens needs and for that one of the
main conditions is the process of decentralisation. Doing that it’s important the development of a
dialogue and a normal interaction between local and central authorities which promotes civic
participation and reaction. This shall start with a fair process of election which would build trust
among citizens and institutions. Building strong institutions would happen through citizen’s
participation providing their feed back and inputs in the direct fight against corruption. Their active
involvement and participation of citizens in media will make governance more transparent and
responsable toward citizens concerns.

Through the experiences in different democratic countries concretely there are a variety of tools that
public officials can use to engage citizens in decision-making. These tools include citizen advisory
committees, survey questionnaires, community meetings, forums, public review and comment
periods, public hearings, counter planning, etc. The following provides a brief description of a few
of these public engagement tools from previous experiences:

1. Citizen commission for specific issues: intendeds to foster positive relations with the community
by engaging citizens in the development of policies/programs and to ensure that they are enriched
by diverse perspectives12.

2. Questionnaire Survey to gather Community opinnions: Community surveys help public officials
gather data about local attitudes regarding precisely defined issues, problems or opportunities13.

3. Dialogue development with stakeholders and beneficiaries in workshops with targeted focus
groups: This form intends to gather ideas and opinions from targeted groups of citizens. In this way
each one has more space to give their opinion and ideas regarding a specific issue which affect
them. In this way new idea come and the conclsuions and agreements are easier to be achieved14.

4. Community Forum: A community forum is a public meeting intended to bring together a variety
of community perspectives to discuss salient issues, visions, problems, or concerns that the
community is facing15.

5. Public Hearing Review and Comment: Hearings are public meetings that enable residents to
express their concerns about public plans, decisions, or issues. It may give a window of time to

12 The following is an example of what a citizen advisory committee does in the context of Department of Transportation projects:
http://www.dot.state.ga.us/dot/preconstruction/urbandesign/johnsonferry-abernathy/html/cac.shtml
13 For more information on survey questionnaires, visit the following website: http://ctb.ku.edu/tools/en/section_1048.htm
14 For more information on focus groups, visit the following website: http://ctb.ku.edu/tools/en/section_1018.htm
15 For more information on community forums, visit the following website: http://ctb.ku.edu/tools/en/section_1021.htm
review public plans or policies and to provide comment prior to the ratification or revision of a
plan or policy16.

6. Referendum, public officials should be forced if citizens request that or address the issue to the
citizens choice to be decided by majority of votes through a wide participation process in decision
making.

5. Conclusions and final remarks:

The public participation in governance it’s a fundamental human right and its guaranteed by
international documents which the most importants are: Universal Declaration for Human Rights,
International Pact for Civil Rights and European Convention for Human Rights. So public
participation its part of the most important right geeting recognition and protection from
international law as well from positive right of different countries.

Increasing citizen’s involvement to improve governance is one of the fundamental requirements in

the development of democratic systems. In order to have more active citizens’ participation in
governance are required several measures to be taken at the legislative and awareness raising level.
Initially it’s a basic condition to exist a legislative basis ensuring the community’s active
participation in the decision-making process. Public participation is by no means an easy thing to be
accomplished. It requires much energy, time, and resources. Accordingly the process should be
accompanied with a twofold awareness raising campaign. One hand the community itself should be
awaken on the important role it can play in the agenda-setting process and on the other hand
awareness raining work should be done also with local public institutions representatives in order
for them to fully recognize that a more active citizens’ participation in the policy elaboration would
eventually facilitate their efficient and sustainable implementation.

To effectively respond to citizen needs, than is needed to start listening to what citizens are saying
and recruit their assistance in crafting effective policies and decisions.

Citizens, at the other side, should use all legal areas to increase their participation as far as public
opinion about important issues increase transparency as necessary to guarantee the exercise of a
balanced power oriented to civic concerns. It directly affects the lives of citizens. In this way
promoting public debate and development of the accountability process between voters and elected
officials is an element that seeks to be developed permanently. Democracy theorists have argued
that the entire edifice of democracy rests in the final analysis, of the public opinion17.

16 For information on public hearings, visit this website:

http://www.memun.org/SchoolsProject/html/Resources/zoning/PUBHEARING.HTM
17 Sartori, Giovanni. 1998 “C’eshte demokracia”, Tirane; Dituria, fq.45
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Meidani, Rexhep. 2009. “Mbi qeverisjen”, Tiranë: Dudaj

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Resources on internet

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/toc_indx.html
http://www.dot.state.ga.us/dot/preconstruction/urbandesign/johnsonferry-abernathy/html/cac.shtml
http://ctb.ku.edu/tools/en/section_1048.htm
http://ctb.ku.edu/tools/en/section_1018.htm
http://ctb.ku.edu/tools/en/section_1021.htm
http://www.memun.org/SchoolsProject/html/Resources/zoning/PUBHEARING.HTM