SESSION DETAILS

Active citizenship, participation and governance

The "missing link" came about couple of years ago as a promising way to fix the problem of markets and states' failures to ensure welfare and quality of life for the peoples. Ever since, from the North to the South and from the East to the West , peoples have actively contributed to reshaping institutions and increase accountability claims on public institutions and the states' comitology.

Surprisingly, even before the state, as the modern political construct, has reached the incipient stage of maturation in the developing countries and other parts of the world, an increased process of decentralization of central administrative attributes down to the sub-national governing tiers has been commenced; albeit, coupled by power devolution, a novelty in the governing dynamics heralded the shift from government to governance, with a substantial focus on the participation of the demos in the making of their daily life with respect to the future generations.

Nowadays, a modern state is associated with subsidiarity, decentralization, increased popular partnership, devolution, respect for human rights, where reversing power is the key to sustainable development and cohesive societies. Phasing out from the last status of the state, welfare (in the ‘60s and ‘70s) and contractual state (in the ‘80s), the current focus on community empowerment and participation has triggered the shape up of a more enable like state (Botsman,P. and Latham, M. 2001, The Enabling State, Annandale: Pluto Press Australia).

Though, the non- profit and non-governmental sector has come as a promising third sector to fill in the governance and development vacuum of downsized governments and shallow markets, having as core functions its role in promoting and sustaining civic participation, advocacy and alternative development schema.

Despite the fact that there has been a proliferation of the non-profit and non-governmental sector, it is widely agreed that an outstanding issue that was identified as urgently to be given attention to, that is the inconsistency of partnership in between NGOs and local governments due to the lack local strategies to address collaborative structural approaches with focus on the structure, values, impact and the external environment of partnerships.

The European Union sequential waves of enlargements towards the old Communist block have brought successfully more than never on the European agenda the issues of active citizenship, citizens' participation and good governance.
Nevertheless, the makeup of the new commitology has been blatantly defined as enjoying a high democratic deficit, facing legitimacy crisis in few old Member States, the initial European project being under fierce criticism.
The failure of the Constitutional Treaty triggered a rebirth of Euro skepticism back home in several Member States questioning the very the old European Member States. Public life has been radicalized by two opposing characteristics: on the one hand, a continuously questioning of those entrusted to conduct public affairs and the on the other side the growing appreciation of civil society as a moral informal court to legitimize public governmental actions.

Active citizenship, rather new coinage for most of the countries of the world, has proved to be the prominent feature for a safe and sound democratic society where attention has been diverted from traditional forms of citizens' participation to a more costumer oriented one, encouraging citizens' deliberation over various issues of common interest.
Hence various countries have produced White Papers to spur active citizenship as a means to curb citizens' lack of confidence in public institutions capability in policy formulation and implementation.
Consequently, accountability has become a topical issue reversing the mere shape of political and administrative one towards a more social taken of accountability where public officials and politicians must be responsible beyond their electorate and the laws and regulations in accordance with legislation towards citizens or society as a whole.
Active citizenship as the hallmark of the twenty first century, has been looked upon as a way to revitalize representative democracy and appease the electoral apathy and "functional impotence" of governmental structures, requiring a more flexible system of governance and a change in policy structures and practice as well;

GUIDING QUESTION

How to find best formats of governance and government to address new social changes as the contradictions in between crass realty and legislature rhetoric has caused a widening split in between "demos" and representative democracy institutions, governments and parliaments?

In effect, is the good governance the panacea of successes and failures of states and communities to modernize?

As it is the case with the newly born democracies, are NGOs really examples of an emerging civil society?  Are they rooted in domestic social change or by far the long-stick to play of the national elites?

Have former communist countries really experienced changes in the role played by civil society, and have state institutions genuinely adapted to take into account a changed role for civil society?

How can local governments and local public administrations improve partnership inclusiveness in local governance?

How to make the contribution of NGOs to partnership efficiency in local governance?

How to build strategies to promote innovation through involvement of NGOs in partnership?

Is there a safe and sound emerging third sector as pertinent counterpart for government agencies and local institutions to lead to a sustainable development agenda?

How the EU as a whole can upgrade the European project to the next constitutional level?

Is there in the pipeline a "democratization" of the EU by means of an emerging civil society?

How could local and national governments give substance to the EU affairs as to forge an European Union public space?