- What is citizen participation?
- Importance of citizen participation
- Mechanisms for citizen participation
- Examples of citizen participation
We explain what citizen participation is, its mechanisms and why it is important. Also, examples from recent history.
What is citizen participation?
In politics Y Public Management, social participation or citizen participation is the active intervention of organized citizenship in the decision making and managing public resources, and other matters that have an impact on their own lives. This is carried out in accordance with the Condition, through democratic mechanisms that collect the popular voice and make it known to the respective levels of the government.
It is a legitimate right of the inhabitants of a nation democratic, which however can be approached from very different theoretical perspectives. But in general, it is linked both to the control of public management, and to the responsibility on the decision making policies.
This means that the more involved and active citizens are in the performance of political power, the greater quotas of control they will have over the way in which the latter is exercised, and the greater responsibility they will have in making decisions in this regard.
For citizen participation, it is essential that citizens be organized, informed and committed to their improvement, quite the opposite of what is traditionally known as abstentionism, that is, as political apathy and disinterest in the functioning of the society.
Apathetic citizenships are rarely involved in the running of their democracies, and are conducive to increasing the corruption, the authoritarianism and the separation of the exercise of politics of the real needs of citizens.
Importance of citizen participation
Citizen participation is key when it comes to promoting responsibility in the exercise of politics, both on the part of the elected representatives to act according to the voice of the people, and in the latter, who express their decisions through voting in consultations, referendums or elections.
In fact, governments with little or no citizen participation can act freely, incur corruption with impunity or distance their policies from the real needs of the people, which often leads to unsuccessful governments, incapable of providing well-being to the people.
Citizen organization and participation is key to improving the relationship between citizens and government leaders, legitimizing the action of the latter and strengthening the democratic and republican exercise, reducing the rates of corruption (and impunity) and ensuring compliance with the Human rights.
Mechanisms for citizen participation
In general, the concept of citizen participation is associated with the idea of direct democracy, in which the people play an active role in public decision-making, either through public consultations or through the formation of citizen organizations and councils. community vis-à-vis public bodies. In general, this means that citizens have access to the following participation mechanisms:
- Initiatives of law or popular initiatives, which are formal proposals for the enactment or repeal of rules, measures or laws that citizens can make to their representatives before the legislative power, that is, to their deputies.
- Referendums. A referendum is a popular consultation that is carried out by means of a vote, with the purpose that the people approve or reject some legal text, such as regulations or laws.
- Plebiscites. Direct consultations with citizens regarding a matter of great importance for public life.
Examples of citizen participation
Some examples of citizen participation are:
- In the Argentine city of Rosario, the government proposed as part of a Comprehensive Mobility Plan the total ban on cars from entering the city center. Dissatisfied citizens organized themselves to reject this proposal by popular vote, which was not finally included in the definitive Plan.
- At the end of the military dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet in Chile, a national plebiscite was held in 1988, in which the citizens were consulted whether or not the military leader should continue in power until 1997. Despite the climate of The persecution that existed and the investment of public resources in the campaign for “Yes”, organized citizens expressed en masse for “No”, winning with 54.71% of the votes.
- In Argentina, during the Liberating Revolution of 1957, the ruling military junta repealed the current Constitution and set out to reform the previous one at will. For this, elections were called, prohibiting the participation of Peronism, whose militants decided to vote blank, achieving the majority of the null votes with 25% of the total vote and demonstrating the illegitimacy of any attempt at constitutional change on the part of the rulers. .