This post is a summary of three articles. The first was published with the title above in 2017 at https://www.idea.int/news-media/news/political-inclusion-vital-sustainable-democracy The second was published at https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4260&context=flr The third was published at http://citiesofmigration.ca/building-inclusive-cities/political-inclusion/
No voice should be left unheard. No one should be left behind. No one should be subject to any form of exclusionary rhetoric. For democracy to be sustainableeach and every citizen to participate in political processes and represent their interest and concerns. Substantial evidence points to the exclusion from political decision-making as a key factor in both political and civil conflict and instability, which in turn affects democratic consolidation. Democracy is dependent on the participation and representation of all citizens in democratic institutions and processes. These institutions and processes include election management bodies, constitution-building processes, political parties and parliaments. Underpinning all this is political inclusion. This is the idea that every citizen, regardless of class, age, gender, sexual orientation, culture and ethnic or religious background, should have an equal right and opportunity to engage with and contribute to the functioning of these institutions and processes. Working to achieve political inclusion is fraught with challenges. Foremost amongst these is the increasing difficult by which the needs and aspirations of citizens can connect with accountable and representative political institutions. Democratic institutions and processes are often mistrusted. Some citizens, meanwhile, are not interested in voting or joining in a political party. This is because they see no difference with who is in power. They think their voices will not matter or have an influence on how political institutions will act. Secondly, inequality of opportunity persists worldwide. Notall citizens in society are represented in policy discussions and many feel marginalized. Finally, in some cases, access to political institutions is not available or even feasible because the frameworks or modalities for inclusion citizen involvement and engagement are not being implement or are simply not in place. While advocating for political inclusion for sustainable democracy is not easy, there are ways by which we as citizens can do our part. This can begin by just being aware of the challenges. This then allows you to give space for all voices to be heard and included in your day-to-day activities. Every action counts. Your action matters to all of us.
Over the last three decades, the notion of citizenship has become increasingly recurrent in the political vocabulary in Brazil. In Latin America, its emergence has been linked to the experiences of social movements during the late 1970s and 1980s, reinforced by efforts towards democratization. In Brazil, popular movements, excluded sectors, trade unions, and leftist parties increasingly adopted the notion of citizenship as a central element in their political strategies. This notion spread as a common reference among a variety of social movements. These movements organized around different demands, found in the concept of citizenship not only a useful tool for their specific dtruggles, but also a powerful articuling link among them. The process of democratic construction in Brazil today faces an important dilemma whose roots are to be found in the confluence of two different processes. On one hand, a process of enlarging democracy in the creation of public spaces and the increasing participation of civil society in the discussion and decision-making processes related to public issues and policies. The formal landmark of this process is the constitution of 1988. Such project emerged from the struggle against the military regime. On the other hand, with the election in 1989, there was the emergence of the project of a reduced state and through the shrinking of its social responsibilities and their transference to civil society. The building of citizenship has been seen at once as a general struggle for the expansion of democracy, which was able to incorporate a plurality of demands and set of particular struggle for rights (housing, education, health, etc.) whose success would expand democracy. Citizenship has become a prominent notion because it has been recognized as a crucial weapon not only in the struggle against social and economic exclusion but also in the broadening of conceptions of politics. The perception of the cultural social authoritarianism as a dimension of exclusion, in addition to economic inequality and political subordination, became a significant element in the struggle to redefine citizenship. This perception supports broadening the scope of citizenship, the meaning of which became far from restricted to the formal-legal acquisition of a set of rights, which would be limited to the political-judicial system. The struggle for citizenship was thus presented as a project for a new sociability.
Political inclusion measures the extent to which all members of a society are able to access the institutions of democracy. Amore accurate measure od political inclusion is the ability of any individual, regardless of their socioeconomic background or ethnicity, to access the levers of political power. The difference between one and any defines the scope of work ahead of us for political inclusion. Democracy is stronger when everyone participates. Lower levels of participation and representation weaken our democratic institutions, preserving power in the hands of a few. These political elite then shape policy in their own interest, rather than in the interest of the majority.The challenge of integrating population into democracies might seem daunting. But at its core, political integration is rooted in three values: authenticity, inclusion and accountability. Specifically, policymakers can ensure that these values are embeedded into democratic institutions by doing the following: 1) Evaluating regularly - with changing demographics, policies that worked a decade ago may not be adequate today. Staying in touch with how a community looks, lives and works requires constant and consistent engagement. 2) Going beyond diversity and representation to inclusion and equity - Practically, this requires diligent attention to who holds decision-making authority and power. Populating advisory committees with minorities, for example, might check the box on diversity but unless the committee has influence and the members have voting power, we are not advancing political inclusion. 3) Mechanisms for accountability - how we hold our leaders and our institutions accountable determines how well they serve us. These mechanisms can include voting but also include community hearings, town halls, transparency around meetings. Along with these, we must ensure ways that residents are informed and included. When decision-making centers these practices above individual ambitions or short-term gains, the results can be far-reaching, creating the inclusive democracies that we all aspire to.
No comments:
Post a Comment