Exploring Active Democracies

Lena Langlet and Anders Nordh, SALAR, Swedish Association of Local

Authorities and Regions Martin Sande, Dialogues

Citizen dialogue a mission from SALAR:s congress 2015

”SALAR supports its members in the work to develop dialogue and co-creation with citizens and to integrate the results in

governance processes and organizational development.

Enabling both a sustainable democracy and a socially sustainable society”

Since 2007 SALAR invites local authorities, county councils and regions to participate in:

• Networks to improve knowledge

• Networks to develop and test methodsfor dialogue and meet complex challenges

Our approach

We work … …from the position of supporting of politicians and civil servants

in regions and municipalities of Sweden. They have formal power over resources, community planning and policy making.

…. to support and develop our representative democracy through dialogue, co-creation and prototyping.

… partly from direct funding from the Government to address complex issues

… from “the whole system view” hence politicians and civil servants are part of “the problems” addressed.

… by consciously activating conflict in complex issues. Actively seeking the “NO” voices. Requiring a neutral facilitation in order create safety “sitting in the fire”.

We see a risk of “Swedish values” being hi-jacked by right wing politics.

We pride ourselves with a high turn out

1970197319761979198219851988199119941998200220062010201470

75

80

85

90

95Development of citizeins voting 1970-2014 (percent)

Kommunvalen Landstingsvalen Riksdagsvalen

KommunDistrikt med högst valdeltagande

Distrikt med lägst valdeltagande

Differens 2014

Differens 2010

Göteborg 92,6 37,4 55,2 48,1Stockholm 94,8 40,8 54,0 58,1Malmö 93,4 39,7 53,7 49Botkyrka 90,9 42,3 48,6 43,6Huddinge 91,9 46,1 45,8 42,7Haninge 89,8 44,6 45,2 41,2Södertälje 86,8 42,5 44,3 36,2Borås 92,5 50,5 42,0 38,2Halmstad 93,5 52,2 41,3 31,8Sollentuna 91,1 52,6 38,5 33,7

But…

4%

1%

95%

”Votes for sale”1. Every fifth young Swede between 18 and 29

would be willing to sell their vote for a smaller amount of money.

2. One in four young Swedish do not think it is so important that they live in a democracy but think it would be good, or very good, if Sweden was ruled by a "strong leader who does not need to bother with parliament and elections.”

3. Nearly 15 percent of young people think it would be good, or very good, if Sweden was ruled by the military.

NVA Sweden 2016

13• Violence and crime• Conflict / aggression• Diversity

How high is your level of trust in the way the following political institutions manage their work?

Dialoguesmartin.sande@dialogues.se

… the complexity of todays societal challenges require a transformed and co-creation based power structure in order to be handled in a socially sustainable way….

Hans Abrahamsson, Göteborgs Universitet16

We are falling apart when we need to learn to live side by side

Dialogues are shifting focus

Physical issues

RelationsValues

A framework and mindset!

Arrogance Intimacy

Co-creation

Control

A framework and mindset!

Arrogance Intimacy

Co-creation

Control

We are the elected officials. We have the power and we

decide

Manipulation “Make it look good. but it’s

a facade

We invite and have dialogues, on our

premises

We work together. We share power,

and responsibility.

A necessary shift?!

Arrogance Intimacy

Co-creation

Control

We are the elected officials. We have the power and we

decide

Manipulation “Make it look good. but it’s

a facade

We invite and have dialogues, on our

premises

We work together. We share power,

and responsibility.

Lack of trustCom

plex

ity

A framework and mindset!

Arrogance Intimacy

Co-creation

Control

We are the elected officials. We have the power and we

decide

Manipulation “Make it look good. but it’s

a facade

We invite and have dialogues, on our

premises

We work together. We share power,

and responsibility.

Here we are working : Dialogue, co-creating, prototyping and learning

Model for dialogue on complex issues

24

3:Dialogue, experimen-

tation and co-creation

Iterations: learning by doing and trying

=steps that dialogue with citizens has direct influence over

Capacity development to manage complex issues dialogue based

1:Prepara-tions

4:Proposals, measures and commitments

5: Decisions 6:Implemen-tation

2:Perspec-tive

collection

Our dialogues are going deeper and beyond – shifting towards to intimacy and co-creation

Sitting around the fire – happy ending dialogues. Gathering and sharing views. Conflicting perspectives are avoided

Sitting in the fire – working from through friction and conflict between perspectives in order to reach wisdom, release potential and enable innovationWisdom, potential, innovation

Thank you!

Lena.langlet@skl.seAnders.nordh@skl.seMartin.sande@dialogues.se

Join us in the workshop after lunch to co-create and learn together

Workshop… Together explore how values can

unite communities integrating large migrant populations – a really complex issue we are working with

Assumption: Living side by side (inclusion) requires a resilient ability to enter conflict and friction constructively- What are your experiences that

we can learn from?- Dialogues going deeper and

beyond – what have we learned?!- What are your experiences from

working with conflicting values?