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Stre sbour g , 17 Ma r c h 1983 r es t r i.ct:ed /\sicoll/D-e2ocracy (34) ~ Or . English

79. 193 OL3 3

P ARLll\_?ll3l\JT !tRY J\_SSEI'-IIBLY

COLLOQUY ON THE CONCEPT OF DEMOCRACY

(Str3sbour g , 23-25 )1arch 1983)

THE RIGET OF CITIZENS TO PARTICIPATE IN TEE DECI.SIOi\1- NAKI NG PROCESS

by Leandro DESPOUY Argentine lawyer exil e d in Fra nc e

STRASBOURG 1933

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AS/Col l /De~oc~acy ( 3~) 4 i

CONTENTS

Introduction ..... . .. .......... ... . ............. . ................. ... ~

Purpose .............. " .. . ............... . ..... .. ............. . . .

l. Nature of the right to participation

a. Part icipat ion as a component of and means of achieving human r:í,ghts .......... .. ........•.

b. Participation as a right in ítself

II. Stages in the achievement of participation

a. Inforr:iation

b. Consu:'.tation

c . Decision-making

III. Fields of operation of participation

IV.

a. A glimp s e into the past

b. The r i gh t to p articipation i s an established fact •. .. ..•.. .. .• •• •.•........ . •.

c. Fields in which participation i s progressing

c.l The right t o participat i on is the l abour world

d. Fields in which participation is in dis pute

e. The exercise o f participation seen against the complexity o f the modern world ..•.......•...

The indivisibility o f hu~zn rights

a. Democracy a nd participation •...•••.•.••.•..• •.

b. Political ins t i tutions and ~articipation

c. Information an<l participa tion

Conclu sion

Proposal

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This texc fully e~~orses the right to participation as .'.ln inde?zn¿ent righ t of both individ ~!l a nd collective scope (wictout <lenying its s t~tus as a coillponent or a ~ea:::s of ~ch~eving the ~ajarity of such ht.man r~ghts) .

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Partici?c.tion':-~s a' 'coé?l.e.:'..-.::r:d <ly :::a!:lic proce6s, subj ec t to dif ferent stages ~f achievenent and fielJs of application resulting from on- 3oing historical chan6e .

Porticip.:ition begins witn inforr::.'.ltion, continues with consult.:itior. a nd culr.iinac~s in association of the public in the decision- r.i2.king p:-oc2ss.

It operates extremely un2qu2lly in the political , social , ccor.oillic and cultural fields.

A f resh lcok at partici~é! t:ion will cn:lble us to escape from thc dj_l e~~~::a

of direct decocracy (uto~ia~ in ~o¿ern societies) or d e~ocracy by deleg~cion (in.:?dequate in the present-G.a y ccntext) by developing participatory democracy .

Particlpation is no t cnly the motive force of social life ; it is the means of extending democracy 02.yond the merely political field into che social, economic and cultural f i elds .

PURPQSE

This study will attempt !:o answer three o:é the fur>damental questior.s raised in the present dexocratíc debate on p3rtícípation :

l.

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- can the exercise of per tici~a cion be restric ted to the merely political field?

are the obstacles plac~d in the way of participation in the econo~ic , socia l and cal tural f ields of no co nsequenc e fa r poli tic Ql partici?aci0~?

can a denocr~tic socie~y be identifi ed solel y by the exercise of the right to political part icipation?

1'ATUR::: OF THE R1G1iT TO :2ARTICIPATION

PARTICIPATlO~~ AS A co:-:'.Po ::E~~T OF fu.'ID MEA.NS OF ACHIEVI NG HU~L.\..'11 R:!:CifTS

~os t of the princ ipc l international texts concerning human rig ht s contain the conccpt of participation , expllcitly or ireplicitly .

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AS/Col l/D2~oc racy (J~) ~ - ·2 -

It is embodied in the Uni tcd Na tions €h~rter, the fir s t sent ~nce

of which begins "He , the peop}. es of t he Unitec ~1ar:ions ... 11• The tas~

of worlci r eco ns truction and t he preservat i on of peace a f ter t~o ~orld

wars is entrusted in the first instance to the People s, reg:!rdeci as s ubj ects o f internationa::.. L r .. 1. It is far them to wo rk toge t her fo:-the ge'.1eral welfare, and t.his provides , pe rhaps, the most notable exa:ipl2 of participation.

The Universal Decla:-ation of Human Ríghts follOt;.'S t his up with its Article 19 on freedom of opinion and e::<pression, Article 20 on freedoa of peaceful asserr.bly and association, Article 21 1.¡hich acknowledges the right of everyone to take pa~t in the government of his country, Arti~l2 23 on t he right t o form and join t r ade unions , a nd Article 27 ou the right freely to part i cipate in the cultural life of the coió".illunity. The International Covenant on Economic , Social and Cultural Rights enlarzes upon the broad l ines of the Universal Declar ation . Article 8 establis h e3 "the right of everyone to forr.i. trade unions and join the trade union of his choice" , Article 13 states that " education shall enable all persons to participate effectively in a free s ociety", and Article 15 recognis e s "the right of everyone to take part in cultural l i fe " .

The Int ernational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights deals ~ith the right t o fr eedom of e xpression in Article 19, the right to peacef ul assembly in Article 21, the right to fre edom o f association in Artic le 22 and the right to take part i n th~ conduct of public affairs in Article 25.

As we have s een, pa rticipation is i.mplied wherever hum:rn rights a r e ment;i.oned . What would be the significance of the right to e du.catio;i u it's sale purpose were to r.i..ake people sensitive to indoctrination, ra;:.her than being conceived as a means of developing each índividual's personality far the greater good of t:he community?

But t he deve~opment of such education would hardly be possible unless th e beneficiaries were given considerable s c ope for help i ng to prepare and carry out educational programmes .

Participation is therefore tbe contrary of passivity and indifference . To deny wor kers the possibility of choosing their wor k and f i gh t ing individually or collectively to i mprove and defend it would be tan.tz¡::ount t o slavery.

To guarantee the protection of human rights without providing v..acr.inery fo r participation at the various stagas o f irnpleoentati')n is lí~e c:-ea :: i ng an em9ty s hell , a nd i n Ea.e t it would i:Jo::-~-:. agalnsc t he int~rests or :-:an ¡:o defend ~hom was its original purpose.

Participation would therefore seem to be the vital subs tance of hu~an

right s without which they cannot be realised. Inde ed, it h a s been mad e a component of the d e finition c f sorne r i ghts . To provide machine ry enabl ing the popula tíon t o partic i pa t e a t all stages o f prepar a tion aP,~L _ir;i,ple:<:e nta t ion is vital to s uccess .

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J _: - - AS/C~ll/D~~ocracy

b. PARTICIPATION AS A !UGHT D~ IT SELF

After this explicit sta::e~ent that the right to p.:irticipation is 2.

componc:nt of hu.-:12.n righ ts , L '.: w0uld be tempting to asseL" t tha t the üght t o parti~ipa tion has no inde?endent existence and can only gain substance through a n exte rnal obJec t, namely ht:riia n ríghts, whose full enjoyment it guarar.tees .

Do2s this mean that participation i s not a right in itself? In arder to answer this question, it is necessary to look a few pages ahead to the sec t ion on de mocrGcy anci participatio n.

Athenian de'.llocrac y i n a ncient i:ices was conc e ived as a direct forn of democracy. As this p~oved impracticable for modern societies , it was replaced by indirect democracy. Since t hen th2 debate on ideal democracy has assu2ed far theo~etical purposes an oppositíon between direct denocracy and ind i rect or delegated d emocracy . But this assumption is false. Social practice has proved the impossibility 6f direct democracy , w~ile delegated denocracy runs the risk of producing a mass of more or less passive indiviciuals inóifferent to affair s , t ending even to lack of interest in their right to vote and dominated by a ruling elite with which th ey feel they have little or nothing in common.·

The real alternative to desocrocy by delegation i s dernocracy by p ar ticipation , fa r i t is on l y by partic ipation tha t this passive corpus of i solateci incivicJuals can be transformed into living organi sms e~dm,«:!d

with init iative and responsibili Ly and capable of joining in t he decisio~­making process .

There i s an urgent r.eed to escape from the sterile co~flíct b etween direct and indirect democracy and to promote democracy , by participat i on , based on the self-sufficien t n ature of the right to participate. This was grasped by those who drc.fted the n ew Spanish Cons titution of 1978 (Article ) pó.r :=.g ra~h 2).

As soon as the righ t to part í cipation is recognised as a right in itself, it beco:nes the duty of the State to remove any obstacles which may stand in the way of that right.

Very recently, on 17 Fabruary 1~83 , the United Nations CoTillllission of Human Right s adopted a Resolu tion in whích the righ t to publ ic par ticipati on is explicitly ackn·ow-ledged . (l)

II . S'!:AGES H í TP.2 ACHEVC:-~-El-iT OF PA.-::ZTICIPATION

a. INFOEl'1AT IO~

If Qen and woQ~n-are t o be ab l e to participate in the life of their country , t hey must first of all have access t o the various sources of infoim~tion. As pointed out by the tnt ernational

(1) In docurnent E/CN4/198J/~30 the Secretary General is requested to prepare a detailed analytica l study on the right of public part i cipation in its various forrns , n s an ~~portant fac tor in the full achie veQent of all hc::::~n rights .

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Co:r:.011issio n for the Study of Co::imcñication P:roblef!ls, the follo-.áng rights reust be gu~ranteed :

the right to knowlerlge , that is: fo r e veryone to seek as he wi shes the inforrnation he rcquires ,

the right to pass on to others the truth as one sees it,

the right t o discuss.

But this pluralistic concept of inÍormation runs counte r to the tradition of secrecy which is current in both the p ublic and prívate sectors , in governrnent as i :i. industry and collli!le rce , where , as not ed in a relevant study by the International Labour Office, much reticence to any growth of par t icipation stems f rom the desire to keep certain information confidencial.

The adrainistrat ive fiela is perhaps the raost revealing in this respect . Though statutes may be prepared publicly and published officially, regulations, though public, are prepared in secret , whereas circulars are drafted in secret and their distrib ut ion is limited to certain ad3inist r ative sectors.

By its n.:J.ture a d_emocratic Sta t e requires its rulers to divulge all ac t s of the State and en~ble the public to obtain knowledge of . them.

The means of disseminating info~ation would seem, on the other hand, to be of relative ly secondary inportance and without decisive effect upon the degree of public par ticipation, inasmuch as it i s obvious that one can only speak of information if the its carrier is accessible to all and is not used as a barrier t o informa tion.

b. CON SULTAT ION

But a ll information, however complete and accessible it rnay be , and however dynaraic it s supply, is only a first step towards par t icipation and will be only of momentary interest to the public if it is no t followed up by a consultation procedure.

Such a procedure mus t necessarily be preceded by information, for it WOuld lose itS \./hüle raison d 1 et r e if it oc curred when decÍSÍO!lS were already taken. In that case i t -.;..;ould rightly be ·· considered by those c oncer ned as a mockery of par tic i pation, whereas the purpose of consultation is to O?en u? d iscussion b etween conflicting intereses , =o :- i nsta..•ce t hose of the p ~'.:J l ic a nd t he A¿;:iiaistrat lon. >roreover, th2 suc~ess of consultation will be directly proportional to the dynamic gener ated s o tha t conflicts of interests can b e resolved with a greater degree of unity.

Al though con.sultation repr-esents a superior degree of participat ion to inforoation, it may nevertheless represent only-a ­slight advance on i t .

Governoents nay or may not take into account the results of consultation. Even if they fail to do so, the consultation will have b een a step towards g r eater participation at several leve ls . Firstly, th2 public concernec will no longer have been treatcd as rnere pass ive units, presuraed incapable of g iving 2 cohercnt opinion on a particul a r problem. They will have been e nabled to expres s their vie"Ws, so th.:it a process of association in decision-rr.aking is und e r t..r .:l ' 7 .., ....., ..-? ,... .... ...... -. ..... .... L. -- _ _ e _ . - ... L ' - t~ - , ._ ..... _:

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The two s ides of indus t=y, local authorities and prívate <:ls socia ti.ons will thus bc co ;;;.e .:it.:are of t '.1eir value hav:ing been c onsidered worthy of giving their O?inion - anrl their power - since they will not b e satisfied ther eaft e r vlth being simply questioned but will d e~and thnt their opinion be taken into account . La stly, even if the result o f the consultation is offic i<llly ignored by the administration and its m2sters , they uill not be able to disregard tot2lly what has been said büt will be directly obliged to t ake it into consideratioñ.

Genuine paiticipation by consultation cannot be achieved unless the opinion exprcssed is acted on.

Another problem arises f rom the form of the consultation machinery - that is to sn.y how the questions are fo:c-mulated. ine government retains the initiative in this respect 1 and thus is able to steer opinions towards the desired reply. In such a case the consultation procecure is arranged as a subtle form of plebiscite. In recent years Chile, Uruguay and the Philippines have provided examples of such misese of consultation procedures. Questions have been framed in such a ·way that two replies were possible, 'yes ' or 'no': by replying ' yes ' citizens endorsed the governrnent's action and by replying 'no' they acquiesced in the maintenance of the government. In this way the consultation :.;as used in order to give an authoritarian government a senblence of l egi ti1nacy. Denunciation is, ad mi ttedly, an easy matter.

Consul tation op2ns the r,;2y to reduciag arbitrary conduct and the power of ar. elite, 2ven íf the result 2ay be rcgarded as nil for, as already mentioned, it lea.ds to a~areness o~ the part of the governed and makes it diff icult for govern~ents to act as íf no opinion had been voiced.

To conclude, consultation whose results are heeded narks a step forward towards greater public pan:icipa t:ion i'1 the decision-m.'lking process, if only because it n:.akes thos e consulted aware of their value a..~d incites them not to be satisfied with the mere right to be heard but rather to claim the right to be asscciated in decision- making, with voting pmJers.

'-. DECISION-YtAXING

This forro of participatio:i is nat-1 further advanced politically in deEocratic States, which ::-egula.rly hold electíons '1hereby the citizens elect local, r egior.a l and national authorities through political parties which they are free to join .

The as~ociation oE mac~~nary fe r pu~lic participation with decision-8.aking is a long ar;.d co;nplex process which may take the for~ of p art i cipation at the stage of preparation, execution, evaluation ond even supervision, as the casé may be . Such machinery may also be given delegated power by the State to carry ou t deciaion~

in certa in fields .

At whatever stage it may take pL1ce, par ticipa tion is not a matter of isolated individuals. It takes place through delegation resulting from p err:ianent organisaU.ons or created with a view to the

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AS/ Col l /De~ocracy (34) 4 6 -

s pec i f i c d e cis l o n to b2 t~ken , a nd e ns ure s that th e person s c o ncerne¿ are dire ctly or indirectly associated in the decision-making . process.

But howev e r clo s ely ;;:.s s oc i at e d it may be w:Lt11 preparati.on, deci s ion- raaking , implenentat i on, eva luation or supervision, t h e participation nachinery cannot replace the government , which continue s to hold the reins of power . Where there is a conf lic t of interests, it is the government thac ~ust sett le the matter, far it represents the general interest which transcends sectoral interests .

III. FIELDS OF OPERATION OF PA..-q_TICIPATIO~~

a. A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST

The very une ven developm2nt of public participation in the various sec tors of nationa l life is the result of a long historical process, not, as is often claimed, of the varying n a ture of these sectors .

b. THE RIGHT TO PA.~TICIPATIO~ IS AN ESTABLISHED FACT

There can now be no doubt that the right to participation is an esta blished p a re of the exercise of political rights . Public participatio~ in the appointment of its repr e sentatives in government ha s come about in successive stage s : th e creation of a Council, then of a Parliament, as a check on the :-uler, t he organisation of elections involving ever wider sec tors of the population - first prop2rty-holders, then llll I'.1ale. s , then females with t he voting age at 26, then 21 and f inally 1 8.

Most a uthoritarian regices c laim to be emergen cy regimes, justified by the existence of sorne serious internal or external danger. Universal suffrage and all other forros of public participation a re seen as dangerous and suspicious. Particip a tion is therefore rejected as synonymous with risk. But in the long term such a policy exhausts a people and nullifies its prog ress .

It would seem that the political field is the o nly one in which the right of the citizens to participate is fully accep ted in a ll democratic s ta tes . Too many sectors reraain where it is a ccepted on l y cautiously a r is s till openly contested.

c. FIELDS IN WHICH PARTICIPATIO'.'! I S PROGRESSING

In the educational, social and economic fields exercise of the right to pa~ticipation is still only at the prin::ary stage of information.

As éegard s participation i n the cultural fi eld, t he r e lev3nt i n -t ernatio~al inscru~encs a re c lear and ? r ecise: ~rticl e 1 5 of the

I nternational Covenant on Ecor!omic , Social and Cultural Righ ts recognises everyon e ' s right to part icipat e in cultural life, while the reco:nmecdation adopted by the Uni t ed Nations General Conference for Education, Science and Culture on 26 November 1976 no longer emphas i s es the individual alone but lays stress on the contribut i on o f the _.masses · to cultural life. Though accepted in these t exts , the r i ght to participation in cultu~al life still encounter s d i ffi c ulti es i n practice . Caopaigns a gainst illi ter acy and school and university progra mDes are still often pre pared in secre t, and those concerned are not associated in the setting up of the necessary ma.chinery eithér.

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·· Uncler· ·th2 pressu.:::-e fro:n ::he 1-_968. n:ove !"~ent - . ín particul2r t~~e students 1 demand for a right to particípate - certain partic i patory bodies have been created, Sl.:Ch o.s c.lass com:mittees, r2nage;::ent councils and machinery for the consultation of student associations; but they onl y come into play at the end of the proccss and ar e n ever consulted, still less associated, in the plan~ing and establishment of educational machinery.

The new French Act of 22 June 1982 governing relacions between landlords and tenants has institutionalised collective renting arrangements and consultation between tenant and owners. The Act introduces collective agreements for rent restraint, the purpose of which will be to f ix a maxirr:um rate of increase oa renewal of a lease or conclusion o~ a new one. Such agreement may be extended to all the sector or sectors far which they are concluded, on the nodel of collective agreements in the labour field. Failinc; such agreements, the Conseil d 1 Etat may fix rates by decree.

c. l. THE RIGHT TO PARTICIP ,.\TION IN THE LA.BQUI{ T.WRLD

Labour relations provide a particularly striking ex?..mple of progress , namcly in the right of workers to be associated in the running of their firms. In Spain, the right to collective bargaini~g is to be safeguar<l2d by legislation under the 1978 Constitution, and the public authorities must give effective encouragement to the v a rious forms of participa tíon in the firm. I n Grec~ce, the Constitution whü:h carne into force in 1975 expressly st2tcs that the gen eral work ing conditíons laid down by legislation may be supplemeated by freely negotiated collective agreeflents . In Noruay~ the right to pa rticipation was the subject o f a constitutional amendraent in 1980. !n Portuga l, the 1976 Constitlltion lays clown the right to collective bargaining and the right of workers to set up workers ' committees and co-ordinating cornmittees to safeguard their interests in their firms, with power to supervise their management.

One of the firs t forms of worker partic:!_pation, though dj stant, in the manageme.nt of firms ·was the creation of trade u'1íons and the collective agreeraent proce<lc.re, which covers an increasingl y wide r ange . Thus the machinery for participation has assumed a variety o f fo r ms ; equi-representative consultation, inclusion of workecs in the f irm l s infor!!'.z tion, collective barga:i ·'.ing, workers' representai::ion in the Bo~rd of Directors and workers ' self- management.

The establishment and deve l opment o f such machinery presnpposes a change in the l aw of proper~y as ít operates in industry . At the ti~e of the I ndustrial Revolatioc, everyone's r i ghts and po~er s i n t::e laboe r -,:o rld were st r- ictly de f i n ed . Ot .. rne;::- s hip o f t b. e cea.ns of produccion gave a bsolu te power in the ma nagement of the firm_ Workers' demands to have a say in the f irm's policy were th erefore felt to be a challenge to property rights. For partic í p a tion to have a place in the world o f labour , it pr eved nece s s ary to develop the social d ¡.;nension of the fi::'.'m. This c a.,-ne to be r egarded not me .:-ely from th e owne r ' s point of v:i.ew but also from th o. t of t he wo r ker s .. -The fact that the workers h e lp in production, s pe nd mos t of their lif e at work a nd d epcnd on t h e wor k for the i r own and the ir L1rni lies ' live l i hood gives them sorne righ t to hav e no t i ce t aken of t h eir v i e ws on the runn i ng of t he firm .

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~oreover , it has beco~e difficult to a r gue that t he workc= h~s a righc t o ~ake part in political life in a denocra tic syste~ while at t he sa~e ~i~~ he is cxc l uded f r om the running of his firm <:!.nd denicd any sny in the trar.i i:lg of d2cis ­ions which concern him dircctly . The i ncompatibility het~een the exist2nce of political de~ocracy an<l th e absoluta power of industrial management has been resolved by the industrial democracy .

'' Industrial dernocracy forras pare of the efforts of the workers movement to ext~ntl de8ocracy to the whole of society ... life away from work has develo?ed in one way and working lif e in a nother . This divergence continues to grow and has an influence on working conditions as we l l as on industrial manage~ent ... If the survival of authoritarian conditions is allowed in one sector of soc iety , they will be an abs t acle to democratic progress in the rest of society . .. Industrial democracy must be regarded as part of the general process of democrat­isation" (ILO 12) .

The g2neral process of <le~ocratísation is ·nat confined to relations between e!!!ployee a ~1d employer but ext:ends to the f!lenagement of capital. This can no longer remain in the hands of a few dírectors of financial institutions enjoy~ng sole power to decide how to invest the coney held by savings funds or supplemen­tary pension funds. Once t he workers ' views are taken into account in the policy of the firm , they will likewise feel that it is for them to participate in inves tment po licy . The concept of democracy, hitherto limited to the political sphere, thus gains a new dimension from being extended to the industrial cnd economic fields.

The signs of liberalisation analysed above show that the right o: citizens to participate in decisions in the educatinnal , labour or e conomic fields· ii by no means excluded by their instrins ic nature of l iberal i sation is still incorn­plete, this is not due to the fie ld ' s nature but to the difficulties of a his-torica~ ___ developrnent whi<:~-~~~ not yet worked .~!.5..e~.f out . . _ · - ·- _ _ _ . ---- ·

d . FIELDS IN \.<frUCH PA.~TICIPAí'ION IS IN DISPUTE

There is good reason to hope , therefore , that sooner or later the public will befull partners in the cultural , economic , social and labour fields .

It will then be difficult to continue to r~fuse the right of participation in fields such as national defence or foreign policy .

The reason given for opposing public participation in these sectors is their very nature . It has alway3 been accepted that, to be effective , defence must be sec~et , and therefore associatio~ of the public must auto~~tically be rcgarded as basical l y incompatible with the very concep t of security, since it principally ioplies inEor~~tion.

In the present world context even the raost astute observer will not de te::::t a ny at tem;:it to c.:i::vass even the icea of public .?"2:-ticlpa~ion i ~ ~at : ~rs of nation~l de:2ncc .

The low degree of pa~ tic ipation in the above-~enticned ficld3 is r arely studied from the angle of the historical development of participetion . The rarity or absence of machinery for participation is explained as due t o th e naturc of the fields concerned . E<luc.:ition, far ins tance, is too dangerous a subject , economics is too cowpli~~ted, defence is by definition too secre t to be turned over to the public, ev en through its elected rep~esentatives .

e . THE EXERCISE OF PARTICIPATION SEEN AGArnST T!IE CO~!PLEXITY OF THE MODERN HORLD

The fac t rcmains th.:it th e highly techr:ical nature of economic proble~s provides an a<l~ir.:ible excuse for dis~lssing publi.c ¿cmanJs to parti.cipate .

- 9 AS/Coll/De~ocracy ( 3~ ) 4

The growing complexi t y 2nd the s p ecial nature of th e p~cb~ 2~s ,

far frora cliscouraging the p1.!ol ic from Hc'.lnticg to p2rti.c :i_pate in solving them, see~s, on the contrary , to have stren¿thcned cheir desire to he.ve a say . At f ::.·r-3t sight this s2ew.s t o be ::in i r.sG L~~le

contrediction . Eow can che ~an in the street be invo lved in t he es t¿blishment of a ne<J rnon e t a ry systere or t he process of netionalising a l arge private Íirm?

This misstates the prooLem, or at least puts it in s uch a way that the public will continue to be kept at a distance . Such problems are not solved by political leaders or government departments: they are left to experts .

This being so, it is obviously out of the question to a llow the uninitiate.d a hand in rne work on such cor;:iplex subj ects . Tha t h'Ould in any case be a fraud.

Participation wust , therefore, be at the same level, n<:~ :;;c ly at expert level .

Exper ts ~vould no longer be solely persons chosen by government to work towards a government-as3igned a im; t here would also be e:.r:per t s nominat ed by the p articipation groups.

A t• . .;ofold aio. would tht.:s be ac:hieved. The solution arrived at would represent a fa ir bala~cc, or the best possible balance , between severa! appa r ently contY<:.dictory deronds - those of the governors and the governed , of the private and the public sec t ors , of the individual and the co;r.mL:nity or of national and i nte-::-na tional int erests. This would ha v e c. second, decisive , effect on the future of participa tiO!'l .

E)>.'-perts are a poi:.¡e rf ul elite, partly because of the ir knmvledge , but mainly because they are i n touch with those in author ity , by whorn they are appointed and who urgently need their skills . They the r efore tend to form a " state wi·:::hin the state", the more i mpene trable and impervious to external pressures in tha t it operates in a highly technical f ield. It is essential, therefore , tha t the governed should have a voice amongs t t hem , a~d this can be ac~ieved only through the participation of their OW7l experts in decision-making . The aonointment of these exper ts wil l have to b e the result of close democrat ic consultation, so t ha t cont<tct between the cxperts a nd the governed is no t lost and the <leca~¿~ uf the public continue to be heeded even in the nost technical and specialised f i e lds.

This objective is n:!. l t~2 more essential since the public de~2nd to participate in decision s ~hich concern it is growi ng s tronz er eve~y <la y ..

One has only to observe the net.; policies of trade union rr:ovements to b e convinc e d o f this : wage-earners are no longer rner ely cla i cing an improv , '":¿r,t in i-:ork i ng co::cd:Ltions and the saÍegunrd of rignts acquired; th ey now want to be associated in decisions . which conc ~rn themh The developr:ient of the c o-c ;:: c : ativ e w.ov ernent reflect s th c s.:im.e cf ef;;iúid . Instead of a str ic ~ divis i o2 of l a bour , with compartment3 lised activi tics and ~arkc t s , th e publi ~ wa nt s a s y sten in which th e v~r ious st.:ige s of production and d ist rib u t ~on ar e inlegr a t e<l and i n which thcy hav e u s a y a t each s ta ge . ...

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AS/Coll/Deraocracy (J4) 4 - 10

Given the ccmplcxity and rna~nitude of problem~ in motlern life 3

the government are apt to feel shut out of the taking of decisions, which are represe nted as being too specialised and technical f or submission to them. Thei= ~ish not to be regarded as mere units of production is reflected in a g rowing demand to participate in the ' preparation of <lecisions conce r ning them.

Ultinately, the more corqüex and sophisticated , and thus incomprehensible to the mc.sses, solutions become th e greater will be the demand to be informed about them and involved in them.

IV. THE INDIVISIBILITY OF HUi-1..c~~ RIGHTS

a. DEHOCRACY AND Pfu."t{TICIPATIO.N

Political experience tod.ay provides many e xamples of countries which , in the name of different ideals, put political rights into cold storage .

Pretexts involved are : threats from abroad. vita l develonrnPnt requirements, a danger to n a tional unity, ínternal security and the like are all involved to justify the regimenting of citizens to· serve a supreme objective.

Such policie s . depend on s trong government p ower bas e d on authoritarianism and paterna lis m.

Citi zens are regarded a s minors incapable oÍ personal judgment, whose best interests can only be served by those in charge of the State. Initiative lies with the powers that be and obedience and submission are the first duties of the citizen.

Indoctrination then replaces information and discussion. Some l eaders have tried to promete a new form of legitimacy base<l on mass support, this being sought and sometimes gained hy means of organisations for r egimenting the ma.sses.

One exaI!lple is the fascist experiment in Italy) where political structures wer e to a large extent replaced by corporatist structur e s su.ch a s prof essional corpora tíon s, whose r epresentatives, dir e c tly appointed by the government, replaced representatives electe d b y u~iversal suffrage.

Similarly, i n Franco's Spain, one-third of the repre sentatives i n the Cort ª s were e l e c ted by heads o f f amilies and o ne- thi rd by th e t r a d e unions, the remaini~g third bein g per s ons a ppo i nted by the other two - t hird s.

As in Musso l ini 1 s Italy a nd Hitler's Germ...any, l eaders of the one and only t r ade union organisation were appointe d by t he gov e rnment . They in their turn a ppointed the h e ads of federations , a nd so it went on. Delegation theref ore p roc eede d f rom the top d own wards , c orl t.rar.y to the machine r y of pub l ic pa rticipa tion in <l emo c ratic s ta tes , wh er e d e l egation i s f rom the bo t to8 upward s .

The policy of regimen t i n g the masse s in au tho r i t ar i an r e gimes i s bo l st e r e d by dis pa r agerr.en t of d emo c r a t i c machlnery : members of

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parliament are presented as useless and corrupt politicians serving priv2te int erests and the He~d of State as a powerless marionette. The ulti~ate enemy is nene other tha~ democracy i tsel f .

Yet without democ:acy there can be no participation, ~.:':üch .is why t he forms just descr~bed for associating the public with the na tion's progress assur.ied tne semblance of participe.tion but wer e in point of fac t systems of indoctrination and regimentation.

Purely formal participation goes hand in han<l with an absence o f d e~ocratic rights - the right to choose representatives in free elections, the right to found poli tical parties, the right of assembly and of association etc, - s ince it has been shown that one channel o f partícipation is tnrough the exercise of those rights .

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Participation and de~ocracy therefore seem inseparable, far democracy is the oxygen without which participation becomes stifled and dies. Participation is the essential component of derr:ocracy: the right to discuss freely and without fear, the right to challenge the goverrur.ent's proposals and the right to support the political pa rty of oae ' s choice ancl to form new pnrties.

b. POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS k\lD PARTICIPATICN

Ci tizens therefore particip~te through their elec t ed representa~ives in the conduct of public affairs. Experience has shown that the best form of organisation for this i s politic.::.l parties, which by means of direct or indirect suffrage provide a means far election of th~ rulers of the Sta te.

Thes e in their turn must rr.,.:t intain close touch with the sys t ems of econo~ic,social and cult~ral participation in arder to keep abreast of the probleos faced by t he public. However, it should be stressed that the power of decision líes solely with the politícal organs and can in no circumsta~ces ~e delegated to a system of sec~oral participa t ion r epresenting prívate interests. To grant power to such a syste::n v~uld be tantamount to upsetting the d~mocratic bal;;:.nce forrued by the sum o f prívate interests reconciled a t a higher level.

The general welfare can be serven by the pol itical organ only that organ remains in tollch with th(; ~eneral interest, principally by means of consultation .

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Consultation can be on various scales. In toe narrowes t context , it nay co:ne about throu3h an e:qiert co!!!rai c: tee set uy to e xan.'..ne and salve s ech a~d s~ch a problem, or chr oegh colleccive bargaining with che aim of proposing improved workir.g conditions; in the broadest context it may take th2 form of a referendu::n, in which the public is consulted on a specific problem and c2n answer only ' yes ' or ' no 1

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In so rne count ri es , s uch as Switzerl a nd, th c r efer2ndur!i is frequently used t o <l eal wlth problei!".s of une qual importance , such ·as me mbersh ip of the United Nations, naturalisation for foreigners , price cont rol or the independence of the press .

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In Itaiy , on the ~the~- hand-; :th~ i~;-~ '~ii~d~~-- s ~:r~-~s- -b-~ly---~-o t ry - t o and abortion, while (the Al geria n war

solve problems of extreme gravi t y s uch as divorce in France it is used in time s of political crisis or the upheava ls of Xay 1968).

But the result of consulting the people may be regarded as signif icant only if the peblic is well info rmed and , as we have already said, by several currents of opinion.

c. INFORJ.'1ATION AND PARTICIPATION

The high cost of the media - press, radio and especially the audio-visual media is a threat t o pluralism.

The gr eat press concentrations which have been formed by successive absorption of various local and even national newspapers unable to survive the competition of television are a good example of the difficulties facing pluralism in r eality.

The democrat ic State has a duty to protect this form of pluralism agains t threa t, just as it protects political pluralism.

What would be the significance of oolitica l oluralism in a parliament if the people who elected it drew all their informat ion from the same source?

The State has a duty to m~ke it poss ible for the various soc i a l groups to create their own cnannels of information a nd give their messages t he widest publicity .

But one must beware of regarding information only from the standpoint of propagating a message or news. Once this has been received by individuals and social groups it will be anal ysed , discussed and, as it were, absorbed into the memory, or the individual group concerned will no longer be exactly the same as before receiving the inf ormation which will have become an instrument of training .

The more a ccessible , dynanic and complete is the informati on available, the more capable will the public be of participating , being better informed and better trained. I ts par ticipat ion in th2 life of the nation will be al l the more valuable .

CONCLUSION

In the democr.:t~ic sta t es , where f ull e.njoyment of polit.ical r ights is pract ically unchal leng2d, in other ,.;·ords, where partici¡:iation in political life has reached a high degree of development, participa t ion in social, economic and cultural affa irs has obv iously not reached t he same l evel .

There is a contradiction here which should be clearly brought out . · One cannot "regard the citizen as ripe for political democracy --,:i-n-¿--a.t the same time d eny the ''orker the right to denocracy in e conomlc life " (Participation dans la Profes sion et l' Entreprise - Ann uaire de la Nouvelle Soc iété Helvé tique - Berne 1973 , p 58 , D Ha rdmeier).

This <lichotomy has a l s o been denounced ín the Green Book publ ished in 1975 by the Com.~lss ion of the European Communities , in the light of the increasingly widesprea<l convic t ion tha t democ r ncy r eq ui r es t hose l-1ho · are affe cted by the decl s ions of socinl a nd politica l in.sti tutions t o be able to oarticioate in the prepa ration of these decisions

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The absence of partici'pation in the econoraic, s ocial anc1 cultural fields encourages confrontation and thus a weakening of the deoocra tic arder as a whole . ~'.oreover, to hamper th e exercise of participation in fields which are the scene o f peoples' daily lif e leads to loss of interest and indifference to the maintenance of democratic principles . If a citizen has a regular day- to - day means for t he f r ee a nd r esponsible exer cise of h is right to particip~tion ,

he will a c qui r e a practical , as distinct from forP.ial democratic training , a nd his at t achment to de.rnocrat i c i nstitu tions will be strengthened . Accord i ng to the 1973 report of the Adelaide Conmittee ( So uth Australia), o n the par ticipation of workers in the ~4nagement of the prívat e sector (p 3) , suppor t for the principles of democracy is st!"onger among those who have experience d democracy in other situations , for instance at school, in co-operatives, in trade unions and i n economic life .

It has been shor..m in the course of t his study t hat the r igh t to participation is an indep endent right and that , once it is not recogn ised as such, the whole body of human rights is affected , for h uman rights are indivisible .

In a democratic system, the degree of public participation at the political level, and also the economic soci a l an<l cultura l levels , is t h e best test of democracy ' s l iving r ea l i ty .

PROPOSAL

The colloquy should debate the need to recommend that t h e Council of Europe encourage the adoption of a p rotoco l to the European Convention on Human Right s in which the governraents of member Sta t es wou l d undertake t o promote the righ t of participation by individuals and gr oups . in the po l it i ca l , social , economic and c ultural fields .