Creating legitimacy and integrating diversity by empowering citizens The challenge of election law...
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Transcript of Creating legitimacy and integrating diversity by empowering citizens The challenge of election law...
![Page 1: Creating legitimacy and integrating diversity by empowering citizens The challenge of election law design for Democracy and Democracy building Workshop.](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022082712/56649ec45503460f94bceff4/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Creating legitimacy and integrating diversity by
empowering citizensThe challenge of election law design for
Democracy and Democracy buildingWorkshop “A reform of the electoral system: from party
vote to personal vote” in the Parliament of BiH
Sarajevo, 26th of February 2010,
by Andreas Gross,
political scientist / MP and social-democratic group leader in the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe www.andigross.ch [email protected]
![Page 2: Creating legitimacy and integrating diversity by empowering citizens The challenge of election law design for Democracy and Democracy building Workshop.](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022082712/56649ec45503460f94bceff4/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
National Integration and overcoming ethnical divisions is
what BiH needs most (One of Europe’s biggest challenges)
Designing an electoral law has to contribute to this national priority - it‘s one of the biggest opportunities to contribute to this !
![Page 3: Creating legitimacy and integrating diversity by empowering citizens The challenge of election law design for Democracy and Democracy building Workshop.](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022082712/56649ec45503460f94bceff4/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Designing a democratic election law means facing
several paradoxes :
• You want to unite the citizens, but you have to
organise their divisions;• You want common understanding, but you organise
competition;• You want to create legitimacy, but you provoke tensions;• You want to create new identities but you help old ones;• You want to integrate, but you divide
![Page 4: Creating legitimacy and integrating diversity by empowering citizens The challenge of election law design for Democracy and Democracy building Workshop.](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022082712/56649ec45503460f94bceff4/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
There are keys, how to overcome these paradoxes in
order to integrate a diverse society even by elections :
Take and focus on individual citizens when you design the electoral law and not parties, ethnical groups or other static collectives!
![Page 5: Creating legitimacy and integrating diversity by empowering citizens The challenge of election law design for Democracy and Democracy building Workshop.](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022082712/56649ec45503460f94bceff4/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Political institutions and procedures should be designed in a way, which
make human being’s act in the common interest:
- Respect diversity, but help integrate it by avoiding divisions;
- Motivate citizens to act, to participate and to learn;
- Give equal chances to all and every one
- Guarantee fairness in politics
![Page 6: Creating legitimacy and integrating diversity by empowering citizens The challenge of election law design for Democracy and Democracy building Workshop.](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022082712/56649ec45503460f94bceff4/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Integration is a political challenge: Citizens need to act
themselves together - they need to use their freedom !
For Hannah Arendt pluralism is the base of politics. Freedom the sense of it. Pluralism does no mean division; freedom you don’t have but you might find it by acting together with others...
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Integration through citizen’s participation:
citizens based elections and addition of direct democratic
elements to representative democracy
By acting together in order to influence their common existence citizens begin to identify with the whole society - by participating actively you begin to see yourself as part of the whole.
![Page 8: Creating legitimacy and integrating diversity by empowering citizens The challenge of election law design for Democracy and Democracy building Workshop.](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022082712/56649ec45503460f94bceff4/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Citizens based elections have a double sense:
Strengthen the citizen as candidate and as voter
As candidate: - No big obstacles to form parties or electoral list
- No minimum requirements to enter Parliament
As voter:
- you have as many votes as seats in your constituency - you might give two of them to one candidate and
to candidates from different parties/lists (Open lists)
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Possible ways to democratize BiH’s Democracy:
Overcome ethnically based constituencies
(Reorganise constituencies in 10 seats c. each)
Restructure balance and competences within the Federation
(- More power for the Federation,
- entity competence in entity issues only
- increase the presence of the entities on federal level by a two-chamber National Parliament,
- integrate federal society by national referenda)
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In order to be able to act together with others you have to trust/ have confidence in others
and yourself
Alone you may become rich - politically you despair alone. In order to be able to act, you need the others.
Individualism should not be confused with egoism or the atomisation of society.
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The more all citizens feel respect, trust and the more they act
together, the more they feel to belong together
An integrated society is able to develop a common sense of a common belonging !
This might be it’s utopian goal - perhaps never to be achieved totally, but always have to be tried to be approached.
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A common collective identity you build (No heritage only !) by acting individually for a common project:
A collective Identity is more than a heritage - passively you loose it, by acting together you build up one ! By acting together there comes together what belongs together (All Macedonians of all parts).