Is Political Participation a Requirement for Freedom?

Is Political Participation a Requirement for Freedom?

Political participation entails a vast range of activities that people engage in to express their opinions regarding the world and how the government should run its activities. The participation in political affairs is shaped by the probability of any person to engage in making decisions, which affect their interests. Every individual has the right to participate in political activities, including disabled people. Political participation includes making decisions about social issues at a family or individual level, joining groups and organizations, campaigning at any level, voting, joining a political party, and vying for elections. The freedoms to assembly and association and to vote and be voted for are the major expressions of political participation. Political participation is the basis of any democratic process and active civil society.

The concept of political participation is comprehensive than just the right to vote or the freedom of assembly and association. Political participation provides that all people should be included in making decisions about issues that affect them. The participation also involves the right to join civic associations and organizations. Every citizen should be free to engage in politics either directly or through the elected political representatives (Quintelier and Van Deth 2014, p158). Citizens are free to determine their political status and freely pursue development following their preferred policies. No citizens should be compelled to join a specific political organization or forcefully participate in any political activities. Political participation cannot be fully guaranteed without respect and enforcement of other rights and freedoms. For political participation to be thoroughly engaging, other rights and liberties like freedom of expression, access to information, freedom of movement, and freedom of association and assembly should also be guaranteed. Therefore, political participation is a democratic requirement for freedom.

Different ways in which democratic states can be arranged; new democratic innovations

Democratic innovations have been used globally to increase and diversify the participation of citizens in governance, public administration, and policy-making. The democratic innovation field has taken shape since the 20^th century, and it has brought diverse democratic actions and thoughts. Democratic innovations stem from the merging of a variety of theoretical and practical projects that critique and develop democracy. The last two decades have witnessed an emergence of many democratic innovations that have stemmed from the ongoing social and technological advancements. The innovations could potentially lead to the development of contemporary forms of democracy that are more inclusive, participatory, and deliberative (Smith, Richards and Gastil 2015, pg 258). Some democratic innovations that have emerged to improve democracy include state plans, Charters of Rights, community cabinets, dialogue with the city, summits, and the Intergovernmental Agreement on federal financial regulations. Public trust in representative institutions is sharply declining, and democratic innovations are the only remedies to intensify participation of citizens in making political decisions.

The remarkable cultural change and social shift towards liberal values promote the willingness of citizens to participate in democratic processes. The internet and new communication tools facilitate the exchange of information, foster mobilization, and provide citizens with extra opportunities for public participation and protest (Spaiser et al. 2014). Some democratic innovations such as online participation have helped intensify public participation; therefore, the innovations are critical in promoting modern democracy. Democratic innovations such as summits, community cabinets, and charters of rights enhance the capacity of citizens and civil society organizations to participate in public affairs. Such democratic innovations make the participation of citizens in political decision-making a reality rather than a purely theoretical mobilization. With democratic innovations, states can realign their democratic policies and practices to foster intense public participation (Crouzel 2014). Increasing public participation boosts public confidence in the representative institutions, thus promoting democracy.

Some democratic innovations such as summits and community cabinets can also help reinforce efficiency, effectiveness, and legitimacy of public policy. Participation in public policy increases responsiveness to popular demand and social issues. For example, in Madagascar, democratic innovations have helped improve the water supply in some districts.  Therefore, democratic innovation can help resolve a given social problem. Democratic innovations involve participation from various actors such as public institutions, the media, citizens, civil society organizations, and the private sector. The diverse actors work together to obtain the most significant leverage on public policy. The multiple-actor aspect of governance emphasizes the importance of building joint intelligence and cooperation in public action (Crouzel, 2014). In Niger, for example, joint policy-making among various local actors has facilitated the peaceful resolving of conflicts between pastoralists and farmers.

Democratic innovations such as the intergovernmental agreement on federal financial regulations of 2001 have helped establish a new set of laws and regulations on inter-governmental finance. The agreement is between Commonwealth, territories, and states, and it has challenged state leaders to promote principles of federalism through encouraging cooperation and flexibility in practice. Basically, democratic innovations help keep the government accountable, promoting devolution, and holding political representatives in touch.

Are democratic models as inclusive as they claim to be?

Different models of democracy seek to engage citizens in policy-making, discussions, protests, decision-making, and other acts of political participation. Representative democracy, for example, strives to promote the indirect participation of citizens, and their political representatives express the opinions of the people. The will or ideas of underrepresented groups are not considered. Therefore, the representative democracy is not as inclusive as claimed by its advocates. Citizens participate in representative democracy through voting and party membership. Although the current generation is much politicized, the majority of the citizens feel like their opinions do not matter. Other people deliberately fail to engage in political participation because they think that the political representatives have all the policy-making powers and that their contribution does not count. Citizens also lack the necessary tools to open an effective and reliable feedback loop with the political representatives (Spaiser et al 2014). Most people are also less informed about political participation. Although all models of democracy seek to involve every citizen in political decision-making, not all citizens are included because of the lack of civil education.

In conclusion, political participation is a requirement for freedom because it entails other rights and freedoms, such as freedom of movement, expression, and freedom of association and assembly. Political participation is the basis of any democratic process and active civil society. Democratic innovations help keep the government accountable, promoting devolution, and holding political representative in touch. Different democracy models seek to foster the political participation of citizens. However, the models are not as inclusive as they claim to be because the levels of public participation in democratic processes are still low, and the public trust in representative institutions is declining.

References

Crouzel, I 2014, ‘Democratic innovations: Reshaping public governance,’ The Journal Of Field Actions Science Reports, vol. 11, viewed, 2 November 2019, https://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/3619

Quintelier, E., and Van Deth, J.W., 2014. Supporting democracy: Political participation and political attitudes. Exploring causality using panel data. Political Studies, 62, pp.153-171.

Smith, G., Richards Jr, R.C., and Gastil, J., 2015. The Potential of Participedia as a crowdsourcing tool for comparative analysis of democratic innovations. Policy & Internet, 7(2), pp.243-262.

Spaiser, V., Ranganathan, S., Mann, R.P., and Sumpter, D.J., 2014. The dynamics of democracy, development, and cultural values. PloS one, 9(6), p.e97856.