As/coll/Democracy (34) 4 Estrasburgo, 23-25 marzo 1983> EL DERECHO DE LOS CIUDADANOS A PARTICIPAR EN EL PROCESO DE TOMAS DE DECISIONES por Leandro Despouy Abogado argentino exiliado en Francia

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Stre sbour g , 17 Mar ch 1983 r es t r i.ct:ed
/sicoll/D-e2ocracy (34) ~
Or . English
79. 193
OL33
PARLll_?ll3lJT!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.SIOi1- NAKI NG PROCESS
by Leandro DESPOUY
Argentine lawyer exile d in Fra nc e
STRASBOURG
1933
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2. AS/ C o l l / De~oc~a cy ( 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 ght to participation i s an
established fact •. .. ..•.. .. .• •• •.•........ . •.
c. Fields in which participation i s progressing
c.l The right t o participati on is the l abour world
d. Fields in which participation is in dis pute
e. The exercise of participation seen against the
complexity of the modern world ..•.......•...
The indivisibility of hu~zn rights
a. Democracy a nd participation •...•••.•.••.•..• •.
b. Political ins t i tutions and ~ar ticipation
c. Information an<l participa tion
Conclu sion
Proposal
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these term~, Article 9; ?~r~griph 2 of .che 1973 Sp2nish Constitution
settles the spurious d¿bate as to whether partici?3tion is a right in
itself or a component of h~:an rights, ar;. indii..'idu,:il right or a collective
one.
This texc fully e~~o rses 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.ay 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.
él.
- 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 , social and cal tural f ields of no co nsequenc e far
poli tic Ql partici?aci0~?
can a denocr~tic socie~y be identified 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
~o s t of the princ ipc l international texts concerning human right 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 se nt ~nc e
of which begins "He , the peop}. es of t he Unitec ~1ar:io ns ... 11
• The t as~
of worlci r eco ns truction and t he preservati on of peace a f ter t~o ~o rl d
wars is entrusted in the first instance to the Peoples, reg:!rdeci as
s ubj ects of internationa::.. L r ..1. It is far them to wo rk toge t her fo:-
the ge'.1eral welfare, and t.his provides , perhaps, 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 parti 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 expression 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 sc ope for help i ng to prepare
and carry out educational programmes .
Participation is therefore tbe contrary of passivity and indifference .
To deny workers the possibility of choosing their work 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
for participation at the various stagas of 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 in t~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 machinery 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 .
. I.

5. 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 p arti~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 sect ion on democrGcy anci participatio n.
Athenian de'.llocracy 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 democracy . 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 onl 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 participati on ,
based on the self-sufficient n ature of the right to participate. This
was grasped by those who drc.fted the new Spanish Cons titution of 1978
(Article ) pó.r :=.g ra~h 2).
As soon as the right to partí 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 right 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 inf oim ~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 achieveQent
of all hc::::~n rights .
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6. AS/Coll/DeBocracy (34) 4 - 4 -
Co:r:.011ission for the Study of Co::imcñication P:roblef!ls, the follo-.áng
rights reust be gu~rant ee d :
the right to knowlerlge , that is: fo r everyone 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 se crecy which is current in both the p ublic and prívate
sectors , in governrnent as i :i. industry and collli!lerce , 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 adrainistrative 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 ad3inistr ative sectors.
By its n.:J.ture a d_emocratic Stat e requires its rulers to divulge
all act 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. CONSULTATION
But a ll information, however complete and accessible it rnay be ,
and however dynaraic its supply, is only a first step towards
part icipation and will be only of momentary interest to the public
if it is not 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
etr 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 tici 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 been 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 enabled to expres s their
vie"Ws, so th.:it a process of association in decision-rr.aking is und e r
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The two s ides of indust=y, local authorities and prívate
<:lssocia ti.ons will thus bcco;;;.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 be 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, admittedly, 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~arenes s 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.al and national authorities through
political parties which they are free to join .
The as ~ ociation oE mac~~nary fer p u~lic participa tion with
decision-8.aking is a long ar;.d co;nplex process which may take the
for~ of parti 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 out deci aion~
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 perr:ianent organisaU.ons or created with a view to the
. /.

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AS/ Col l /De~ocr acy (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 persons co ncerne¿
are dire ctly or indirectly associated in the decision-making . process.
But howeve r clo s ely ;;:.ss oc i at ed it may be w:Lt11 preparati.on,
deci s ion- raaking , implenentati on, eva luation or supervision, t h e
participation nachinery cannot replace the government , which continues
to hold the reins of power . Where there is a conf lic t of interests,
it is the government thac ~ust settle 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 uneven 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 pa 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 utho ritarian regices c laim to be emergency regimes, justified
by the exi stence 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 tates . Too many sectors reraain where it is a ccepted onl y
cautiously ar 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 elev3nt i n-
t ernati o~al inscru~encs a re clear and ? r ecise: ~rti cl e 15 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 emphasi 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 ffic 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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9. - 7 - AS/Coll/Denocracy (34) 4
·· 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 partici 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 various
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 working
conditíons laid down by legislation may be supplemeated by freely
negotiated collective agreeflents . In Noruay~ the right to pa rticipation
was the subject of 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 of
fo r ms ; equi-representative consultation, inclusion of workecs in the
f irml s infor!!'.ztion, collective barga:i ·'.ing, workers' representai::ion in
the Bo~rd of Directors and workers ' self- management.
The establishment and devel 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 -,:orld were str- ictly de f i n ed . Ot..rne;::-s hip of 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 pa tion to have a
place in the world of labour , it pr eved nece ss 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 tho. t of t he wor kers ..-
The fact that the workers he lp in production, s pe nd mos t of their life
at work a nd d epcnd on t h e wor k for thei r own and the ir L1rni lies '
livel i hood gives them sorne righ t to have no t i ce t aken of t h eir v i e ws
on the runni ng of t he firm .
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10. AS/Coll/Democracy (14) 4 - 8 -
....
~oreove r , 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 denocratic s yste~ 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.ii: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 ind ustrial 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 life in a nother . This divergence continues to grow and
has an influence on working conditions as wel l as on industrial manage~ent ...
If the survival of authoritarian conditions is allowed in one sector of society ,
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 democrat-
isation" (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 supplemen-
tary 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 policy . 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 economic fields· ii by
no means excluded by their instrins ic nature of l iberal i sation is still incorn-
plete, 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 basicall 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,
even 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
pro bl e~s provides an a<l~ir.:ible excuse for dis~l ssing publi.c ¿cmanJs to
parti.cipate .

11. - 9 AS/Col l/De~ocr ac y ( 3~ ) 4
The growing complexi t y 2nd the s pecial 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~~l e
contrediction . Eow can che ~an in the street be invo lved in t he
es t¿blishment of a ne<J rnone t ary 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! appar 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 interests. This
would ha ve c. second, decisive , effect on the future of participatiO!'l .
E)>.'-perts are a poi:.¡erf 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 ther 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 amongst t hem , a~d this can be a c~ieved only through
the participation of their OW7l experts in decision-making . The
aonointment of these exper ts wil l have to be 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
e ve~y <lay ..
One has only to observe the net.; policies of trade union rr:ovements
to b e convinced of this : wage-earners are no longer rner ely clai cing
an improv , '":¿r,t in i-:orki ng co::cd:Ltions and the saÍegunrd of rignts
acquired; th ey now want to be associated in decisions .which con c ~rn themh
The developr:ient of the co-c;::c: ative w.ov ernent reflect s th c s.:im.e cfef;;iúid .
Instead of a str i c ~ divis i o2 of l a bour , with compartment3 lised activi tics
and ~arkc t s , th e publi ~ wa nt s a s ysten in which th e v ~r iou s st.:iges of
production and d ist rib u t ~o n 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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12. 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 concer 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 examples of countries
which , in the name of different ideals, put political rights into
cold storage .
Pretexts involved are : threats from abroad. vital develonrnPnt
requirements, a danger to na 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 power bas ed 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 structure s
su.ch a s prof essional corpora tíon s, whose r epresentatives, dir ec tly
appointed by the government, replaced representatives electe d by
u~iversal suffrage.
Similarly, i n Franco's Spain, one-third of the repre sentatives
i n the Cortª s were e l e c ted by heads of f amilies and o ne- third by th e
t r ad e unions, the rema ini~g third being per s ons appo i nted by the ot her
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 appointed by t he gov ernment .
They in their turn a ppointed the h e ads of federations , and so it went
on. Delegation theref ore proc eede d f rom the top downwards , corl t.rar.y
to the machine r y of publ ic pa rticipa tion in <lemoc ratic s tates , wh er e
de l egation i s f rom the bo t to8 upward s .
The policy of regiment i n g the masses in autho r i t ar i an r e gimes i s
bol st e r ed by dis pa r agerr.en t of d emoc r a t i c machlnery : members of
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parliament are presented as useless and corrupt politicians serving
priv2te interests 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
of d e~ocratic rights - the right to choose representatives in free
elections, the right to found political 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 .
L; .
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 klD PARTICIPATICN
Ci tizens therefore particip~te through their elect 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.
These 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~mo cratic 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!!!raic: 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
•
In sorne countri es , such as Switzerl a nd, th c r efer2ndur!i is
frequently used t o <leal wlth problei!".s of unequal importance , such ·as
membership of the United Nations, naturalisation for foreigners , price
cont rol or the independence of the press .
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14. -:""' ...... -·.
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-' ... : / "-_,.;-:~: ; -;: JAS/.Ce11/Democ.rac_y._:._(3~-j~-=-.'-·_...,._: ~~- ::: 12· ....._.. ,._
-:. _·: .. --:.
----.- ~::~~---~~-:.·:~·~~~ .;-':~~ .;.:_·_. :-~~._:.. - _ -..;
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 gravit y s uch as divorce
in France it is used in times 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 oolitical 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 soci al
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 information which will have become an instrument of training.
The more accessible, 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 ticipation 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 practically unchalleng2d, in other ,.;·ords, where partici¡:iation in
political life has reached a high degree of development, participa t ion
in social, economic and cultural affairs has obviously 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 economlc life"
(Participation dans la Profes sion et l' Entreprise - Annuaire de la
Nouvelle Soc iété Helvé tique - Berne 1973 , p 58 , D Ha rdmeier).
This <lichotomy has al s o been denounced ín the Green Book publ ished
in 1975 by the Com.~l ss ion of the European Communities, in the light of
the increasingly widesprea<l convict ion tha t democ r ncy r eq ui r es t hose
l-1ho· are affe cted by the decls ions of socinl a nd politica l in.stitutions
t o be able to oarticioate in the prepa ration of these decisions
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15. ,. - 13 - AS/Coll/Democracy ( 34) 4
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 of 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 and r esponsible exer cise of h is right to particip~tion ,
he will a c quir 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 . Accordi 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 experienced 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
human 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 cultural levels,
is t h e best test of democracy ' s l iving r eal 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 Rights in which the governraents of member Sta t es
woul d undertake t o promote the righ t of participation by individuals
and gr oups . in the pol it i ca l , social , economic and c ultural fields .