Slideshows about nonviolence and nonviolent resolution of conflicts, economic alternatives, ecology, social change, spirituality : www.irnc.org , Slideshows in english Democracy, citizenship and nonviolence The 3 facets of an individual in a relation; rights and duties; the common good, commons; subsisiarity; economy, ecology and politics; ethics and politics

1. Democracy, citizenship
and nonviolence
Étienne Godinot
Translation : Claudia McKenny Engström
.04.02.2015

2. Democracy, citizenship and nonviolence
Contents
• Politics (in relation with economy, ecology)
• The three facets of an individual in a relation
• Political power, the State
• The sources of obligations : Law and ethics
• Power and authority
• Democracy : its composing elements, the limits of majoritarian law,
democracy and conflict management, moto of the French Republic, Laïcité.
Citizenship : rights and duties; civil disobedience, a right and a duty.
• Politics, Democracy and nonviolence
• The common good, commons, subsidiarity and support
• Indispensable knowledge for the exercise of citizenship

3. Démocratie, citoyenneté et non-violence
Sources
• André Comte-Sponville (ethics and Law)
• Bernard Ginisty (fraternity)
• IFMAN Normandy (the three facets of a person in a
relationship)
• Jean-Marie Muller, Dictionnaire de la non-violence, ed. Le
Relié, 2005 (authority, Democracy, State, Politics, Power)
• Wikipedia Internet (citizenship, common good, State, etc.)
• E. Godinot (indispensable knowledge to exercise citizenship)

4. Economy
Man’s activity are destined to
- produce
- exchange
- consume
goods and services with the purpose of
satisfying human needs.

5. Ecology
Harmonious management of the relations
that exist between Man and nature,
aiming at satisfying Man’s needs without
those needs :
- destroying the planet (forestry, halieutic
(fishing), mineral resources, pollution,
climate, biodiversity, ecosystems, etc.)
- harming future life on Earth

6. Politics
Collective management of a society destined to :
- organise the interaction between individuals and social groups,
regulate inevitable human conflicts: define laws and organise its
respect (constitution, justice, police, etc.)
- create infrastructures and public services (civil registration,
education, healthcare, energies, transports, defence, etc.)
- tax collection, redistribution, fight against exclusion, protect the
most vulnerable
-organise minimal providence (fire, etc.) and enhanced
providence (illness, handicap, for the elderly, etc.)
- foresight for next generations
- organise peace and cooperation between people.

7. The 3 facets of an individual in a relation
1) Each one of us is a person with a story, an identity,
needs, feelings, aspirations…
Ex.: I am a women, police officer and mother; I am
sometimes depressed by my family issues and do
a job in which I am confronted with all woes of the
world
2) Each one of us is a person in a status, a social
role, a “costume”
Ex.: I am a police officer, representing public
authority, in charge of a mission for social peace
3) Each one of us is responsible as citizen, conscious
of the consequences of our acts
Ex.: Police officer, I respect my superiors authority,
but must also know when to disobey sinful orders,
such as the arrest of Jews during the raid of the
"Vel’ d’Hiv”, 16-17 July 1942 (photo below)

8. Political power, the State
Political power is a type of power exercised by a man or a
group over society. It is sovereignty, the power to set rules
which will apply on the population of a given territory.
Political power is noxious or senseless (despotism, tyranny,
dictatorship, etc.) when it is concentrated in too few hands,
not leaving enough space for political debate, public criticism
and other forms of corrective pressures.
Photos :
- Henri IV (French King from 1589 to1610)
- Jean-Bedel Bokassa (Central Africa, in power from 1966 to 1979 )

9. The State
The State is the modern political and legal organisation of
a defined territory. It is composed of :
- a delimited and determined territory,
- a resident population on the latter territory,
- a minimal form of government,
- the capacity to enter into relation with other States.
According to Max Weber, “the State is the institutional
character of a political enterprise, when and until its
administrative direction claims, successfully, in the
implementation of its rules, the monopoly of legitimate
physical coercion on a given territory”.

10. The State
The State has for finality to organise the collective life of
citizens and in the respect of the rights they each hold.
The State is constituted by the political, administrative, legal,
police and military institutions that ensure public services and
authority.
Public order cannot be the result of a coercive organisation of
society merely resting on obligations and interdictions.
The State thus holds a power of coercion which ca oblige
citizens to respect the “social contract” which grounds the
order and cohesion within society.
The State ensures the defence of society against those who
attempt to impose their private interests and trouble public
order.

11. The origins of our obligations
- Law : the corpus of rules organising men’s social
life (constitution, treaties, laws, decrees, rules,
contracts, jurisprudence, etc.)
- Ethics : corpus of moral and universal norms
which guide individual behaviour towards oneself
and others, of a group towards others.
For instance, the “golden rule” of wisdom and
religion : “Do not do to others what you would not
like others to do to you. Treat others the way you
would like to be treated”.

12. Selfishness or solidarity ?
Law and Ethics
Selfishness is legal but unethical
Ethics must take into account the existence of others and our
converging interests in solidarity
If we were truly moral, we would not need Law or politics
Ethics compensates for our lack of goodness
Law compensates for our lack of ethics
André Comte-Sponville

13. The ethical choice
The ethical choice is the behaviour an individual adopts
taking into account :
- universal ethics
- a personal choice made consciously by an individual in
the specific situation he/she finds him/herself in
Ex.: Law and ethics forbid murder, but before a deeply
suffering parent who has reached the end of his/her life, I
may accept, in full knowledge, to unplug the life-support
machines.

14. Power and authority
Hierarchal power (or authority) corresponds to the
right to command, ban, give orders, injunctions, to be
obeyed.
Such power exists within families (parents), schools
(teachers, educators, sports teachers), stately
institutions (Prime Minister, prefect, general), work
environments (manager, supervisor), religious
communities (bishops) etc.
It is lined to the notions of power, legitimacy,
management, delegation/transfer of power, etc.

15. Dictatorships, authoritarianism
A dictatorship is a political regime in which a person or a
group of people exercise power in an absolute manner,
ignoring rules and unlimited by institutions.
Authoritarianism – the behaviour as much as the
functioning of a political structure – consists (in both cases)
in a pre-eminence, hypertrophy of an authority erected as
supreme value.
An authoritarian political regime is a political regime which,
thanks to different means (propaganda, repression,
limitation to freedom of the press, cult of personality, etc.),
hopes to submit a whole population in obedience.
Photos : - Bachar al Assad (Syria)
- Vladimir Putin (Russia)

16. Authority
Authority (of a person or an institution) is recognised by those
who are asked to follow its council and instructions.
Obedience to authority must be consented, and rests on a
relationship of trust. No coercion is required for authority to be
respected.
Authority implies hierarchy. The personality (knowledge,
competence, integrity, honesty, wisdom) of the one who sits in
a position of authority is more important than the function
occupied.
The power of authority is that it always aims to be just.
The authority of a wise man creates no power. No one can be
forced to follow his instructions.
Photos : - Socrates,
- Nelson Mandela

17. The power of individuals
The power of each individual (Spinoza’s potentia, in
English, empowerment) allows him or hr to acquire and
protect the space he or she needs to live freely, satisfy his
or her needs and aspirations, and develop his or her
potential. A just relationship is grounded on the equilibrium
between the power of individuals on the one hand, and the
power of groups on the other.
The struggle for justice and freedom is one of power. The
victims of injustices cannot see their rights recognised
without acquiring the sufficient amount of power that will
force established power to deliver justice.
Photos - Gandhi during the Salt March (1930) for Independence
- Martin Luther King during the fight against segregation
- Aung San Kyi during the fight against the dictatorship in
Myanmar

18. Exercising power with authority
The one who holds a powerful position (parent, school
teacher, officer, sports teacher, supervisor, prefect) also
spends time proving his or her authority, that is explaining
the orders given, what and why there are bans, and obtain
the consent of those these are addressed to.
Violence cannot create authority over
those who are subject to it.
It is when power has no authority that
it uses violence. Violence can lead to
obedience, but then it negates authority.
“We fear little bosses.
Medium bosses can be handled.
Big ones, we follow them…”

19. Democracy
Democracy (demos: “people” in Ancient Greek, and
kratos, power) is the regime in which the people have
the power.
According to the words we owe to Abraham Lincoln*,
democracy is “the government of the people, by the
people, for the people”.
More generally, a democratic government is in
opposition with
- monarchies, in which power rests in the hands of one,
the king, emperor, tsar, etc.
- oligarchies, in which power is held by a limited group of
individuals.
* 16th
US President of the USA from 1860 to1865

20. The two pillars of democracy
Democracy rests on two composing elements :
- Institutions, a system, a form of government :
constitution, separation of powers (legislative, judiciary,
executive), elections, universal suffrage, human and
citizen rights, etc.
- Values and a state of mind *, ethical requirements : this
form of society respects the values of freedom, equality,
respect, or more generally, an ensemble of values, ideals
and political, social and cultural principals.
* Cf. Alexis de Tocqueville, who considers the cultural dimensions of
a political system more importantly than political system itself.

21. When and why we are called to vote in France ?
Political elections
• Municipal elections (municipality) → Municipal Council
• Cantonal elections → Deparmental Council
• Legislative council (district) → Ministers of Parliament
(deputies) at the Assemblée Nationale
• Regional elections (region) → Regional Council
• Presidential elections (national) → President of the Republic
• European elections (international) → MEP of the European
Parliament
• Grand electors → Senators ../..

22. When and why we are called to vote in France ?
Other elections
• Workplace / firm (Personnel representative, Work Council,
Board of direction)
• Election of labour law judges
• Election of Chamber representatives (Chambers of commerce
and industry, agriculture, trades)
• Elections in schools and universities (class representative,
university council)
• Election in associations, trade unions, political parties (general
assemblies, national council, national bureau)
etc.

23. The limits of the majoritarian rule :
real democracy is one of citizens
Democracy is the political system that best suits a society
based on freedom and justice. It also bets on the people’s
wisdom. But the people can become a crowd, and passion
can overtake a crowd more easily than reason will.
In reality, true democracy is not popular, but based on
citizens. The democratic ideal implies the most equal
distribution of goods, knowledge and power between
citizens.
Free elections are necessary to democracy, but they are not
sufficient. Majoritarian rule doesn’t necessarily respect the
Law. Adolf Hitler (photo), was democratically elected
Chancellor of the Reich in January 1933.

24. The purpose of democracy is to manage conflicts
When, in a society, individuals want to defend their
legitimate rights or when they override other’s rights,
conflicts are inevitably born. It is therefore important they do
not degenerate into violent confrontations.
The purpose of democracy is to manage conflicts and
control violence.
One of its most important tasks is to invent institutions and
procedures to regulate conflicts in a constructive way using
nonviolent methods.

25. Threats to democracy
Threats to democracy are first generated by ideologies
based on discrimination and exclusion : nationalism, racism,
xenophobia, religious fanaticism, economic liberalism
grounded only on the search for immediate profit.
They are all linked to violent ideologies, and claim violence is
necessary and legitimate as soon as it is used in their
service.
Promoting and defending democracy means first to fight
against these ideologies, which know no boarders.
Citizenship is only possible between human beings who,
beyond their differences, recognise each other as equals and
alike.

26. “Freedom, Equality, Fraternity” : the French Republic’s moto *
Freedom and equality can be organised, codified and
regulated into rights and duties.
Fraternity on the other hand, finds its roots in a more
spiritual dimension. It is the cornerstone of the
democratic city, without which freedom, justice and
equality might lose their meaning.
* Article 2 of the French Constitution, Vth Republic
(1958)

27. Laïcité (secularism)
Secularism is the principle according to which religion and
State are separated, thus guaranteeing State neutrality in
matter of religion.
By extension, secularism also in holds the idea that
institutions, whether public or private, are independent
from the clergy.
In France and most democratic modern countries, the
State, neutral, guarantees freedom of religion and
simultaneously ensures freedom of thought.
It does not place any opinion above one another (religion,
atheism, agnosticism, free-thought).

28. Citizenship
Citizenship means, for a person, a family or a group :
- being recognised
- recognising oneself
as member of a community (today the State) carrying a
common project and wanting to be actively involved in it.
Citizenship entails political and civil rights, as well as duties
defining the role of the citizen within the community and
towards institutions. Citizenship (legally, psychologically or
sociologically) must not be confused with legal notion
The European Union citizenship (or European Citizenship) is a legal
status which guarantees rights and freedoms. It was introduced by the
Treaty of Maastricht in 1992.

29. Citizenship entails rights and duties
Rights
• Freedoms : of expression, of movement, of
reunion, of demonstration, of association, of
the press, etc.
• To vote: be a voter and be elected
• Take legal action

30. Citizenship entails rights and duties
Duties
1. Towards to the community
- respect its laws
- pay taxes, contribute to the life of the community
- participate in collective defence, notion which
has evolved with the disappearance of military
service towards the idea of “devoting time to the
community”.

31. Citizenship entails rights and duties
Duties
2. Towards others
- respect the other’s freedom (“where the other’s
freedom starts mine stops”)
- assist
- testify
- judge (ex.: sit as jury in a criminal court)

32. The right and duty of civil disobedience
Citizenship is not grounded on collective discipline, but on
responsibility and hence, the personal autonomy of each one
of us.
History has taught us that democracy is most often
threatened by blind obedience than disobedience.
In the name of his or her conscience, each citizen can and
must oppose majoritarian law when this one generates
inequalities. Therefore exists the idea of civil dissidence, a
civicism of dissidence, which, in the name of a democratic
ideal, refuses to obey the law of majority.
Photos : Étienne de la Boétie, Henry-David Thoreau,
Léon Tolstoï, Mohandas Gandhi,
all theorists or practitioners of civil disobedience.

33. Politics, democracy, nonviolence
The fundamental requirement of political philosophy is the
aim to build a society freed from the influence of violence.
Justice and peace are realised when the diverse forms of
violence that exist between individuals and groups are
eliminated.
The political city is born when men and women, who
recognise each other as equal and alike, decide to live
together: talk, decide and act together to build a common
future.
The essence of politics is precisely this dialogue between
men, their common action.
Violence is the failure of politics.

34. Politics, democracy, nonviolence
Individuals who resort to incivility or violence to satisfy
their passions or attempt to see their interests prevail
over the ones of others, are no longer part of the public
space which makes the political community.
They must be kept off the streets by “peace officers”.
These peace officers must favour pacific methods and
turn to counter-violence only when strictly necessary.

35. Politics, democracy, nonviolence
In the hypothesis where State commanded counter-
violence lead to one or more deaths, it can be stated
that public authority’s resort to fatal violence is always
a tragedy and failure.
In order to fight off the culture of violence, the
consequences found in counter-violence must be dealt
with as mourning, even if it was only used exceptionally.
After such events, a public ritual led by public
representative (a prefect for instance) and during which
nonviolent rules would be reminded would be a useful
proceeding.
Photo above : the execution of criminal Jacques Mesrine in Nov. 1979 by
the Brigade de Recherche et d’Intervention (French Police force).

36. The common good
The common good is, in political philosophy, the sharing of the
resources and interests that unite a community. This sharing is
consubstantial to the existence of the community.
For Aristotle, the common good means the general interest, or a
virtuous life.
According to Thomas of Aquino, Man’s kindness starts from
his/her participation in the common good.
For the french philosoph Jacques Maritain, the common good is
“the good human life among the multitude”.
The common good contains the social conditions allowing a
group and each of its members to advance towards
improvement and accomplishment.
Photos : Aristotle, Thomas of Aquino, Jacques Maritain

37. The common good
The common good comprises three essential elements :
1) The respect of the fundamental and intangible rights of a
person
2) The development of a person and group. Authority, in the
name of the common good, arbitrates between the different
private interests, but this authority must be accessible to all,
in order for each one of us to lead a truly human life: food,
clothing, health, work, education and culture, information,
the right to have a family life, etc.
3) Peace is security in a just order, over a long period of
time.

38. The universal common good
The universal common good calls for an organisation of
the community of nations capable, while respecting
ecosystems, of providing for Man’s needs
- in his daily social life (environment, food, health,
education, housing, energy, transports, etc.)
- and to face exceptional circumstances (after natural
disasters, refugees and their families, etc.)

39. Commons
Commons are resources used and managed in common by
people and communities in order to avoid inappropriate or
excessive use, as well as their privatisation.
Commons can be :
- natural resources (earth, sea, water, forests, biodiversity,
halieutic resources, minerals, etc.)
- human inventions (art, architecture, software, etc.)
- “public goods”, such as public space, public education,
healthcare, the infrastructures that help our society function
(transports, energy, systems of distribution, etc.)

40. Local democracy, initiatives and efficiency :
The principles of subsidiarity and support
Principle of subsidiarity : public action, when it is necessary,
should be held by the smallest institution capable of solving a
given problem.
- Neither the State nor any other entity should substitute itself
to the initiative and responsibility of the intermediary
communities acting at local level.
- The State and society must help the members of a social
group to take their destiny in hand and advocate their
collective initiatives.
Principle of support : when a problem exceeds the
capacities of the local entity, the higher level has the
duty to support it, within the limits of the principle of
subsidiarity.

41. Local democracy, initiatives and efficiency :
The principles of subsidiarity and support
The principles of subsidiarity and support allow a
harmonisation of the decisions taken at all levels of the
social cell : State, Federation of States, municipalities, firms,
schools, families and communities of life, believers, etc.
For instance, in the European construction, the principle of
subsidiarity is a fundamental rule of the separation of powers
between the Union and its Member States. Outside its
exclusive competences, the Union only acts when it would be
more efficient than the States or regional level.

42. Indispensable knowledge
for the exercise of citizenship
The indispensable knowledge each one needs to be an
independent person, responsible, and a citizen, is :
- Knowledge
- Skills
- Good manners
- Social skills, knowing how to be with oneself and others.
On this topic, cf. slides “Personal transformation and social change”.
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