Democratization and Citizen Activism

Balkan is known as a ‘problem region’. However, problems motivate people into action, or at least that’s what we have come to believe. Last week we had a Civil Society Forum in Skopje, followed by a similar forum in Prizren. These forums started only two years ago, yet they have already become a well coordinated group with great discussions and firm conclusions. The task now is to follow up in our local regions and move from ‘theory to practice’. Furthermore, many have noticed that the topics discussed are no longer limited to the problems in the region but the whole of the EU. This post is my personal take on what was discussed not only during the formal parts of the forums, but also over meals and breaks.

Functioning democracy needs active, well informed citizens. While there are no objections to ‘representative democracy’ and the ‘election system’, there seems to be a need for a more frequent communication between the government and the citizens. In fact, we could go as far as to say that there is a great divide between governments and citizens. In the Balkans, this is because the representatives have inherited a culture of ‘untouchable, distant’, and in the Western Europe because of great dependence on statistical analysis which have led to policy failure, or the analysis does not represent the reality. Suggested model is a system of ‘bridges’, or activists who would work with the people to discover the problems and then articulate them in debates, seminars and round tables with the government officials. The main reason being that people are often unable to articulate their problems concisely, which means having patience and time, while on the other hand they often do not insist on solution since they don’t know how to solve a problem. This is particularly important in the age of ‘lazy’ solutions offered by some political parties which fail to explain how action A will lead to solution of problem Z. However, they often use it to raise the masses, disregarding the fact that action A might lead to more problems. We should also note that there are numerous cases where civil society has made great policy recommendations, which should be considered. Furthermore, observing a problem does not solve it, it only helps us understand it better. A problem should not be brushed aside until it is solved – this applies for the Balkans and the EU.

Barriers to activism are evident in the EU and the Balkans. While the reasons are numerous, including lack of trust, it is believed that the main reasons to inactivism in the Balkans is poverty and culture (democracy is new to all the Balkan countries), while in the EU it is lack of time and education. It seems that the EU has become complex without informing its citizens of the complexities. Citizens of Balkan countries still face ‘simple’ problems, therefore informing the masses is a much simpler task. General opinion is that the EU should formalise education on the ‘country structure’ from an early age, so that citizens understand the basic ‘ins and outs’, and then they cannot be lead to believe that action A will solve problem Z. This also leads to the problem of ‘well informed citizens’. It is no secret that we live in the age of information overload. Some have made it their business to tell lies. Balkan countries are painfully aware of how much chaos this can cause, since we had wars and to this day we are proving which information was true and which was false. And this task is vital to bring peace among the citizens of the region.

Welfare is something people of EU should be proud of. Many citizens of Balkan countries have expressed surprise that the welfare systems are being blamed for various problems. People in general will always want more, and will strive to depend on themselves; it is a question of pride. However, it seems that the governments are seeing businesses as ‘boss of the boss’ – if people employ the governments, and businesses employ the people, businesses become boss of the boss to the government. This is creating a pyramid structure, which is inherently hierarchical and inequitable. If governments could position themselves as the boss to the businesses, there would be a circle, which is inherently equitable, causing a more just division of power. This alone should bring more power to the people, economic freedom and a more just division of resources. This justice will prevent abuse of the welfare state which many citizens of EU are now practicing. Citizens of Balkan countries have often expressed that poverty is not as much of a problem as injustice. In fact, people of Bosnia have often claimed that the war was better even though they had nothing to eat. But it was a situation when no one had anything to eat. However, even citizens of other Balkan countries have claimed that life in previous system was better, even though they had less back then than they do now. It is all relative. Justice is very important to citizens and they measure it by looking at those around them.

One issue that is evident in the EU and we wish to avoid in the Balkan is the housing market. The issues of housing has been a hot topic for decades in numerous EU countries, with housing prices rocketing to the point that large percentage of income is spent on rent or mortgage. As a result, citizens of these EU countries are left with very little to enjoy. It seems that ‘free market’ should have been sacrificed in the case of the housing market. It seems leaving the housing market to the market forces was stupid due to the nature and importance of the ‘product’. We would like to see this problem avoided in the Balkan by introducing regulatory measures before it spirals out of control like it has done in the EU.

This is a time for new ideas. It is not a time to go back and settle for things that, from this perspective, were ‘better’. They were not better. They just seem better since they offered something different. Closing boarders and blaming immigrants who contribute to our society isn’t going to bring desired results. We all have to start with the question: Do we want things to get better without getting much worse? It is time to call a spade a spade and deal with issues not hide behind false sense of honour in hiding that there is an issue. This applies to the Civil Society Organisations as well. Personally, i.e. outside the conference, I believe the CSO sector needs standards. I’m working on developing a model for a CSO rating agency, and testing it in Bosnia. If it works, it might be a foundation for giving power to the people. Not one individual, but organising it so that power is with the people – we already have great ‘wealth’ in the numerous organisations of the CS, we just need to know how to ‘pick’ the right organisations. Of course, countries would continue to have governments, but those governments would have a much better idea what they’re supposed to be doing so that they can live up to the ‘representative of the people’ title. 

In the end I’d like to say that this is a very quick overview of the forums. I welcome questions and comments.

For official information about the forums please visit the organisers. This here is just my personal overview.