MOOC - Participative Democracy

2016 - Realization of the MOOC Participatory Democracy: CNFPT-INSET with the participation of the Fondation Sciences Citoyennes; Collectif Pouvoir d’Agir; Reconstructing Public Action (RAP)

Participatory democracy refers to procedures, instruments and mechanisms to promote citizen participation in decision-making, management and control of public affairs. It also raises many questions about the relationship between citizens, elected officials and experts. What is the role of each actor? What are the subjects on which citizens should be solicited? In what form are citizens solicited? Who is at the origin of participatory approaches? How can we ensure that the process runs smoothly? What are the contributions of participatory democracy to the improvement of public action and life in society?

This online course has been designed to provide some answers to these questions and proposes to the trainees to place participatory democracy at the heart of the transformation of public action and the transformation of relations between citizens, elected officials and experts. The choice was made to give a voice to a diversity of actors: consultants, researchers, practitioners, associations, elected officials and citizens. This choice aims to shed light on different points of view on the nature of participatory democracy and on the mechanisms that implement them.

(The sessions are only available in French)

Session 1: Concepts and history of participatory democracy.

• Introduction: Concepts and history of democracy
• The challenge of participatory democracy in the governance of territories
• Historical Overview of Participatory Democracy
• Overview of experiences,features and issues
• Debates and tension points

Session 2: Changes in public action and public service in relation to citizen participation

• Territorializing public action and public services
• Taking into account the diversities
• The role of participation
• Implementing the panoply of forms of participation: between passive and active forms
• Participatory democracy in the UK - Interview with Julie Ward, UK Member of the European Parliament, in Brussels
• The scales of participatory democracy: from the territory to Europe
• Focus on participation through funding
• Participatory democracy in Romania

Session 3: Consolidating participatory governance of public action and public services

• Keys to a real consultation
• Co-production of Public Action and Public Utilities
• The complexity of the participatory process-
• The role of elected officials and technicians-
• Active participation is not a state of mind-

Session 4: Citizen involvement in urban public action: challenges and modalities of participation

• Terminology Issues: What are we talking about?
• Founding principles of participation
• The different forms of citizen involvement in urban public action
• Participation: Inputs, Issues and Conditions-
• Participation in Practice: Tools and Evolution of the Urban Project

Session 5: Process and Effects of Citizen Evaluation of Public Action

• Origins and Motivation of the Citizen Evaluation
• Diversity and Characteristics of Citizen Control Exercises
• Focus on Controlled Acting: The Local Public Institution
• Effects and Impacts of Control Processes on Institutions and Public Policy
• Relationship Building: Toward Co-Responsibility in Public Action ?

Session 6: Citizen Empowerment on Complex Issues: Technical Democracy

• Participatory research: Knowledge enriched by meeting knowledge
• Consensus-building and pre-decision procedures
• Virtuous Behavior at Citizen Conferences
• Focus on PICRI
• Citizens’ Convention Organization and Protocol

Session 7: Participatory democracy, a rather reassuring failure?!

• The Power to Act Collective: Report on the state of local and participative democracy
• Stakes of the Democratic Question
• Seven Good Reasons Why It’s Not Working!
• The Association for Intercommunal Citizen Prevention (APIC) Bagnolet - Montreuil
• The 3 Cities of Poitiers
• Believing in the ability of citizens-
• Starting with the topics that matter most to people
• Sharing power to make the decision and recognizing power to act
• Valuing and recognizing collectives and communities
• Shapes and rhythms
• Synthesis of the seven levers for participation and empowerment-

Session 8: Conclusion and Background

• Participatory Democracy, Not a Magic Formula or a Freeze Item (Video to upload)
• The fundamentals and prerequisites of participatory democracy
• Participatory democracy, a tool for dealing with contemporary issues

All of these sessions are available ici. This online training is complemented with resource sheets and case studies.

You can also listen to it in audio version on the CNFPT’s webradio, Fréquence T.