Participation and representation-with-a-binding-character are part of a human right encompassing the right to voice and influence
-Participation has been called ‘the right of rights’, because it allows members of society to claim all their other rights. (Sam Foster Halabi)
1. As a rule, decisions ought to be adopted by a majority, right?. As a principle, this can already be found in Roman law: “Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbari debet”. (That which affects men (everybody) must be approved by everybody). The rule gives sovereignty, independence, power, control and authority to the people –in our case claim holders!
2. Fast track forward: In the current development paradigm, participation is being seen as a luxury rather than as a human right (HR) and thus as a legal obligation. Under such circumstances, participation becomes a meaningless buzzword with people being instrumentalized by coercion rather than involving them honestly.* (Lawence Whithead, UNRISD News 24, 2001) So it is all up to me/you/us to, once more, decide about how to handle this chronic rash attitude of decision-makers, i.e., adding a non-meaningful-last-minute-participation-input that makes claim holders rightfully feel co-opted and manipulated. (Thomas Schwarz)
*: Focalized, restricted and segmented participation with no confluence ends up being insufficient and, furthermore, falls prey to clientelism. This literally means we are living in a ‘(non)democratic participation crisis’ where the mass of claim holders is bullied by false promises and fear. (Is there a conscience of such a crisis…?). (Maria Angelica Illanes)
3. You will be interested to know that the World Bank model purports to have ‘the’ model of participation of ‘the poor’. Based on its unproven theory of ‘social capital’ (coined by the American political scientist Robert Putnam), the Bank uses this theory that has a starkly utilitarian tone in that ‘the poor’ are expected to participate with minimal state intervention, but without challenging the basic assumptions of this ‘kinder and gentler’ variant of neoliberalism. How democratic is that? Not very I am afraid. More than participatory democracy, this has more of a smell of ‘managed democracy’.** Just watch what happens when somewhere in the world ‘the poor’ propose solutions to some of the glaring problems of poverty; the pattern of repression that follows will be familiar to many of you. (Michael Givel)
**: Too often, the aim coming from the top is clear. What that aim wants to achieve is less clear. How to get to such a managed democracy stays in the dark or in theoretical suppositions.
Societies can be compared with a stream. The sectors of major participation flow through the center of the stream; towards the edges, participation diminishes gradually until we reach those sectors that do not participate at all in society (Fernando Monckeberg, written in 1974)
4. We often hear discouraging messages: “We are alone, we are only a few, nothing changes…”. These feelings are a cause of discouragement, depression and of a paralyzing insatisfaction that leads to a chronic destructive self-criticism (“it is our fault”). Keep in mind that, those who detent hegemonic power, just want claim holders to be in such a state. Therefore, having a sense of belonging to a bigger group is crucial to keep up hope, i.e., “belonging to the few that are actually the many!”. (Julio Monsalvo) Existing discontent and anger can then actually be mobilized creatively and used as a force to demand key structural bottle-necks be removed.
5. The misery many claim holders live-under is not a product of the moment, but the result of an accumulation of postponements dragged from generation to generation. When claim holders are born, or even before that, they have their possibilities already limited to the world of deprivation they live-in. After birth, the frequent thing is that the situation does not improve but, on the contrary, the environment becomes even more adverse. The expectations for the growing child are very dim. Later, when they go to school, their performance is poor and the chances for dropping out are high and then they live in an ever extending present (time for them is a simple repetition of the present moment and not a continuous flow towards progress in which each step prepares the next).*** The depression is difficult to overcome; the individuals are handicapped in terms of quality of the human factor that is part of underdevelopment. High income groups do not see the seriousness of this and tend to use those rendered marginal to their own benefit. If this situation is not solved, sooner or later, society as a whole becomes explosive. (F. Monckeberg)
***: Not being facetious, time does not make us sages or savants, but simply makes us old. (paraphrased from a proverb in Quebec)
Bottom line
-The marker of progress towards an equitable HR approach is when local and national groups no longer have to wait to be invited-in! (Barbara Klugman)
6. Communities are best at mobilizing labor, identifying local needs and priorities; knowing what will work in the local context, creating motivation and deciding on local production and infrastructure development needs. This is the precious asset lost when participation is applied mechanically and top-down. The identification of what is wrong must thus come from those who are experiencing the wrongs.**** — and before making any HR-based action a priority, the full consent of local female and male (and children) claim holders is key.*****
****: People working on the ‘evidence agenda’ –academics, think tank researchers, experts in official statistics– ought thus to do work that is informed by and complementary to that of organized social movements. (Ruth Levine) Beware: Marginal voices are excluded even by respectable thinkers in the mainstream.
*****: Social dissatisfaction is the motor of participatory research and social change is its goal. Participatory research is not just a question of procedure; its aim is to awaken the community in order to make changes possible using the resources that can be used to tackle these problems. It addresses the crises in the life of a social group, crises that have brought about the feeling of dissatisfaction vis-a-vis the existing problems and conflicts.
7. Given the risk of permanently losing the precious asset of genuine participation******, what is sorely needed is legally-secured truly democratic decision-making processes.
******: In genuine participation, all is negotiable (but only if there is a level playing field!)
8. In short, by excluding ordinary people in countries rendered poor from participation in deciding the fate of their HR only reinforces and amplifies existing inequalities.
9. Why teach an old dog new tricks that are doomed to fail him anyway for lack of proper assessment of the dog’s real needs and constraints? (Olga Mundale) You can force a donkey to water, but you cannot force him to drink…
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
Your comments are welcome at schuftan@gmail.com
All Readers are available at www.claudioschuftan.com
Postscript/Marginalia
-Rosa Luxemburg did not consider any field of investigation closed, but rather continued examining it from new angles with an always alert and critical mind. She considered this the first obligation to get any collective, participatory mass action going. For her, mass action was of maximum importance. When social tensions are high (as they are getting now) the conscience of the masses can reach critical points allowing quantum leaps beyond hope and into an irresistible will to act. The HR movement and particularly claim holders can learn from Rosa Luxemburg.
-Hope is the last thing one ought to lose. But Diderot rightfully said, “To introduce a ray of light in the nest of the owl is only good for blinding its inhabitants”. Danton came to the rescue and insisted on hope by saying: “After bread, education is the first necessity of the people”. (Can the ray of light be it?) Saint Just did thus not surprise me as he, long ago, said: “Only those who are in the battle can win it”. (Louis Casado) Yes, there is no reason goodness cannot triumph over evil –as long as the angels are as organized as the mafia. (Kurt Vonnegut)