1. A Global “Marshall Plan” for Deliberative Democracy
The DDCA Cohort’s discussions on the need for a Marshall Plan for Deliberative Democracy began in March 2022. This led to the creation of a Cohort working group which met in partnership with the Democracy R&D group for Central and Eastern Europe. Our CEE groups numbers more than 30 people representing academic and civil society actors, all working directly in the field of deliberative democracy and democratic innovations. The group is actively seeking new members working in the field, having inclusiveness as one of top priorities. Our objective was not to prescribe but to listen to views of a wide range of voices from nations in the region.
The outcome of listening first has been the creation of the Action Plan for the ‘Marshall Plan for Democracy’ designed to empower countries with new or fragile democratic institutions by supporting deliberative projects. Naming it Marshall Plan reminds us of the bold action of USA government after WWII which brought recovery to Europe. It was an economic investment, but without it, it is difficult to imagine that European liberal democracy could have thrived. Now, we need similar bold action from USA and other Summit4Democracy members that will help rebuilding democracies using available innovations and prevent this region slipping into authoritarianism.
We decided to trial this action first with Central and Eastern Europe, given the emergency and the scope of threats to endangered democracies there. CEE region (including Balkans) represents the core of European declining democracies, and we see it as crucial to reverse this trend for global sustainability of democratic development. Interest in being included in any next phase has been expressed from Latin America and Africa. The idea needs to be tailor made to each region specifically and our Working Group on a What Works Centre is working with us on this. This is why the title and approach are adjusted to CEE region. For its ownership, it is crucial to have local stakeholders on board and to work with them to produce a trusted action plan.
Empowering fruitful partnership working on outcomes with non-Summit organisations is something the Summit team may wish to encourage even more widely across the Cohort structure and recommend as a proposal for endorsement by the next Summit .
We strongly welcome the redirecting of existing funding for democracy as was outlined in the 2022 Warsaw speeches. The Action Plan shows we can bring a clarity and coherence to funding by listening to the needs of potential recipients rather than the current diffuse model. The Working group is already discussing several potential bids with funders. As a relatively new Cohort it is immediately evident that the questions around using existing funding need to be openly acknowledged and specifically addressed by the structures of the Summit.
Following the need to secure resources for the action, we have developed an ambitious proposal for Horizons Europe program of the European Union "New Deliberative Social Contract for Central and Eastern Europe – DELIB.DEAL". The central theme of this project is how to strengthen the building blocks of the New Deliberative Social Contract in fragile states of CEE by providing guidance on how to achieve a deliberative change in the institutional settings via deeper citizen participation. The project involves academic and civil society organizations ranging from Estonia via Poland and Hungary to Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia. Also, having on board a Ukrainian organization was particularly important for us. If approved, DELIB.DEAL will enable 16 local and 4 national citizens assemblies thematizing the issues of the democratic design of the state and how to improve it to have better democracies in CEE. It will also provide training for 256 civil servants and civil society representatives to implement deliberative tools for increasing citizens' participation. Besides bidding, the CEE group has invested considerable efforts into locating other potential supporters in the region, through discussing with representatives of the German Marshal Fund and the National Endowment for Democracy.
The Action Plan also outlines how support for Deliberative Democracy in Ukraine in rebuilding more strongly than ever, can help it develop its path toward European integration possibly including EU membership. Rebuilding will require a lot of public decisions to be taken on all levels of government. Ukrainian citizens are risking and losing their lives fighting for their country. Deliberation can help win the peace by building a sustainable democratic culture, providing the trustworthy, legitimate and impartial means by which citizens can have a sustainable say in how their country should look once it is free of the direct threat from autocracy. The Summit can send its own signal to Ukraine by the way it helps take forward a practical assistance on deliberative democracy.
The DDCA Cohort’s Marshall Plan for Deliberative Democracy working group has agreed four pillars to implement the Plan in Central and Eastern Europe:
• Initiating a series of nationwide citizen assemblies about critical national topics. Listening to Working group members informed us that showcasing one national citizen assembly per CEE country simultaneously and focusing it on the key issues would be highly conducive for taking political action forward and raising chances for successful outcomes on better democracy for citizens. Some issues that could currently be meaningfully tackled by deliberative democracy in this region are environmental pollution, energy transition, gender equality, abortion, urban planning, etc.
• Creating a series of capacity-building workshops for parliaments in Central and Eastern Europe led by international and regional experts and including Parliamentarians to discuss the applicability of deliberative processes in the region – highlighting their use in sensitive contexts, focusing on how to ensure resilience, and overcome any potential risks posed to these processes stemming from the presence of autocratic neighbours.
• Setting up the deliberation assistance program for Ukraine to meaningfully involve citizens in making decisions central to rebuilding their country, different regions, and cities. This pillar would include technical, financial, and implementation support to organize deliberative processes in regions/on different levels of governance of Ukraine to collectively identify the most urgent and divisive issues and agree on how to address them.
• Establishing a CEE Democracy Action Coalition to promote democratic innovation projects at regional, national, and local levels. The coalition would need to be funded sustainably perhaps main external funders being matched by the national contributions of member states. The Coalition would work closely with the Cohort, the Summit and What Works Centre to exploit its assistance with process design and implementation. The presidency/coordination of the Coalition would circulate among member states.
We prioritize citizens assemblies, as we see them as the excellent tool for bringing in the idea of deliberation and innovative citizens participation that cannot be equated with already tried and failed approaches (public hearings, town meetings, participatory budgeting etc). We need first to have political trust increased, before introducing different participatory tools that should have their place.
The Marshall Plan for Deliberative Democracy is not rhetorical, it is full of practical proposals. It’s specific endorsement by the Summit team and Summit itself would give it further momentum and enable timetabled follow through on funding and activity which could then be reported to the 2024 Summit.
Marshall Plan for democracy Working Group
This is being led for the Cohort by Gazela Pudar Draško, Director, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade[Serbia] Gazela Pudar gazela.pudar@instifdt.bg.ac.rs and Ieva Cesnulaityte[Head of Research, DemocracyNext, Lithuania] ievacesnulaityte@gmail.com
Members of the Group include Éva Bordos, Teele Pehk, Tamara Ehs, Graham Allen, Iain Walker, Yaroslav Pylynskyi, David Schecter, Lisa Basishvili, Damir Kapidzic, Daniel Oross, Vujo Ilic, Paulina Pospieszna, Eva Mackeviča, Liubov Krutenko, Marina Tsay, Sanja Bojanic, Irena Fiket, Marcin Gerwin, Ana Matan, Yves Dejaeghere, Bent Noerby Bonde, Roger Berkowitz.