SCIENCES DE LA SOCIÉTÉ - N° 69 - octobre 2006
Participative democracy in Europe
Edited by Stefan BRATOSIN
with the collaboration of Jean-Thierry JULIA

Stefan BRATOSIN, Participative democracy in Europe  [Text in french]
Jean-Léon BEAUVOIS, Some questions prior to implementing participative democracy programmes
Maurice BLANC, Participative democracy, a transactional product
Janie PELABAY, Can participation in European democracy be taught ? Bases, importance and limits of European citizenship education
Laurence MONNOYER-SMITH, Deliberating as an invention of politics
Sandra BREUX, The territorial dimension of participative democracy
François FORET, What type of communication for a political Europe? The example of religion
Muriel RAMBOUR, The blind angles of European participative democracy. The role of civil society in drafting a constitutional treaty
Peter DAHLGREN, Tobias OLSSON, Internet and political involvement : young citizens and civic culture
Constantin SALAVASTRU, The language of local participative democracy. An approach of the verbal behavior in the power-citizens relationship in Iasi (Romania)

ARGUMENTS
Eric GEORGE, Participation in democracy at a time of globalisation
Nikos SMYRNAIOS, The emergence of an idealised net surfer figure : public sphere and the uses of the internet

NOTE DE RECHERCHE
Toni RAMONEDA, Making, living and putting Europe into words

NOTES DE LECTURE

 
Jean-Léon BEAUVOIS, Some questions prior to implementing participative democracy programmes

Abstract
In the context of the growing influence of European cities and regions, numerous projects of participative democracy are being promoted. Many associations and networks, more or less ad hoc, have a commitment to help and train their populations in becoming involved in local policy management. Bringing Europeans to participate in the definition and implementation of new policies directly concerning them is an idea which can but fill democrats with enthusiasm. However, as with all generous and consensual ideas, the idea of participative democracy contains virtual disillusionment, if not the risk of pitfalls and manipulation. It would therefore seem important to deal with some questions likely to influence the course of action and its means and aims.

Key-words : democracy, Europe, action, disillusion.

 
Maurice BLANC, Participative democracy, a transactional product

Abstract
This article is based on the results of research carried out on the participation of the inhabitants of « old Europe » (mainly France, Great-Britain and Germany). It outlines how citizens who are locally active have a collective influence on local and/or European authorities. A conceptualisation of participation as the transactional product of three legitimacies : universal suffrage, expertise and the activism of the concerned inhabitants, is presented. This procedure follows practical compromises which are always unstable and temporary. This conceptualisation of participation fits into the sociology of social transaction inspired by Simmel's theory of conflict.

Key-words: democracy, conflict, transaction, participation, representation

 
Janie PELABAY, Can participation in European democracy be taught ? Bases, importance and limits of European citizenship education

Abstract
The European Union (eu) has launched a series of educational programmes on « European citizenship » with the purpose of promoting active participation in European democracy. An analysis of the theoretical underpinnings of these programmes reveals that they are consistent with the (neo)republican view of democratic citizenship which emphasises the unity and stability of the political community. These programmes aim to strengthen allegiance to political institutions by employing a participatory pedagogy which focuses on the « good practices » which support the European « shared values ». However, the desire to « Europeanize » citizens through education could also lead to a greater temptation to inculcate a public view of the « model European life » or of the « model European citizen ». This « perfectionist » version of citizenship education should be rejected on a normative basis, due to its inconsistency with the pluralistic or even « post-unanimist » nature of the eu.

Key-words : civic education, European identity, unity, diversity, perfectionism.

 
Laurence MONNOYER-SMITH, Deliberating as an invention of politics

Abstract
The multiplication of experiments in deliberation and participative practices, particularly in Europe is a revelation of the appearance of a new type of relationship between the citizen, political deciders and public administration. Since the appearance of the works of J. Rawls, J. Cohen and J. Habermas, philosophy and political science have been contributing to the elaboration of a political theory of deliberation which considers the relation of legitimacy between citizens and politics from the angle of procedure and discourse. These theoretical angles of approach come up against an « ideal » conception of deliberation, inexistent in reality, which inclines the researcher not to recognise authentic participative practice as creative of normative structures from which a restructuring of value scales and new conceptual approaches of citizenship and representation emerge. This article aims to show that communication activity fits in reality into a material and cultural framework which does not take the co-evolution of material supports and political culture into account. Thus, by making Information and Communication Technology their own, citizens create new political practices and participate in the emergence of new political symbols and concepts.

Key words : constraint, procedure, citizenship, representation, practice.

 
Sandra BREUX, The territorial dimension of participative democracy

Abstract
The aim of this study is to reveal territorial dimensions of the principle of participative democracy. If the concept of participative democracy is complementary to the concept of representative democracy, its principle lies on appreciably different territorial bases. The principle of representative democracy is based on a downward relation with the territory while the principle of participative democracy is founded on an ascending relation with the territory. It is fundamental to take this distinction into account in elaborating these two forms of democracy so that the institutionalization of participative democracy does not result in one territorialization and instrumentalization of a principle now essential with the correct functioning of « living together ». On a wider scale, territorial dimensions of participative democracy call for a redefinition of the concepts of citizenship and community, in particular in a European context where various political scales intersect.

Key-words : territoriality, institutionalization, territorialization.

 
François FORET, What type of communication for a political Europe? The example of religion

Abstract
European participative democracy postulates neutral, rational and egalitarian social communication. The religious dimension questions each of these parameters because of its normativity. The place of religion in the deliberative settings of the eu, in forms of political participation and in the media highlights which dynamics are at work.

Key-words : public sphere, European Union, religion, identity, legitimating.

 
Muriel RAMBOUR, The blind angles of European participative democracy. The role of civil society in drafting a constitutional treaty

Abstract
European institutions now place at the core of their reflections the idea of a participative democracy that would be exerted on an eu scale and would guarantee a kind of interaction between populations and the other figures of the European scene. Public discussions on the future of Europe, launched in 2000, thus took on various formats (conferences, local and web forums) in order to get citizens interested and to simultaneously give more legitimacy to the integration process. The Convention in charge of drafting the European constitutional treaty also promised to take the suggestions of the civil society into account. After all, il the procedure followed by this assembly the exemplification of a real participative process? The profile of participants in the debate may reveal that auditions mainly involved the organised civil society rather than ordinary citizens. This prompts questions about the representative dimension of the selected protagonists and the place left to all those who are not part of associative networks. The Convention on the future of Europe therefore represents a suitable ground for evaluating the validity of the participative principle and for understanding why citizens have such difficulty making the European constitutional project their own.

Key-words : European constitution, civil society, Convention on the future of Europe, participative democracy, legitimacy of European construction.

 
Peter DAHLGREN, Tobias OLSSON, Internet and political involvement : young citizens and civic culture

Abstract
The political disengagement of young people is often mentioned among the trials which western liberal democracies are presently facing as is the role of Internet and more recent forms of interactive communication technology in the play of democracy. It is suggested in this article that Internet enables political activism and that cultural frameworks and civic identity, acting as requalifying prisms, contribute to the restructuring of political commitment via Internet. The concept of civic culture is thereby central to a theory of the political use of Internet. More importantly, it is here suggested that by using Internet as a tool for political activism, these young citizens participate in the evolution of civic culture.

Key-words : young people, political involvement, internet, civic culture.

 
Constantin SALAVASTRU, The language of local participative democracy. An approach of the verbal behavior in the power-citizens relationship in Iasi (Romania)

Abstract
The article tries to put in evidence tools rhetorics with which build themselves and go out the conflicts of opinion between the local authorities and the citizens. Thus, by questioning the practice of the participative democracy in Iasi (Romania), the author shows how and up to what point it is possible to profit from the force of the arguments, of the appropriateness of the techniques of argumentation, the capacity of persuasion of a quite selected topic, capacity of seduction of an expressive language, but also how the various actors can be surprised and fall into the trap from sophisms. From where the conclusive assumption of a discursive practice of the participative democracy in direct relationship with the knowledge of the virtues and the limits of the language.

Keywords : participative democracy, conflict of opinion, argumentation techniques,
persuasion, local power.

 
Eric GEORGE, Participation in democracy at a time of globalisation

Abstract
The 20th century was witness to a questioning of the welfare state and the collapse of centrally planned economies despite their being the main tool for regulating relations between social groups. Criticism of the welfare state was principally aimed at the share-out of profits between capital and work. The characteristic of this new period which began at the start of the seventies was the development of transnational and multinational companies. As a consequence the political and economic spheres were bound to coincide

Key-words: global civil society, democracy, state, power, world governance.

 
Nikos SMYRNAIOS, The emergence of an idealised net surfer figure : public sphere and the uses of the internet

Abstract
The purpose of this article is to analyse in how does a complex medium such as the internet integrates the public sphere. The utopian approaches that accompanied the emergence of the net have forged an idealised conception of the cyber-citizens. In this way potential uses of the internet have replaced effective ones. Yet even if the effective uses are based on the technical features of the medium, the process of their stabilisation is socially determined by a cluster of changements which caracterise contemporary public sphere. These changements are the horizontal enlargement of the public sphere, its fragmentation, as well as the enforcement of public relations and technical intermediation.

Key-words : public sphere, internet, uses.

 
Toni RAMONEDA, Making, living and putting Europe into words

Abstract
This paper presents the results of a semiodiscursif analysis of a corpus of press articles and political posters, in France and in Spain, carried out as part of doctoral research aimed at defining the outlines of a European public space. The forms and representations contained in this discourse are considered as elements which give meaning to public actions. It is when public action has meaning that a sphere becomes political.

Key-words : public sphere, communication, discourse.