participation in action - emre koyuncu
DESCRIPTION
Constitution Platform Turkey Speaks:Citizen Assemblies for a New Constution by Emre KoyuncuTRANSCRIPT
tepavParticipation in ActionConstitution Platform Turkey Speaks:
Citizen Assemblies for a New Constitution
tepavTEPAV: A think-do tank in Turkey
policy research and advocacy
practical projects
The think & do tank
Economics
Law
Governance
Foreign Policy
tepavTEPAV Good Governance Agenda
• Developing and Implementing Tools for Participatory Local Strategic Governance Citizen scorecards, poverty mapping, budget monitoring
• Public oversight on the central government budget• Anti-corruption
Tracking household perception on public administration, public services and corruption
• Governance in local and regional development Participatory city and regional strategies
• Constitution studies Secretariat for the Constitution Platform
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• The constitution, a social contract but how?• CP was established in 2007
An initiative of the Turkey side of the Turkey-EU Joint Consultative Committee (host + facilitator)
• Objective: To create a forum for constitutional dialogue that should inform the new constitution
• Motto: The constitution as a symbol of unity is dependent on how the constitution is made
• A national search conference brought together 250 participants from 80 CSOs Participation for a constitutional dialogue is possible Constitutional is good for overcoming barriers built around
polarized topics
Constitution Platform (2007)
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• Organizing Citizen Assemblies under TEPAV’s secretariat
• First deliberative democracy experiment• Taking the constitutional debate one step further:
From constitutional principles to concrete constitutional expectations
• Demonstrating how a culture of consensual dialogue can deal with contentious issues
• Voluntary participation in constitution making• Heterogeneous groups showing the capability to
discuss, if not totally resolve, polarizing issues
Constitution Platform (2012)Turkey Speaks
tepavParticipation is worth
when you have an address
Constitutional Conciliation Commission of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) Equal representation of all parties Unanimity sought in decision making Speaker of Parliament and commission
members from each political party attended every single Citizen Assembly.
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Participation makes difference when it is demand driven
tepavDemand for a new constitution on
the rise after the referendumDo you think that Turkey needs a new constitution?
Kasım 2008 Şubat 20110%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
41%
69%
59%
31%
YOK
VAR
November 2008 February 2011
NO
YES
TEPAV Public Survey
tepavDemand for direct participation
in constitution making
2008 20100%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
40%
58%
47%
28%
13% 14%
Halkın vereceği katkı yok
Halk referandumda onaylasın
Halk fikirleriyle katılsınHalkın fikirlerini ifade edebilecekleri katılım mekanizmaları oluşturulmalıdır.
TEPAV Public Survey
How do you think the people should participate in constitution making?
Halkın referandumda oy kullanması yeterlidir
People don’t have any contribution to make
Voting in a referendum would suffice
Participatory mechanisms enabling people’s opinions to be heard must be designed
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15%
23%63%
İktidar yapmalı
Mecliste uzlaşma ile yapılmalı
Toplumsal uzlaşma ile yapımalı
83%
9%8%
Katılıyorum
Ne katılıyorum / ne katılmıyorum
Katılmıyorum
Popular demand for consensual constitution making
Who should make the constitution and how? (2010)
Consensus must be sought during the constitution making
process (2010)
TEPAV Public Survey
Government in power
In the Parliament, consensually
Through societal consensus
Agree
No idea
Disagree
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TurkeySpeaks
buthow?
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2 ways of asking the people to become
“Constitution Volunteers”
Reaching out to the people
Mobile phones; effective and legitimate• Turkish people’s use of mobile phones above the European average • 62 million cell phone subscriptions• A monthly average of 90 min. talk per person
2/3 of participants• Citizens who answered the randomly sent messages through cell phones
1/3 of participants• Local CSO representatives invited by going through every available list
1 2
Size of available halls determined the number of participants
3
tepavEnsuring diverse tables
• A special software designed by TEPAV to make sure that
each table has at least 6 participants each table has at least 2 woman participants each table has at least 2 local CSO representatives plus
2 citizens randomly invited through cell phones
no table has participants with the same surname no table has participants from the same local CSO
tepavOur method (1)Turkey Speaks, but how?
First deliberative democracy experience in the history of Turkey
~ 50 QUESTIONS~ 10 HOURS OF DEBATE
DELIBERATION POLLING
Instant documentation of discussions
Instant display of the results of decisions
PARLIAMENT’S CONSTITUTIONAL CONCILIATION COMMISSION
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• ~ 50 questions designed using a concise and politically enabling language A universal, unimposing, non-polarizing
vocabularyAvoiding the jargon that triggers ossified positions
Questions reviewed in meetings with stakeholdersA comprehensive list of constitutional issues that matter
most for not only institutional design, but also citizens’ everyday lives
Our method (2)Turkey Speaks, but how?
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50 questions around 10 topics
1. Freedom of expression and political association
2. Cohabitation of divergent groups within the society
3. Public services (Equal access and impartiality)
4. Local governance
5. Governmental systems
6. Judicial independence and the rule of lawtu
7. State and Religion
8. Elections and political parties
9. Checks and balances for the political power
10.Natural and cultural values
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QUESTION
CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE
EQUAL ACCESS TO PUBLIC SERVICES
The government has a duty to ensure that citizens are capable of using their basic right to equal and effective access to public services.
Should there be additional regulations in the new constitution that take note of citizens’ differences in order to ensure that all citizens have equal and effective access to public services?
An Example of a Question
tepavPerceptions of “equal access to public services”
• How are “differences” perceived? Disabilities, sexual orientations, religious sects, ethnic
identities
• Opinions regarding the “additional regulations that take note of citizens’ differences”: Equal access to religious services (Ankara) Lifting the ban on headscarves (Konya) Affirmative action for the Roma people (Edirne) Provision of services in different languages (Diyarbakır) Enabling the participation of disabled persons in social life
(İzmir) Yes to “equal access”, no to “additional regulations” (Ankara)
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• Random invitation through cell phones helped us reach heterogenous groups
• Carefully designed set of questions encouraged participants to formulate their own demands
What CP achieved (1) Our method worked smoothly
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• Citizen Assemblies showed that every social issue in Turkey could be dealt with from
the perspective of deliberative democracy
Mature and reasonable participants
Fruitful and civilized discussions
What CP achieved (2) The possibility of a new approach
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• Targeted events in response to low women and youth participation:
~400 women participants /
8 March Ankara Assembly
~350 young participants /
25 March Samsun Assembly
What CP achieved (3) Empowering women and youth
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• More efforts to encourage women’s participation
Child care centers Quotas for woman
representatives of CSOs
Call Center’s prioritized calls A woman’s voice message
randomly invited woman citizens
What CP achieved (4) Trying hard to overcome gender inequality
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• A highly influential “constitutional awareness” campaign was successfully carried out.
What CP achieved (5) Engaging the people
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Citizens’ opinions on constitutional issues compiled in 12 different provinces over a period of 5 months
• 7000 participants, 1,000 discussion tables where groups of 6 to 10 deliberated
• ~ 15,000 pages of citizens’ opinions compiled
What CP achieved (6) 13 Citizen Assemblies
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Which principle should be upheld as a priority in the making of the
new constitution?
An example that demonstrates how sophisticated the data set is
tepavWhich principle should be upheld as a priority in the making of the new constitution?
AVERAGE OF 13 ASSEMBLIES
19
14
36
58
ÖZGÜRLÜK EŞİTLİK REFAH İSTİKRAR ADALETLIBERTY EQUALITY WELFARE STABILITY JUSTICE
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DİYARBAKIR
SAM
SUN
EDİRNEİZM
İR
İSTANBUL
ANTALYA
KONYA
BURSA
ANKARA
GAZİANTEP
ANKARA/8 M
ART
ERZURUM
TRABZON
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
40
20 2618 22 23 18 17 15 16 15 11 13
15
1716
18 15 1411 12 13 14 14
10 11
3
6 23 4 2
6 4 6 4 23 1
2
10 3 6 4 57 8 6 5 5
7 6
4047 54 54 55 55 58 59 60 60 64 68 69
AdaletİstikrarRefahEşitlikÖzgürlük
Which principle should be upheld as a priority in the making of the new constitution?
PROVINCES
Justice
Liberty
Stability
Welfare
Equality
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64
40
79
10
24
55
80
13
2 47
52
57
59
17
16
48
62
68
70
75
8 35
43
45
49
50
73
33
34
36
4 53
71
11
14
15
22
37
39
42
44
46
58
69
72
9 12
18
20
27
28
3 5 54
56
61
63
66
7 74
78
1 26
38
6 60
65
76
77
21
23
25
29
31
41
ÖZGÜRLÜK
9 3 4 2 0 1 4 1 5 1 2 3 1 0 4 0 1 1 2 1 4 0 1 2 0 2 0 3 0 0 1 1 3 0 1 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
EŞİTLİK
0 3 2 0 6 1 1 1 2 0 0 3 1 3 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 4 0 0 1 0 0 1 3 1 3 0 1 0 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 3 0 2 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
REFAH
0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
İSTİKRAR
0 3 0 3 0 3 0 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ADALET
0 0 0 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 9 9
5%
15%
25%
35%
45%
55%
65%
75%
85%
95%
Which principle should be upheld … ?TRABZON – TABLE BY TABLE
tepavTable 40 in Trabzon:Options other than justice given more priority
Highly diverse reasons, justifications and arguments
3
3
3
TABLE 40
ÖZGÜRLÜK
EŞİTLİK
İSTİKRAR
•“Everything depends on
money…”
•“Without stability, we can’t be a
nation…”
•“Without liberty, no stability…”
•“Equality means justice…”
LIBERTY
EQUALITY
STABILITY
tepavTable 21 in Trabzon:Consensus on justice
9
TABLE 21
Adalet
• “Justice guarantees liberty, too…”
• “I want welfare…”
• “Without justice, there can be neither welfare nor equality…”
NOTE:Dialogue implies that the participant arguing for “welfare” was probably convinced by arguments in favour of “justice”
JUSTICE
tepavHow to analyze such sophisticated data?
• Constitutional demands and expectations could be approached at different levels of analysis.
• Every constitutional demand is expressed with very different motivations, for very different reasons.
• Majority or minority… Every opinion matters
tepavA general evaluation
• Citizen Assemblies were a success We utilized deliberative democracy as an
attempt to transform the majoritarianism of representative democracy into a pluralist experience
Citizen Assemblies did not produce superficial poll results, but captured the substantial and sophisticated thought processes of citizens
• Beyond simple “Yes/No” questions The “No”s that informed a “Yes” and vice versa
tepavThere were intense debates
tepav“Mark my words, son…”
tepav“That’s not the case, sir…”
tepavSome lost their temper, but none lost control
tepavA discussion coordinator under pressure
tepavAfter 10 hours of debate
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Speaker of Parliament Cemil Çiçek receiving CP reports
tepavConclusion• CP experience means debating contentious topics
within a framework based on common sense.• Close cooperation with the Conciliation
Commission By attending the Citizen Assemblies, commission
members not only motivated participants, but got motivated themselves.
• Before the Citizen Assemblies, constitution making was a “very difficult” process. After…it is just “difficult”…
tepavWords from participants
• I do not want be considered as an electorate but a citizen.
• This platform made me feel that I am a citizen.
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