Description
This is a national project designed to mobilize citizens to support the process of improving a participatory democracy instrument: citizens’ initiative. It targets citizens, particularly users of online media and parliamentarians. A social campaign will be staged to encourage support for amendments to legislation on citizens’ initiative and to start a public debate on participatory democracy in Poland. Subsequently, a non-partisan dialogue will be proposed with Members of Parliament from all parliamentary caucuses. As a result, an amended bill on citizens’ initiative will be submitted to Parliament by virtue of a private members bill. The project will contribute to the promotion of citizens’ initiative and mobilize citizens around the proposed amendments. The project will be implemented in partnership with an Icelandic organization, Citizens Foundation, which will share its experience in developing participatory democracy.
Summary of project results
"In recent years, Poles have more and more often used the civil legislative initiative (OIU) as a democratic tool that enables citizens to initiate specific legislative changes in areas that are important to them. Experiences gathered by the Civic Affairs Institute (INSPRO) showed that proposing civic legislative drafts was hampered by many obstacles. They result both from the content of the relevant act of law, and from parliamentary practice. The project aimed at mobilising citizens to make participative democracy tools more efficient with special focus on the civil legislative initiative. It was addressed to active citizens, in particular to Internet media users and MPs. An important result of the project was to initiate public debate on direct democracy in Poland. One of its manifestations was the slogan ""Citizens decide"" used by the current prime minister, Beata Szydło, during election campaign. Also support for the campaign increased. The community ""Citizens decide"" gathers over 240 000 fans. The intended result of the project, i.e. presenting to the Parliament amendments to the OIU Act with the support of all political parties, was not achieved. The main obstacle was the stance taken by the then ruling coalition PO-PSL which did not accept the draft prepared by INSPRO. Under the project, a social campaign was initiated and led in the context of local elections of 2014. Since OIU is not implemented on the local level and local governments have no voice in drafting the policy, so our message was focused on mobilising Poles to make politicians accountable for their election promises. TV and radio spots were prepared. Broad participation of citizens (over 15 000 persons) showed that Poles want to decide and control politicians. INSPRO organised two seminars that gathered over 100 participants. Under advocacy activities, we met representatives of all parliamentary parties and representatives of the President of Poland. Cooperation with the Icelandic Citizens Foundation resulted in exchange of know-how in the field of using Internet to mobilise citizens for social initiatives."
Summary of bilateral results
Measure A The Foundation made contact with the Icelandic Partner, who has extensive experience in promotion and implementation of different tools of direct democracy in Iceland. Representatives of the Foundation held a study visit to Iceland, where they met with representatives of the Partner. They exchanged experiences in building participatory democracy and discussed the possibilities of using these experiences in Poland. As a result, the Foundation submitted an application in the first edition of the competition for thematic projects with the Icelandic Partner and received a grant for the project. Measure B The main result of the project was the establishment of a strategic council. Thanks to that both organisations agreed terms of further cooperation. Another result was the publication, which in large part was devoted to the Icelandic experience; it included: an article presenting civic actions for participatory democracy and a new constitution, which took place after 2008 in Iceland, an interview with a representative of a partner organisation and a translated citizens' proposal of the Constitution of Iceland. Materials are a solid set of know-how that Partner brought into the project.