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National Democratic Institute
"Civic Education Strategies for Political Parties and Civic Groups"
Presentation by Matt Dippell
Deputy Director for Latin America
and the Caribbean
Organization of American States
Special Session of the Permanent Council on
"Promotion of Democratic Culture through Education"
Washington, D.C.
April 12, 2004
"Civic Education Strategies for Political Parties and Civic Groups"
Presentation by Matt Dippell
Deputy Director for Latin America
and the Caribbean
Organization of American States
Special Session of the Permanent Council on
"Promotion of Democratic Culture through Education"
Washington, D.C.
April 12, 2004
I Introduction
On behalf of the National Democratic Institute, I would like to thank the Organization of American States for the opportunity to share ideas about "informal" civic education with political parties and civic groups. As you may know, NDI is a non-profit, nongovernmental organization headed by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that has been working to promote democracy around the world since 1984.
NDI activities are premised on the idea that educating people about democratic values and institutions is only a first step—a means to an end. The real objective is to help citizens engage in political life whether from a partisan or non-partisan approach. Some may wish to join a party. Other people may choose to serve as a volunteer observer for an independent election monitoring group. Some citizens may seek to organize members of the community to repair roads or pipe in clean water.
Our goal is to get people to participate through whatever avenues they choose by helping them to create opportunities to put democratic theories into practice. To make this possible, we try to provide the knowledge, practical skills and self-confidence they need to improve life in their communities and their countries.
II Political Parties and Civic Education
Turning to case studies, I would like to mention the work that NDI has undertaken with political parties in Latin America and the Caribbean. Since 1995, NDI has been working to help political parties respond to what Latin American analysts have called a hemisphere-wide crisis of representation. Public opinion surveys indicate that citizens in many countries perceive parties as unresponsive and unrepresentative.
Because of these perceptions, it is critical to help parties to instill democratic values and adopt democratic practices. Parties are a central thread running through all democratic institutions. Parties form legislatures, staff the executive branch, and affect the judiciary through a variety of means such as approving judges. Because of this central role, the organizational culture of parties is reflected not only in their own behavior but also in all democratic institutions.
To begin to work in partnership with parties to strengthen democratic values, NDI looked at the common characteristics of successful parties around the world. Based on experience with hundreds of parties, a best practices "triangle" emerged—despite differences in party history, longevity, geography and language.
The three points of this triangle are: internal democracy in selecting candidates, leaders and a policy platform; ongoing outreach and recruitment of all sectors of society including traditionally underrepresented populations like women, youth and minority groups; and transparency and openness in party activities and financing.
With this in mind, two main approaches to promoting democratic values have been undertaken by NDI. The first is called the Political Leadership Program, which is designed to help emerging political leaders reform and renew their parties with the support of senior party officials. The program brings together young leaders from the spectrum of democratic political parties from across the region—parties ranging from social democrats to conservatives. To date, some 35 parties from ten countries have taken part.
The young leaders are immersed in an intensive academy that focuses on the aforementioned best practices triangle and skills-building activities. However, the most important aspect of the program is that each person has to design and implement a party-strengthening project with the support of a high-level party mentor. After the participants return to their countries, NDI provides advice and support by periodically bringing in political practitioners who can offer comparative information on how to implement the best practices.
These projects have included: increasing indigenous participation in Guatemala; reforming party statutes and internal democracy in Colombia and Venezuela; promoting youth and women participation in Mexico and building communication and outreach capacity of local party branches in Bolivia, Colombia and Paraguay.
In terms of civic education, I would highlight a few lessons learned by trial and error in developing the Political Leadership Program over the last decade:
- Use a Practical and Interactive Curriculum. We ask participants to apply the information and skills they learn to issues related to their party. This could include reviewing the internal party by-laws governing the selection of candidates or the handling ethics issues. Our goal is to help the young leaders apply democratic principles to their day-to-day work within the party. To the extent possible, we try to avoid long lectures and instead draw out information from the participants themselves.
- Present Democratic Principles In A Way That Resonates With Party Activists. We try to make the material relevant by showing that democratic values are not abstract concepts good for their own sake, but tools that can help their party to excel. If parties adopt the best practices triangle then they are likely to attract support from voters, win elections and govern more effectively.
After discussing the characteristics of successful parties, NDI works with these internal schools to develop interactive training modules on outreach, transparency, and internal democracy. The modules are modified to suit the party's needs.
As a next step, the heads of the party school design a plan for sharing the information at all levels of the party using a "train-the-trainers" methodology. This is a long-practiced organizing method where master trainers prepare a second level of trainers who in turn prepare others down the organizational ladder. This creates a multiplier effect that disseminates information to all levels of the party—from the party president to the activist living in a remote town.
Again, NDI's goal is to help parties pass on information and build skills—but most importantly distill democratic values into actionable steps that each party member can take, such as going door-to-door in their neighborhoods to reach new voters and better understand their concerns.
In this regard, I would also commend the OAS for their efforts to help political parties in the hemisphere. The Unit for the Promotion of Democracy has played an important role through its regional training courses for young leaders as well as series of leadership summits and studies organized by the Inter-American Forum on Political Parties.
III Civic Forum
A second program that I would like to discuss is the Civic Forum—which has become the cornerstone of NDI's approach to civic education. Ironically, the program was developed by accident.
Several years ago, NDI was conducting focus groups in the West Bank and Gaza. The idea was to get a sense of the type of democracy programs that citizens there thought would be useful. As you know, focus groups involve getting together small groups of carefully selected citizens representing a cross-section of society. These individuals discuss issues and provide researchers insights into the perceptions of the society as a whole.
In this instance, the focus group participants provided a range of ideas. However, one comment that came up repeatedly was how much the participants liked the focus groups process itself. People said that they were rarely asked to voice their opinions especially with a diverse group of fellow citizens in a safe and tolerant environment.
From that spark, the Civic Forum evolved into a grassroots initiative to help citizens organize themselves and participate in political life. NDI has found the Civic Forum approach works successfully in some of the most polarized political environments in the world including Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, East Timor, Haiti, Kosovo, Liberia, West Bank/Gaza and Sierra Leone. Some 1,400 students and their teachers in Haiti are also taking part in a related pilot program for high schools called Democracy for All.
The Civic Forum program itself is divided into two phases. In the first phase, citizens are educated about democratic principles and institutions. Local field coordinators begin by reaching out to grassroots organizations and community leaders. This may include religious groups, youth clubs, pensioners' associations, women's groups, demobilized soldiers, among others. From these organizations, discussion groups of 10 to 15 citizens are formed.
The groups discuss democratic theory mixed with current issues such as elections or constitutional reform. In Haiti, for example, topics have included the rights and responsibilities of a citizen in a democracy; the constitution, including the role of the executive branch, legislature, and judiciary; political parties; elections; the role of civil society in a democracy and decentralization. It is important to note that this is a long-term effort and includes a year of regular gatherings. Using this knowledge, coupled with assistance on organizing strategies, groups move toward collective action to address problems in their communities.
To make this more concrete, let me provide some examples from the Civic Forum program in Haiti. Since its inception in 1997, the Civic Forum has involved more than 22,000 participants and hundreds of grassroots groups in six of the country's nine departments. Some 60 "initiative committees"—civic group coalitions organized to solve community problems—have resulted and proceeded to tackle a range of problems. It is important to note that NDI has not funded these initiatives. Civic Forum members raised the funds from the community. Local government officials have also provided modest financial or in-kind assistance.
Some results include changes in attitude and behavior. As a Civic Forum participant and President of the Association of the Peasant Groups of Palmist Avin in Leogane said:
"For years we used to vote under some very funny conditions. The big shots would come with a truck and load us all up to go register. However, once we registered, the candidate would keep our voting cards. Then on election day they would come back with the truck, take us all to vote and give us a little treat. Now we don't do that any more�it is our right to vote, and if we don't choose who we vote for, someone else will choose for us."There have also been many instances where civic forum participants have stopped illegal arrests based on their new-found knowledge of constitutional rights.
In addition, there are also dozens of examples of community improvements including: grain storage centers and mills; literacy centers; school reconstruction; animal husbandry training; soil conservation; electrification, clean water; road improvements; micro-credit; and subsidized meals for children.
Civic Forum also builds confidence in elections as evidenced by a high number of activities initiated by Haitian groups including voter registration and education drives; training of candidates; debates; and election observation efforts. Participants have also met with police officials to discuss security concerns.
In highly polarized societies, the Civic Forum has promoted tolerance and cooperation among groups that are at odds politically. Regular consultations between field coordinators and local elected and community leaders, the media, political parties, and the churches helps to maintain trust and cooperation. Field coordinators come from the area where they work and are often community activists—therefore trusted and aware of local issues.
Another result from the Civic Forum is that civil society groups are themselves becoming better organized and democratic. Groups are electing leaders, meeting more regularly and resolving internal conflicts. Civic groups have also come together to organize larger community meetings to hold public officials accountable and coordinate advocacy efforts.
IV Conclusions
In conclusion, I would like to share a few final thoughts on civic education efforts:
- Make Informal Civic Education A Means To Action—Explain the roles and responsibilities of citizens and how a democracy functions with the goal of helping people to apply these concepts to make their lives better. Education theory also tells us that adults learn best when they participate actively or as it was put in Haiti—"Learning is not sitting, learning is doing." Helping individuals put democracy in practice is the best way to instill these values and strengthen the democratic system itself. Experience is the best teacher.
- Model Democratic Behavior In Civic Education Activities Themselves. When teaching about democratic values, the way the actual training is conducted can teach a lot by example. The events themselves should showcase the democratic values and practices that participants are being taught such as: participation, tolerance and mutual respect.
- Democracy and Development—In extremely poor environments it is often difficult to offer civic education rather than financial support. The lesson-learned, as has been shown the world over, is that in the long-run, local initiatives are more successful and sustainable when the community commits its own resources. In Haiti, the Civic Forum has helped participants learn that the program can increase their political power and thereby their economic well-being—through education, training, and organizing. Civic Forum invests heavily in people because the payback has proven to be much more dramatic in comparison to expenditures for material support.
- Long-Term Approach with Follow-on Is Critical—Civic education activities with both political parties and civic groups benefits from a long-term approach. Providing follow-up support when citizens launch party reform or community organizing initiatives can make the difference between success and failure.