Breaking down the barriers between citizens and institutions and promoting real participation in socio-political life: are these objectives attainable in an Italy beleaguered by political crisis? We asked this question to the secretary of the “Citizenship” movement for the Emilia-Romagna Region.

“In the 1970s I left Calabria, the region where I came from in the south of Italy, and I moved to Emilia-Romagna, one of the most developed regions in terms of the cooperative welfare state. Since then the situation has not improved, in fact, even in northern and central Italian regions, citizens are less active than in the past, and often participation is not genuine or is limited and fails to generate real exchange with the institutions”, explains Franco Malagrinò, secretary of the Emilia-Romagna region for “Citizenship”, an Italian and European movement for civil participation.

APPARENT AND LESS SPONTANEOUS PARTICIPATION

“In Italy we are going through a phase of deep political and institutional crisis. Citizens no longer feel represented politically and we are noticing an overly strong detachment between those inside and those outside the chambers of power. Even the tendency to form associations and to do voluntary work is starting to be affected by the crisis. We are clearly lacking spontaneous citizen participation in the country’s social and political life. This is more apparent in the south of the country, but even in central and northern regions, we are feeling an excessive institutionalisation of relations between institutions and citizens”.

BREAKING DOWN THE BARRIERS TO ACTIVE DEMOCRACY

“We need to verify new exchanges between citizens and institutions, outside the institutional contexts that restrain and limit dialogue. A key to this is informal training. We are experimenting, for example with spontaneous gatherings and groups in alternative venues, such as cinemas and theatres or even in public places (hospitals, schools, etc.). The aim is to remove the barriers and promote integration and inclusion for all and, in particular, to involve the young, the old and immigrants. We must start from the beginning: stimulating genuine and active participation and questioning the roles of political representatives, overly attached to their positions of power and far removed from the lives of citizens”.

EUROPE AND DEMOCRATIC TRAINING

“The European Union teaches us reformism and solution-searching and leads us towards a participated and practical vision, which is indispensible for the development of participated democracy. In Italy we are too attached to ideological visions and to defending our own interests rather than resolving citizens’ problems pragmatically. The European vision opens us up to the prospective of democratic development and innovation. The Knowledge Society is the driving force behind innovation and lifelong learning is one of the main instruments for promoting social equality and opening the borders of exchange between European citizens. This is why we are working with other European states in the framework of the Active Citizenship Network, the movement for civil participation which operates in Italy and Europe to promote the safeguard of citizen and consumer rights.
Based on this stimulus, the European Charter of Active Citizenship was drawn up in 2006 to improve the role of independent citizen organisations for the development of European democracy.

THE ITALIAN INTEGRATION GAMBLE

“We need to focus on relaunching social commitment and promoting responsibility by means of active citizenship schools – a concrete step towards restoring democracy in Italy”.
Citizen organisations, such as Active Citizenship, work on two fronts: they instruct and train citizens to diffuse the message of responsible and active citizenship and defend the underprivileged, in order to ensure their rights are upheld with regards to the Institutions, stimulating transparency and exchanges on collective concerns. With this in mind, FONDACA – the Foundation for Active Citizenship – was set up in 2001 in order to promote Civil Activism, Governance and Corporate Citizenship.