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Citizenship as a political role refers to active participation in the political life of the community.
With Croatia’s membership in the EU, every citizen of Croatia becomes, at the same time, a citizen of the European Union.
Principle nothing about us without us:
The democratic principle assumes that all individuals potentially affected by a collective decision should have equal opportunities to influence that decision.
In addition to the right to participate, it is important to have opportunities and abilities to make autonomous decisions and practice active citizenship, for which it is important:
- Education
- Being informed
- Existence of specific consultation procedures
- The real possibility of influence
Basic forms of political participation – elections and referenda
- Elections – by voting, citizens entrust their elected representatives with the legitimacy to make political decisions
- Referendums – a form of direct decision-making by rounding for or against a proposal
- Citizen initiatives – the citizens themselves initiate them by collecting signatures for their proposals. Suppose they collect a sufficient number of signatures in accordance with the Law on Referendum and other forms of personal participation in the exercise of state power and local self-government. In that case, the government must call a referendum on the proposal (At the EU level, it is possible to launch a European citizens’ initiative.)
Democratic elections are:
- General – all adult citizens have the right to vote
- Equal – everyone’s vote is equally valid
- Free – there is no compulsion to vote for an option
- Secret – no one’s individual vote is published
- Transparent – carried out in accordance with the prescribed procedure in all phases
Today, in most democracies, the accepted point of view is that elections are only one important form of citizen participation. Most democratic countries are trying to expand the possibility of citizen participation in political life, so we are witnessing more frequent use of elements of immediate, direct democracy. This primarily refers to referendums and citizens’ initiatives. In the case of a referendum, citizens directly decide on an issue by voting, and politicians must then, most often, strictly adhere to the decision voted by the citizens.
Citizen initiatives are initiated by the citizens themselves, who seek to point out certain social and political problems and influence the authorities’ decisions.
Examples of some referendum initiatives in Croatia at the state level:
- Initiative on lowering the threshold of required signatures for calling a referendum and the possibility of collecting these signatures in all suitable places where a public gathering can be held (“For the referendum” initiative, 2015)
- Initiative on opposition to the concession of Croatian highways (“We don’t give our highways” initiative, 2014)
- Initiative on ‘outsourcing’ – for a law against the outsourcing of fancy jobs in the public and state sectors (union group, 2014)
- Initiative on the constitutional definition of marriage as a life union of a woman and a man (“In the name of the family” initiative, 2013)
Other forms of civil political participation or participation:
- Presentation of proposals in public consultations or through working groups
- Participation in the process of creating a local budget (an example of participatory budgeting)
- Participation in the work of political parties
- Protest political participation (petitions, public gatherings, protests, protests and demonstrations, civil disobedience, political consumerism)
- Civil society
Protest political participation means deliberate and public use of protest by some group or organisation, very rare individuals, who strive to influence some political decision or political process that they believe may have negative consequences for their group or for the community as a whole. The main forms of protest political participation include petitions, strikes, protests, demonstrations, civil disobedience, political consumerism, etc.
Collecting signatures for petitions is a form of action in which citizens respond to the call of the petition organiser to gather support for a request in an informal way. Petitions are not binding like successfully implemented referendum initiatives and therefore do not require a sufficient number of signatures. However, petitions that become sufficiently visible and are supported by a large number of people can be loud demands of citizens that are not easy for decision-makers to ignore. One example is the Stop Plagiarism in Croatia petition, which advocates for the strengthening of ethical standards and the sanctioning of academic dishonesty, which undermines the integrity of educational and scientific institutions and negatively affects the public perception of education and the scientific community.
Public gatherings, protests and demonstrations are legitimate forms of gathering of citizens to express dissatisfaction with some announced or implemented government actions or to express support for a cause. Protests are public events gathered around a specific request or idea expressed in the form of a central proclamation, which is then further articulated and gains visibility through the mass of those gathered and the messages they send – that is precisely why, in addition to the central message, protest actions are most often equipped with banners and megaphones. Protests are only seemingly radical moves by citizens – in democratic frameworks, protests are usually non-violent, organised, limited to pre-announced areas and the police are informed about them, in accordance with valid procedures. An example of a large and coordinated protest action was the protest gatherings in support of the Comprehensive Curricular Reform held on June 1, 2016 in several places in Croatia and abroad, which gathered under the name Croatia can do better a large number of citizens who expressed dissatisfaction with the announced termination of the reform process.
The concept of civil disobedience represents those forms of direct citizen participation that occur when the authorities apparently ignore the demands of citizens and persist in decisions that a significant part of the public considers harmful. Civil disobedience involves resisting the actions of those in power in a way that forces the government to choose whether to withdraw or act in a way that will compromise it if it acts repressively toward the citizens. The tactic of civil disobedience is also a legitimate means of democratic struggle, but to the extent that disobedience is expressed non-violently and without putting others in danger, as long as one does not run away and hide from prescribed sanctions. Most often, such situations are accompanied by an appeal from the organisers that in case of application of repressive measures, only passive resistance should be offered, without conflict with the police and without endangering anyone’s property or safety. An example of civil disobedience that resonated with the Croatian public was the mass arrest of more than a hundred activists during one of the protests against the privatisation of Zagreb’s Flower Square and the surrounding zone for business interests.
Political consumerism is a form of political participation of citizens in which they base their choice of certain products and producers on political and/or moral reasons.
Civil society represents an area of voluntary association of citizens who, through this means, strive to achieve various goals (political, economic, cultural, educational, sports, etc.). Civil society organisations, therefore, have very different goals, but they all encompass the area in which citizens can express their wishes, needs and interests and thus contribute to the practice of active citizenship.
Sources:
Šalaj, B., Hoffmann, D. & Horvat. M. 2018. Edukacija za građansku pismenost Gonga: Politička pismenost, Zagreb, Croatia. Retrieved from: https://gong.hr/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/PolitickaPismenostprirucnik_revizija.pdf
Šalaj B. 2009. Politička pismenost: demokracija i aktivno građanstvo. Obje strane demokracije. Zagreb, Croatia. Centar za edukaciju, savjetovanje i istraživanje. Retrieved from: https://www.cesi.hr/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/obje_strane_demokracije.pdf