The Democracy Program - A brief status for the period 2008 - 2010

Is all about the new roles of local government! The reform has fundamently changed the premises

The last four years has been about implementing and managing new tasks

Local government has been forced into a more reactive political role towards the adminidtration, the

souroundings and the state

The goal is to create foundation for debate, to develops tools,and exchanges experiences

The Democracy Program in brief

What’s on the agenda?

Political leadership

Time for politics Contact with citizens

The media and interestorganisations

Interaction with other municipalities

Time for politics (?)

Greve municipality

2002: 64 meetings og 1196 cases

2008: 95 Meetings og 1671 cases

“When we have an agenda with more then 70 cases I fear that the political focus is lagging. We will not be able to undertake the political discussions that some cases deserve.”

- Local government member

Many are looking for tools to: Identify the most important cases and areas of interest Adapt the meeting form to the case Get to the core – What is the political in a case?

Politicians experience:

More paper, more meetings and greater complexity Local politicians are pressed for time Its difficult to get (and keep) the general view

The media and interest organisations

“Journalist use to do proper research. Now they just write something and sees what happens. It makes it a lot harder to be a local politician. Way to often we are left in a situation where we can do nothing but defend ourselves”

- Local government member

Politicians experience:

The media is more aggressive and press there own agenda Interest organisations are more focused on the municipalities

Many are looking for tools to: How do we become better to use political communication offensively? How do we communicate when a crisis hit?

Interaction with other municipalities

We have to develop our regional role. It is here to stay so we may as well become good at it. We just haven’t had the energy yet”

- Mayer

We use to know and make most decisions ourselves. Now we have to think a lot more about what the neighbouring municipalities are doing”

- Mayer

Many are looking for tools to: Get the regional perspectives integrated in the local government

meetings

Politicians experience:

Need more insight in how the municipal and regional agenda interacts Each municipality is measured according to how municipalities in general

are performing

Political leadership

“It is important that we revitalise the political aspects. The debate have been de-politicized. Its not values and interest that clinch anymore. We have to change that. Often it could just as well be civil servants who discusses the issues”

- Local government member

“We have for a long time used words about local politics which are more suitable for a stream-lined service company. It does not leave much room for politics and political processes. We need a new balance. “

- Municipal director

Many are looking for tools to: • Take the debate in the local government about how to identify the

political scope of influence within each political area

Politicians experience:

That it is necessary to find a good balance between- The short and the long run

- Listening and being the markers of opinions

- Guiding through the crisis and still develop the municipality

Contact with CitizensFinding the right balance

“We are to much like a lodge. It will be the end of us if we don’t open up. It is important that we as politicians recognize that the citizen has resources we don’t have“

“We have to be careful not to be to accommodating in the dialogue with citizens. We have to have the courage to say no. It is important that we explain to them that our job is to prioritizes and we do have the courage to do just that”

Citizen interaction

New arenas for interaction

How to get young people interested in local politics

Strong citizen groups take over the political proces

New arenas for interaction The web-page is the most important means of communications for the municipalities

Predominately use one way communication and portrays the municipality as a provider of service

The web-page can be used as strategic tool in the interaction with citizens and as a means to create:

Increased transparency A wider dialogue A common frame for

local communities

The municipality is also for young people!

• Do not feel like they are part of the municipal community

• Do not see the connection between local politics and the many activities and services they use

• Who is going to support the idea of municipal self rule in the future?

• Young peoples perspectives are needed in the decision making process

• One way communication and elections every four years is not enough

Strong citizen groups

• Very well organized groups of citizens takes over the political agenda with focus on specific areas of interest

• They make communication and media strategies, analysis and know exactly how obtain maximum influence

• They sidetrack the political decision making process and do

not care about the entirety of issues

• DANGER: The real political debate about prioritizing gets derailed before it even starts

Group discussion Do you have some of the same challenges?

Are there parts of democracy program that would be especially relevant on Iceland?

If you had to identify four challenges related to citizen interaction what would they be?

Political leadership

Time for politics Contact with citizens

The media and interestorganisations

Interaction with other municipalities

Follow the Democracy Program

www.kl.dk/demokratiprogrammet