Local democracy – Democratic cities
Participants
There is a need for citizens to be more involved in local politics. Peripheral cities are the perfect place for participatory budgeting and planning and for exploring ways to “radicalize” or “democratize” democracy with new participation mechanisms (for citizens in general and women in particular.
We underestimate the necessity of reinventing governance in metropolitan areas in order to build democracy and reduce inequalities Patrick Jarry
Participants stressed the following principles in relation to participatory governance and accountability:
• Right to the city for all: based on the recognition of human rights, right to land, • • • • • •
to public transport, to coproduce the city in a sustainable way Co-responsibility: strong coalitions for governance, cooperative and associative management, with robust sustainability of the participatory mechanisms (long term and multi-sector participation) Participation in planning and in basic service evaluation and monitoring Institutionalization of participation with a significant proportion of the budget (not just a limited %) Digital democracy; open data Address corruption and increase transparency The empowerment of women (with local regulations where national ones do not exist) and gendered policies
Derek Antrobus Councillor and Assistant Mayor for Strategic Planning at Salford City Council, a city in the metropolitan region of Greater Manchester, UK.
Patrick Braouezec President of Plaine Commune, France. He is the first VicePresident of the UCLG Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights.
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