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2009:6 The Principles of Partnership and Participation as Applied in Small Towns in the Czech Republic

Daniel Čermák (ed.)

In this volume of Sociological Studies, readers are presented with the results of a number of studies that examined the participation of citizens in the decision-making process at the local level and in the partnership between public administration (the municipal authorities) and NGOs or even businesses. The objective of the authors of the individual chapters in this volume was to contribute to the understanding of how the principles of the democratic administration of society are applied in the Czech Republic. Most of the chapters focus on three towns in which the authors conducted a number of studies: Blatná, Český Krumlov and Velké Meziříčí. Readers first learn about the developmental potential of human ‘capital’ in these towns. The authors then focus on how the citizens of these towns view cooperation with public administration and the participatory activities of local citizens. The final chapters inform readers about the experiences of actors who have been involved in projects that were created through the application of the principles of participation and partnership. Such projects primarily involved the formation and functioning of micro-regions, local action groups, and community social-services planning.

Keywords

Cooperation, partnership, participation, public administration, community social-services planning, Blatná, Český Krumlov, Velké Meziříčí

Summary

This volume of texts sets out to inform readers about the practical experiences that actors involved in local development have had with various forms of civic participation in public affairs and the application of the principles of partnership in cooperation between public administration and other subjects.
Four of the five texts concentrate on three towns in which the authors conducted a number of studies: Blatná, Český Krumlov and Velké Meziříčí. These towns were studied over a long period by a team of researchers from the fields of the social and natural sciences – sociologists, culture theorists, political scientists, economists, social geographers, and demographers – and as a result there are rich data sources available on them. The studies included in particular a unique series of questionnaire surveys that were conducted in two-year intervals in the three towns since 1992. In addition, the authors also had available to them data from many interviews that were conducted over the course of three years in these three towns as well as others.
The first chapter, by Jana Vobecká, goes somewhat beyond the initial objective established. She writes about the developmental potential of human capital in the towns under observation. She shows that all three are relatively attractive towns to commute to work to and that they are surrounded by a belt of suburban communities, whose economically active inhabitants in the majority commute to work in the town centres. On the other hand, at present all three towns are losing their young working-age populations through migration, a fact confirmed by the higher migration rate of young people moving to regions with a wider selection of job opportunities and services. The information in this chapter provides a good foundation for the ensuing analyses, as it tells us about the kind of environment in which the studied processes are taking place.
The next chapter is by Věra Patočková, who examines the relationship between how informed respondents are about public affairs in their town, with an emphasis on issues relating to town management, and how satisfied they are with the administration of the town. It was found that most respondents are interested in what is going on in their town, but many of them are not interested in public affairs connected with the management of the town and the town hall. In conformity with this finding is the fact that around 60% of the respondents in the three towns studied do not regard it as important that they have an opportunity to influence public affairs.
As to the relationship between how informed respondents are about town management and how satisfied they are with the performance of the public administration, Věra Patočková notes that there most certainly is a connection, as the largest number of people who feel they are adequately informed about goings on is found among those who are satisfied with the way these institutions are functioning and consider that important. Conversely, the largest number of those who do not feel they are adequately informed and are troubled by that is found among those who believe that the institutions do not function well and are troubled by that.
In the next chapter, Daniel Čermák analyses the level of interest in participation in public affairs among the populations of Blatná, Český Krumlov and Velké Meziříčí, and examines findings about the different ways in which inhabitants do participate and the intensity of that participation. These analyses reveal that among the inhabitants of these three towns there is not much interest in participation in public affairs. A look at the real behaviour of respondents also shows that citizens limit their involvement in public action, especially activities related to political affairs in their community. If they do participate, then it is in a conventional fashion – by participating in elections. Involvement in public demonstrations or signing petitions is much rarer.
The next two chapters confirm that the level of interest that citizens show in participating in public affairs is indeed low. In the first, Jana Stachová analyses interviews with local actors in Blatná, Český Krumlov and Velké Meziříčí, who have participated in selected projects – whether as representatives of local public administration (municipal authorities), NGOs, or businesses. The studied projects involving participation were related to the formation and functioning of micro-regions, local action groups, and community social-services planning. Analyses of the interviews revealed that the key aspect of participation and cooperation at the local level is the interest of the actors themselves, whether they be individuals or institutions. The prerequisite for showing an interest in public affairs is knowledge, i.e. being adequately informed about goings on. Of primary importance in the acquisition of this knowledge is the personal motivation of the actor to remain informed, and next to his is the information strategy of the given institution. When an institution is successful at speaking to the public, people will regard the given problem as their own and be willing to take part in public activities.
It follows from the foregoing that, in addition to the low level of interest, the basic obstacle to civic participation is a lack of information. On the one hand this can result in people never even finding out about the possibility of becoming involved in public affairs, and on the other it can hamper the process of participation activities. The activity of poorly informed people can prolong and encumber this process. Added to this is the fact that the motivation for participation often arises from a negative attitude, in which case people arrive more often with criticism than with any constructive proposals. Labelled as ‘grumblers’, they end up in a position of disadvantage in relation to the other actors, and especially in relation to public administration (municipal authorities). The fact that the public administration (municipal authorities) does not view them as equal partners, that their comments are not taken sufficiently into consideration, leads them to become disappointed, and that deters them from making subsequent attempts to intervene in public affairs. The consequently ineffective and unrepresentative nature of the projects is then a source of distrust in them. Another obstacle to the progress of some of the projects studied is the lack of interest and the lack of information on the part of political representatives, and the lack of will on the part of the public administration (municipal authorities) to promote the projects.
As for the effects of the ongoing projects, like community social-services planning and the local action groups, they tend to raise the level of social capital in the given community. The projects give rise to formal networks directly connected with the purpose of these projects, but they also establish new contacts and create informal networks and cooperative ties. Through communication channels people obtain information from other areas and this kind of diversified information is one of the key prerequisites of local development. Moreover, they facilitate the creation of new platforms of communication and cooperation and foster an environment of participation and cooperation in the town and its surroundings. For these reasons the studied projects have contributed to local progress in the towns under observation.
In the next chapter Josef Bernard extends and adds to these findings. An advantage of this chapter is that it is interested in themes like those dealt with by Jana Stachová, but unlike all the preceding chapters it focuses on different locations, specifically three small towns in the Pardubice Region. His analysis shows that the community social-services planning in small communities does not above all signify a shift away from direct planning towards participatory planning, but rather the birth of a space for planning the development of social services, for which to that point there was no planning. While they do involve a number of participatory elements, the processes of partnership with public administration and the adequate engagement of service users are nonetheless not always development to a sufficient extent.
The dominant actors in planning are the providers of services and top public officials in the social services departments of the municipal authorities. The participation of users of these services is weak and they have little influence on the outcome of the planning process. The lack of a community character to planning is a shortcoming that is caused more by external factors, including the difficulty in finding anyone to represent service users and the problems arising from the disproportion between the number of topics planning actors have to focus on and their staff capacity.
If we assess the conclusions that arise from the studies by the authors of this volume it is impossible not to notice that a central theme that runs through the entire volume is the insufficient level of participation by citizens in decision-making about public affairs. There may be several causes behind the low level of participation, one of which is undoubtedly the legacy of the communist past, when everyone mainly ‘took care of themselves’. Another cause is the limited motivation citizens feel to participate in decision-making processes, and this lack of motivation can be caused by their lack of interest in the given issue under discussion or the fact that their ability to influence decisions taken by public administration is negligible. Nevertheless, there are citizens willing to participate, even though this is usually just a small group of people in each community.