Our democracy assumes individual citizens are central to politics and social life and draws its legitimacy from that fact. But there has been much less political readiness to ensure citizens have the ability and resources to play this crucial role.
Yesterday's final report from the broad-based Taskforce on Active Citizenship addresses this major discrepancy in Ireland's democratic system. The recommendations made to tackle it are based on extensive consultation and research. The issues involved deserve a serious airing in the general election campaign.
Active citizenship, the report points out, is more than volunteering or being active in communities, vital though these are for a healthy democracy. It is "about how people engage in the political and decision-making process at various levels; how well they are informed or enabled to be active and how various groups can be effectively excluded". A survey with this report finds that for every adult involved in their community or in civic and political activity, at least two are not. Civic participation remains a minority endeavour. Older, unemployed, lower paid, homemakers and less well educated people are involved much less than others. And contemporary pressures of commuting and intensified working take their toll.
The taskforce's recommendations call for an independent electoral commission to encourage political participation, stressing that lack of interest is probably less important than confidence in having an impact, or practical access. People are willing to be involved - if they are asked. The Special Olympics led by Mary Davis, who chaired this taskforce and will continue its work as head of the new Active Citizenship Office announced yesterday by the Government, remains an inspiring example of this fact from the voluntary sector. The welcome proposal for presidential citizen awards answers a widely articulated need to recognise outstanding contributions to Ireland's civic and community life.
The taskforce should be commended for highlighting the urgent need to strengthen local representative structures. Ireland's very centralised policy-making and service delivery systems militates against local democracy. The recommendation that a civic forum be set up in each local authority area to bridge the gap with citizens has much merit. But it is unlikely to work effectively without a more radical reappraisal of governance at local level, taking full account of recent political, economic and social change. That would allow for a proper use of new technologies to facilitate popular engagement.
Inevitably such an agenda bears directly on party politics, one of the great repositories of volunteerism. Voters must decide whether pressures arising from Government policy have themselves worsened conditions that make volunteering and active citizenship possible. Opposition parties should press these issues home by offering better ways to allow them flourish. An election which cannot debate the best means to allow democracy develop would be poor indeed.