"Balancing Act"
by Monica McWilliams
Fortnight March 1999
David Donnison suggested in his book, A Radical Agenda (1991)- "The dominant groups in any society formulate the political drama which informs the thinking of their day and defines its heroes and heroines, its villains, its social problems and its public morality. . ."
Conscious of this, the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition put forward the idea of a Civic Forum in an effort to extend the parameters of the 'political drama', by extending the range of participation in the new politics of Northern Ireland. The idea was not particularly popular in the existing political classes-it was met with incredulity by some and deliberately misrepresented and ridiculed by others.
For the Coalition the motivation for proposing a Civic Forum was threefold-
(a) To broaden the sense of ownership of the governance of Northern Ireland, and indeed the new island-wide arrangements, by bringing a wide range of sectors and groups into the political process.
(b) To increase the participation of groups that have traditionally found themselves outside of politics and governance-young people, minority ethnic communities; people with disabilities; women; etc.
(c) To offer a mechanism that would raise awareness about politics and encourage greater involvement in both political parties and the political system.
The Coalition recognised at the end of the day there was always going to be controversy about the composition of the Forum, but that the emphasis that had to be argued for was the representation of those groups that did not normally have regular access to political decision-making and governance.
The Civic Forum, having survived attempts to strangle it at birth, managed to compromise itself into the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement. The institution now looks set to take shape. It is not all that the Coalition originally hoped for, but it does offer a welcome gesture in the direction of participative democracy. Governance through partnership and inclusion may still be a long way off, but the Civic Forum offers an arena where such concepts can be fostered. Hopefully when the large parties get the confidence to share power vertically as well as horizontally, the membership of the Civic Forum can facilitate them to do so in the practice. Notwithstanding the cynicism of Fortnight 's Insider in the February edition, the Civic Forum may yet play a vital role in contributing to the formulation of the 'political drama' rather than being seen as 'the plaything of the unelectable'.
As a new venture, the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition would welcome the location of the Civic Forum in the north-west, or certainly outside of the Greater Belfast area. It is important that the Forum is not seen as the 'second chamber' model a la the House of Lords or the Seanad. What is envisaged is an altogether more dynamic body that will bring new ideas and perspectives to the task of governance, and that will have the time to focus on economic, social and cultural issues. Such an approach would reject the concept of a second chamber acting as a genteel retirement home for politicians-but would place the emphasis instead on innovation, inclusion and the integration of policies.
From its inception, the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition has always argued
that the scale of governance in Northern Ireland could allow for an imaginative
and effective development of participative democracy in practice, which
can be complementary to the more traditional representative democracy that
is visited upon the electorate at regular intervals. However the Coalition
has also added the caveat that participation must go beyond the active involvement
of those who have the time, the resources and the support to allow them
the luxury of involvement. as the feminist theorist Iris Young has argued-"We must develop participatory theory not on the assumption of an undifferentiated humanity, but rather in the assumption that there are group differences and that some groups are actually or potentially oppressed or disadvantaged."
(Young cited in A. Philips Democracy and Difference, 1993.) |
