WP10. Multi-level policy interventions for trust-building at local, national, regional, and EU levels

WP10 seeks to develop a set of comprehensive policy actions and recommendations for on one hand enhancing trust in political institutions and on the other inclusiveness of representative system at local, regional, national and EU level. The proposed policy interventions will be structured according to the implementation feasibility and effect into 3 groups: short-term (12 months); mid-term (3-5 years) and long-term (7-10 years). The policy action plan will be organized as a multi-level strategy, addressing the local, national, regional and EU levels.

The WP10 builds on the research results of previous WPs. In frame of WP1 – quantitative indicators and long-term trends of political trust we will identified the trends of political trust in selected countries. In frame of WP8 – qualitative studies, where focus groups and citizens consultations will be conducted, we will identify the attitudes of citizens towards already existent policy actions in their countries as well as their reasons for not participating in this policy actions. The results of WPs 1-8 will be used for the organization of workshops with civil society organizations, including trade unions, where we will with deliberative approach discuss setbacks of existing policy actions, reasons for low political trust of citizens and develop upgraded and new policy action as well as recommendations for short-term, mid-term and longterm effect of policy actions. Deliberative democracy is grounded in an ideal in which people come together, on the basis of equal status and mutual respect, to discuss the political issues they face and, on the basis of those discussions, decide on the policies that will then affect their lives. Deliberative approach enables structured process to learn about, discuss, and develop collective solutions to complex social and policy problems and to obtain public input. In frame of this process we will develop policy actions that will increase inclusion on one hand of civil society organizations and on the other citizens as individuals. The two main deliverables of the WP10 will thus be Policy-action plan for inclusion and trust-building of citizens and Policy-action plan for inclusion and trust-building of civil society organizations. Both deliverables will be written as a compendium of a series of policy briefs where policymakers will be able to quickly identify which policy actions and recommendations are the most relevant for their environment. Work on this WP is organized around several major tasks.

WP Leader: Prof. Alenka Krasovec, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Task 10.1. Setting up the methodological framework. 

Based on the findings of WPs1-8, this WP analyses existing factors and developments that contribute to declining political trust and turnout at the elections, radicalization of voters, growth of populist movements etc. as well as identifies already existent policy action tools for increasing inclusiveness and participation such us: participatory budgeting, agenda initiatives, citizens’ juries, citizens’ assemblies, etc. Implementation of the first task allows to identify the state of the art in what concerns existing policies and democratic innovations, their limitation and prospects for their improvement in different types of societies. This task is coordinated by UOL-SI, with the country-specific contribution provided by all other project participants.

Task 10.2. Involving the civil society organizations (CSO).

At the second stage, in this WP the project team involves civil society organizations, including trade unions, into the process of deliberation with the final goal to develop upgraded policy actions, new policy actions and a set of recommendations for political trust-building. CSO and trade unions engaged in social dialogue can play an important role in enhancing representative system by enabling inclusiveness, responsiveness, promoting transparency and contributing to representativeness of democratic systems. This WP will thus build on collaboration with CSOs to develop policy actions that will increase inclusion of citizens on one hand and on the other CSOs in representative systems via democratic innovations. A set of workshops at local, regional, national and EU level with representatives of relevant CSOs and trade unions will be organized to develop together in deliberation upgraded existent policy actions as well as design new policy actions and recommendations for more transparent, representative, responsive and inclusive representative systems. Workshops will be conducted in six countries representing Western Europe/Eastern Europe/South Europe divide, old democracies/new democracies entailing also older/newer EU member states division line, (neo)corporatist/pluralist countries and as well as federal or countries with strong regions/unitary states. 

Task 10.3. Outlining the multi-level set of national and European policy recommendations. 

Deliberative approach will be employed to discuss setbacks of existing policy actions, reasons for low political trust of citizens and develop upgraded and new policy action as well as recommendations for short-term, mid-term and long-term effect of policy actions. Deliberative democracy is grounded in an ideal in which people come together, on the basis of equal status and mutual respect, to discuss the political issues they face and, on the basis of those discussions, decide on the policies that will then affect their lives. Deliberative approach enables structured process to learn about, discuss, and develop collective solutions to complex social and policy problems and to obtain public input. In frame of this process, we will develop policy actions that will increase inclusion on one hand of CSOs and on the other citizens as individuals. Another deliverable in this WP includes Special issue on development of policy-interventions for inclusion and trust building. All deliverables will be written as a compendium of a series of policy briefs where policymakers will be able to quickly identify which policy actions and recommendations are the most relevant for their environment.