Auditing Democratic Participation - a Civic Forum that Works?

Canon Kenyon Wright (June 2000)

It is vital that we move rapidly and coherently, to establish an agreed and strong image for the Forum,. If not, the new political structures will harden: the Forum may become, consciously or otherwise, a tame instrument of the old politics of centralised decision making and cosmetic consultation ; and the old cynicism will return.

We need greater clarity now - on

	The Purpose of the Forum - WHY we exist.
	The Programme of the Forum - WHAT we do.
	The Procedures of the Forum - HOW we do things.
	and also, following on these, on the nature and content of a Concordat through which the role of the Forum, and its relationship with the political institutions, is clearly recognised.

1. THE PURPOSE Aims are defined at some length in the Memorandum of Association, but need sharper definition. My suggestion would be " to enable Scotland’s civil society to be full partners in a new political and community culture, based on the 4 agreed principles of power-sharing; accountability; participation; and equal opportunities."

2. THE PROGRAMME There is already past agreement on 3 strands - work with Parliament & committees; policy development for the Executive: and "own initiative" work.

All 3 strands should be developed to include 2 major concerns ....

	Influencing Policy Development in all key areas
	Monitoring the Political Process and culture

3. THE PROCEDURES The Forum exists to enable its member bodies, individually and wherever possible collectively, to participate fully in the development of policy and the monitoring of politics. This means that the staff and resources of the Forum must be available, particularly to groupings of member organisations,

	gathered around specific policy areas, and therefore relating to specific Ministers and Committee, or in some cases to cross-cutting issues
	OR gathered around common concern for ensuring the "new politics" of consensus and participation.

4. A CONCORDAT can only realistically be concluded when something like the above is agreed at least as the Forum’s starting point . Meanwhile, the Concordat Group already appointed can work to clear the ground, by ensuring that the potential partners (Executive, Parliament and Forum) not only explicitly accept the common foundation of the Claim of Right and the 4 key Principles, but that they clarify their broad understanding of the meaning and implications of these Principles for their own work and for their relationship with each other .

Working within the pattern outlined above, the 2 bodies I represent are already active in the following areas, and would hope through the Forum to link with others with similar concerns

	In the field of Policy Development, VISION 21 relates to the Minster and Committee for Environment and Transport, but seeks to help define a Strategy for Sustainable Development
	In the field of Process Monitoring, PEOPLE & PARLIAMENT continues to work on the development of open criteria by which progress towards the new political culture can be regularly monitored.

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