The mechanisms intended to promote the participation of citizens in the life of the country and their municipalities are multiplying. Several specialists believe, however, that they do not really fulfill their role, even to the point of widening the gap between the French and their leaders.
Did the announcement capture the attention of the French, in the last minutes of a speech intended to get out of the pension crisis? “I will propose (…) major avenues for the operation of our institutions to gain in efficiency and citizen participation as we have just done with the citizens’ convention on the end of life”, said Emmanuel Macron, Monday, April 17. The Head of State is not at his first attempt in this area: since 2017 and his accession to the Elysée, he has launched several exercises in participatory democracy, in other words the“set of processes that allow citizens to be involved in public decisions”summarizes with franceinfo Marie-Anne Cohendet, professor of constitutional law.
This list includes the “great national debate” and the citizens’ conventions, two initiatives launched in 2019 after the “yellow vests” movement. Four years and another crisis later, the President of the Republic promises again to appeal to the citizens. Recently, the opponents of the pension reform have nevertheless tried to make their voices heard in the institutions by launching a referendum of shared initiative (RIP) to block the text, but the Constitutional Council rejected this request on April 14. The petition calling for the removal of the Brav-M suffered the same fate, despite having collected more than 260,000 signatures. As for the citizens’ convention on the end of life, its members fear that the executive will not take up their proposals when imagining the law. Should we see in these three recent findings a form of crisis of participatory democracy?
“Inconclusive” citizen conventions
“There is a curious paradox between the appetite of citizens for participation and the difficulty for institutions to tie these devices to their mode of operation”, analyzes Marine Fleury. A risk, for this lecturer in public law, “because this can reinforce the impression that institutions are deaf to what society has to say and discredit these systems, which nevertheless have many interests”.
The interest, for its part, is first of all perceptible for the power in place, which sees with these processes a means of “save time or regain control”tip Marine Fleury. “The ‘great national debate’ and the citizens’ convention on the climate cannot be analyzed outside of this context of crisis and the need for the executive to post a response to the criticisms addressed to it”continues the political scientist Loïc Blondiaux.
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But what have these experiences of deliberative assemblies of a new kind really brought? “They were not really conclusive, because they were not carried out to completion”deplores the historian Jean Garrigues, while the 149 proposals of the citizens in favor of the ecological transition had been largely ignored or watered down by the government. “The device has demonstrated the democratic potential of this form of deliberation”emphasizes Loïc Blondiaux, who is more critical of the outcome of this meeting.
“The citizens’ convention on the climate has also generated frustrations, because this type of innovation could not change anything in the practice of power, which is becoming radicalized towards an authoritarian turn.”
Loïc Blondiaux, political scientist at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonneat franceinfo
The government has not yet decided in favor of a third citizens’ convention. But behind the scenes, some members of the presidential camp are campaigning to make immigration the third subject addressed by such an assembly of citizens drawn by lot.
The French fear of the referendum
There is another device, which Emmanuel Macron could use in the months or years to come. “The referendum is a tool and I will have to use it for subjects that I choose”promised Emmanuel Macron to the newspapers of the Ebra group, on April 19. “I am not going to launch a referendum today, but it would be completely healthy in the next few years to do so, within the framework of Article 11 of the Constitution. I do not rule out at some point doing it. “he repeated on Sunday to the Parisian (article reserved for subscribers). This would be a first since 2005 and the referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. At the time, the victory of the “no” vote did not prevent the signing of the Lisbon Treaty in 2007. Direct democracy, which is exercised in particular through the referendum, nevertheless represents “the ultimate form of participatory democracy”, insists the jurist Marie-Anne Cohendet. He has the advantage “to directly articulate the vote and the decision”, agrees Bertrand Mathieu, member of the Club des juristes. So how to explain this fear of those in power to have recourse to it?
“Under the Fifth Republic, the referendum got bad press because Charles de Gaulle used it to increase his personal power. Since then, everyone has been wary of it.”
Marie-Anne Cohendet, professor of constitutional lawat franceinfo
The same caution can still be observed today. “We understand the reluctance of politicians, because the French very rarely answer the question put to them”assures Bertrand Mathieu. “The question often shifts to the person who asks it”completes Senator Françoise Gatel, author of a report on democracy in 2022. This is explained, defends Marie-Anne Cohendet, by the fact that “the president decides which question is discussed by which group and what happens to it”.
A participatory democracy also in crisis at the local level?
The shared initiative referendum (RIP), provided for by the 2008 constitutional revision, did not really solve the problem. No text has yet succeeded in fulfilling all the conditions necessary for the organization of a vote. “The RIP can hardly work”slice Bertrand Mathieu, joined by Jean Garrigues: “This device is made not to be used. There are so many safeguards, conditions, institutional concerns that you have to go through legal mouseholes.”
These disappointments at the national level contrast with a profusion of experiences at the local level, from participatory budgets to neighborhood councils and various consultations. “It is not at this level that the crisis of democracy is the strongest”Judge Bertrand Mathieu. “There is food and drink when it comes to local participatory democracy, which is as bad as national democracyretorts Guillaume Gourgues, lecturer in political science. Regional councils, for example, have a strategic use of participationcriticizes the specialist in participatory democracy, with a very top-down, framed, one-way use, to take into account what they want, and need, to take into account”. “This poses problems, because the purpose of these devices is not to re-legitimise individuals but institutions”supports Marine Fleury.
Learning participatory democracy from kindergarten
An interested vision of local and national executives, little used devices, as was the case during the recent consultation on self-service scooters in Paris… Do the French and their rulers have a political culture incompatible with participatory democracy? ? “For several years, there has been greater acculturation to these approaches. The French know these systems a little better and grant them a certain legitimacy”tempers Loïc Blondiaux. “We can also hope that we can change our democratic culture, continues Marie-Anne Cohendet. That we teach citizens to listen to each other from an early age, in kindergarten!”
In the meantime, other forms of democracy, close to participatory democracy, can emerge, such as “implicative democracy” defended at the local level by Françoise Gatel in her senatorial report. “The idea is to bring our fellow citizens to public affairs based on their centers of interest.” “The reports on participation are linked, proof that it has become an issue within the Stategreets Guillaume Gourgues, rather pessimistic elsewhere.
“These reports fall into endless sophistication, without debating the fundamental questions: what power sharing is really taking place with the citizens?”
Guillaume Gourgues, specialist in participatory democracyat franceinfo
The risk, warn several authors, is to arrive at a counter-productive result by piling up consultative referendums, citizens’ conventions and other initiatives. “We should not multiply this type of scenario in which a device produced under impeccable democratic conditions, with in-depth deliberation, ultimately leads to nothing. We will contribute very strongly to disqualify this type of instrument”warns Loïc Blondiaux. “It is not enough to constantly produce participatory mechanisms for the quality of democracy to be better”warns Guillaume Gourgues, taking the example of Russia and China, two countries with an illiberal regime that is setting up a dangerous “participatory authoritarianism” : “There, the strengthening of authoritarian tendencies and the use of participation are not mutually exclusive.”