Citizens’ Action for Democracy – CitiDem

Democracy for the 21st century does not simply require new theories and new institutions. Above all, it requires creative actors who are central to the birth of new cultures and practices of democracy, whether creating forms of representation and deliberation, building robust links between innovation and policy, or forging new ethics of democratic life. Civil society actors are central to these tasks, and, thus, to democracy in the 21st century. CitiDem sets out to build tools and practices that seek to make a modest contribution to this process – building democracy for the 21st century.

Citizen participation and engagement consist of both individual and collective actions aimed to identify and address issues of public concern, or issues of a certain group of interest. Participation can take many forms and shapes, from individual volunteering to structured organizational involvement or even to electoral participation.

CitiDem’s strategic objective is to promote and enhance citizen engagement and participation, having a two-fold approach: a) on the one hand, it focuses on building knowledge and improving the capacity of civil society organisations to better inform and engage citizens and other relevant stakeholders, and b) on the other hand, it aims to provide citizens with the appropriate tools and knowledge to be better engaged and active in democratic and participatory processes, encouraging their incentives and motivations for participation and collective action.

This will be achieved throughout the whole duration of the project, and by applying a well-structured and organized plan of action for citizen empowerment and participation, based on 4 main phases of action: a) to enrich and enhance the knowledge and capacity building both for the civil society and citizens, b) to actively involve citizens into participatory and deliberative actions, by organising Citizen Assemblies (CAs), c) to bridge the gap in policymaking, by making citizens’ voices heard and d) to strengthen the effectiveness, the exploitation and sustainability of the CitiDem’s results.

CitiDem is a partnership project which engages various organisations across Europe, with the aim to relaunch trust in democracy and governance, by increasing the bond between citizens and institutions. The project will implement local activities in 8 EU countries (Greece, Italy, Germany, France, Portugal, Slovenia, Austria and the Netherlands), based on the CAs’ methodology and organised under different thematic areas, resulting in a transnational European Citizen Assembly, to enrich knowledge and widen the horizons of citizen participation and mobilisation. CitiDem will also set the basis for the preparation and submission of a European Citizen Initiative (ECI), through the organisation of a Transeuropean CA, bringing stakeholders related to the ECI and based on the insights and results of the project’s activities. CitiDem is also dedicated in reconstructing Europe’s narrative, structured on the idea of promoting “the Why?” of Europe and the European Union, aiming for an inclusive and citizen-driven European narrative, by developing a manifesto, as an open Call for action. The project also targets democratic challenges as another important aspect, mainly focusing on fake news and disinformation.

Project site: https://citizenstakeover.eu/citidem/