tepavParticipation in ActionConstitution Platform Turkey Speaks:

Citizen Assemblies for a New Constitution

tepavTEPAV: A think-do tank in Turkey

policy research and advocacy

practical projects

The think & do tank

Economics

Law

Governance

Foreign Policy

tepavTEPAV Good Governance Agenda

• Developing and Implementing Tools for Participatory Local Strategic Governance Citizen scorecards, poverty mapping, budget monitoring

• Public oversight on the central government budget• Anti-corruption

Tracking household perception on public administration, public services and corruption

• Governance in local and regional development Participatory city and regional strategies

• Constitution studies Secretariat for the Constitution Platform

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• The constitution, a social contract but how?• CP was established in 2007

An initiative of the Turkey side of the Turkey-EU Joint Consultative Committee (host + facilitator)

• Objective: To create a forum for constitutional dialogue that should inform the new constitution

• Motto: The constitution as a symbol of unity is dependent on how the constitution is made

• A national search conference brought together 250 participants from 80 CSOs Participation for a constitutional dialogue is possible Constitutional is good for overcoming barriers built around

polarized topics

Constitution Platform (2007)

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• Organizing Citizen Assemblies under TEPAV’s secretariat

• First deliberative democracy experiment• Taking the constitutional debate one step further:

From constitutional principles to concrete constitutional expectations

• Demonstrating how a culture of consensual dialogue can deal with contentious issues

• Voluntary participation in constitution making• Heterogeneous groups showing the capability to

discuss, if not totally resolve, polarizing issues

Constitution Platform (2012)Turkey Speaks

tepavParticipation is worth

when you have an address

Constitutional Conciliation Commission of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) Equal representation of all parties Unanimity sought in decision making Speaker of Parliament and commission

members from each political party attended every single Citizen Assembly.

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Participation makes difference when it is demand driven

tepavDemand for a new constitution on

the rise after the referendumDo you think that Turkey needs a new constitution?

Kasım 2008 Şubat 20110%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

41%

69%

59%

31%

YOK

VAR

November 2008 February 2011

NO

YES

TEPAV Public Survey

tepavDemand for direct participation

in constitution making

2008 20100%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

40%

58%

47%

28%

13% 14%

Halkın vereceği katkı yok

Halk referandumda onaylasın

Halk fikirleriyle katılsınHalkın fikirlerini ifade edebilecekleri katılım mekanizmaları oluşturulmalıdır.

TEPAV Public Survey

How do you think the people should participate in constitution making?

Halkın referandumda oy kullanması yeterlidir

People don’t have any contribution to make

Voting in a referendum would suffice

Participatory mechanisms enabling people’s opinions to be heard must be designed

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15%

23%63%

İktidar yapmalı

Mecliste uzlaşma ile yapılmalı

Toplumsal uzlaşma ile yapımalı

83%

9%8%

Katılıyorum

Ne katılıyorum / ne katılmıyorum

Katılmıyorum

Popular demand for consensual constitution making

Who should make the constitution and how? (2010)

Consensus must be sought during the constitution making

process (2010)

TEPAV Public Survey

Government in power

In the Parliament, consensually

Through societal consensus

Agree

No idea

Disagree

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TurkeySpeaks

buthow?

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2 ways of asking the people to become

“Constitution Volunteers”

Reaching out to the people

Mobile phones; effective and legitimate• Turkish people’s use of mobile phones above the European average • 62 million cell phone subscriptions• A monthly average of 90 min. talk per person

2/3 of participants• Citizens who answered the randomly sent messages through cell phones

1/3 of participants• Local CSO representatives invited by going through every available list

1 2

Size of available halls determined the number of participants

3

tepavEnsuring diverse tables

• A special software designed by TEPAV to make sure that

each table has at least 6 participants each table has at least 2 woman participants each table has at least 2 local CSO representatives plus

2 citizens randomly invited through cell phones

no table has participants with the same surname no table has participants from the same local CSO

tepavOur method (1)Turkey Speaks, but how?

First deliberative democracy experience in the history of Turkey

~ 50 QUESTIONS~ 10 HOURS OF DEBATE

DELIBERATION POLLING

Instant documentation of discussions

Instant display of the results of decisions

PARLIAMENT’S CONSTITUTIONAL CONCILIATION COMMISSION

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• ~ 50 questions designed using a concise and politically enabling language A universal, unimposing, non-polarizing

vocabularyAvoiding the jargon that triggers ossified positions

Questions reviewed in meetings with stakeholdersA comprehensive list of constitutional issues that matter

most for not only institutional design, but also citizens’ everyday lives

Our method (2)Turkey Speaks, but how?

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50 questions around 10 topics

1. Freedom of expression and political association

2. Cohabitation of divergent groups within the society

3. Public services (Equal access and impartiality)

4. Local governance

5. Governmental systems

6. Judicial independence and the rule of lawtu

7. State and Religion

8. Elections and political parties

9. Checks and balances for the political power

10.Natural and cultural values

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QUESTION

CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE

EQUAL ACCESS TO PUBLIC SERVICES

The government has a duty to ensure that citizens are capable of using their basic right to equal and effective access to public services.

Should there be additional regulations in the new constitution that take note of citizens’ differences in order to ensure that all citizens have equal and effective access to public services?

An Example of a Question

tepavPerceptions of “equal access to public services”

• How are “differences” perceived? Disabilities, sexual orientations, religious sects, ethnic

identities

• Opinions regarding the “additional regulations that take note of citizens’ differences”: Equal access to religious services (Ankara) Lifting the ban on headscarves (Konya) Affirmative action for the Roma people (Edirne) Provision of services in different languages (Diyarbakır) Enabling the participation of disabled persons in social life

(İzmir) Yes to “equal access”, no to “additional regulations” (Ankara)

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• Random invitation through cell phones helped us reach heterogenous groups

• Carefully designed set of questions encouraged participants to formulate their own demands

What CP achieved (1) Our method worked smoothly

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• Citizen Assemblies showed that every social issue in Turkey could be dealt with from

the perspective of deliberative democracy

Mature and reasonable participants

Fruitful and civilized discussions

What CP achieved (2) The possibility of a new approach

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• Targeted events in response to low women and youth participation:

~400 women participants /

8 March Ankara Assembly

~350 young participants /

25 March Samsun Assembly

What CP achieved (3) Empowering women and youth

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• More efforts to encourage women’s participation

Child care centers Quotas for woman

representatives of CSOs

Call Center’s prioritized calls A woman’s voice message

randomly invited woman citizens

What CP achieved (4) Trying hard to overcome gender inequality

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• A highly influential “constitutional awareness” campaign was successfully carried out.

What CP achieved (5) Engaging the people

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Citizens’ opinions on constitutional issues compiled in 12 different provinces over a period of 5 months

• 7000 participants, 1,000 discussion tables where groups of 6 to 10 deliberated

• ~ 15,000 pages of citizens’ opinions compiled

What CP achieved (6) 13 Citizen Assemblies

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Which principle should be upheld as a priority in the making of the

new constitution?

An example that demonstrates how sophisticated the data set is

tepavWhich principle should be upheld as a priority in the making of the new constitution?

AVERAGE OF 13 ASSEMBLIES

19

14

36

58

ÖZGÜRLÜK EŞİTLİK REFAH İSTİKRAR ADALETLIBERTY EQUALITY WELFARE STABILITY JUSTICE

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DİYARBAKIR

SAM

SUN

EDİRNEİZM

İR

İSTANBUL

ANTALYA

KONYA

BURSA

ANKARA

GAZİANTEP

ANKARA/8 M

ART

ERZURUM

TRABZON

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

40

20 2618 22 23 18 17 15 16 15 11 13

15

1716

18 15 1411 12 13 14 14

10 11

3

6 23 4 2

6 4 6 4 23 1

2

10 3 6 4 57 8 6 5 5

7 6

4047 54 54 55 55 58 59 60 60 64 68 69

AdaletİstikrarRefahEşitlikÖzgürlük

Which principle should be upheld as a priority in the making of the new constitution?

PROVINCES

Justice

Liberty

Stability

Welfare

Equality

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64

40

79

10

24

55

80

13

2 47

52

57

59

17

16

48

62

68

70

75

8 35

43

45

49

50

73

33

34

36

4 53

71

11

14

15

22

37

39

42

44

46

58

69

72

9 12

18

20

27

28

3 5 54

56

61

63

66

7 74

78

1 26

38

6 60

65

76

77

21

23

25

29

31

41

ÖZGÜRLÜK

9 3 4 2 0 1 4 1 5 1 2 3 1 0 4 0 1 1 2 1 4 0 1 2 0 2 0 3 0 0 1 1 3 0 1 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

EŞİTLİK

0 3 2 0 6 1 1 1 2 0 0 3 1 3 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 4 0 0 1 0 0 1 3 1 3 0 1 0 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 3 0 2 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

REFAH

0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

İSTİKRAR

0 3 0 3 0 3 0 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

ADALET

0 0 0 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 9 9

5%

15%

25%

35%

45%

55%

65%

75%

85%

95%

Which principle should be upheld … ?TRABZON – TABLE BY TABLE

tepavTable 40 in Trabzon:Options other than justice given more priority

Highly diverse reasons, justifications and arguments

3

3

3

TABLE 40

ÖZGÜRLÜK

EŞİTLİK

İSTİKRAR

•“Everything depends on

money…”

•“Without stability, we can’t be a

nation…”

•“Without liberty, no stability…”

•“Equality means justice…”

LIBERTY

EQUALITY

STABILITY

tepavTable 21 in Trabzon:Consensus on justice

9

TABLE 21

Adalet

• “Justice guarantees liberty, too…”

• “I want welfare…”

• “Without justice, there can be neither welfare nor equality…”

NOTE:Dialogue implies that the participant arguing for “welfare” was probably convinced by arguments in favour of “justice”

JUSTICE

tepavHow to analyze such sophisticated data?

• Constitutional demands and expectations could be approached at different levels of analysis.

• Every constitutional demand is expressed with very different motivations, for very different reasons.

• Majority or minority… Every opinion matters

tepavA general evaluation

• Citizen Assemblies were a success We utilized deliberative democracy as an

attempt to transform the majoritarianism of representative democracy into a pluralist experience

Citizen Assemblies did not produce superficial poll results, but captured the substantial and sophisticated thought processes of citizens

• Beyond simple “Yes/No” questions The “No”s that informed a “Yes” and vice versa

tepavThere were intense debates

tepav“Mark my words, son…”

tepav“That’s not the case, sir…”

tepavSome lost their temper, but none lost control

tepavA discussion coordinator under pressure

tepavAfter 10 hours of debate

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Speaker of Parliament Cemil Çiçek receiving CP reports

tepavConclusion• CP experience means debating contentious topics

within a framework based on common sense.• Close cooperation with the Conciliation

Commission By attending the Citizen Assemblies, commission

members not only motivated participants, but got motivated themselves.

• Before the Citizen Assemblies, constitution making was a “very difficult” process. After…it is just “difficult”…

tepavWords from participants

• I do not want be considered as an electorate but a citizen.

• This platform made me feel that I am a citizen.

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