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Participation as an Essential Element of an Active Civil Society
of civil society. We understand civil society as a compound of social
practices – with its relations, processes, values, perceptions and
attitudes, institutions, organizations, ways and movements – that are
not framed as economic or political.
5
That is to say, civil society must
be independent from the state structure, understood as entities of the
public force such as a ministry or a component of the national armed
forces. Independence does not mean there are no relationships and
dialogue; it signifies autonomy to display all of its liberty and creativity
in the defense and fulfillment of human rights, as a protagonist of its
own transformations, rather than as a mere spectator of political and
social occurrences.
When we further explore citizen and community participation, we find
there are many pre-requisites to consider it authentic. Consequently,
participation must be active, conscious, free, responsible and organized.
Olivares makes the following deliberation regarding the active nature
of participation:
“Participation must be active. That is, it supposes an
effort, an action directed towards inserting itself in
common tasks, a giving and delivering of one’s self to the
rest. This entails taking the human tendency towards
generosity, stimulating it by all possible means, and
making it ever more conscientious. But it also requires
institutional mechanisms that assume the fact that men
are inserted in multiple societies, and that in them and
through them participation must be channeled.”
6
On conscientious and responsible participation, the same author adds:
“It cannot be purely superficial agitation. It demands that
the population be sufficiently informed of the elements
involved in their participation, and this information
must be objective, complete and comprehensible. Also,
the population must be able to evaluate the information
it receives, weigh it according to present human values,
