Theme 1: International projects

Politeia

Politeia, IPP’s international network, has been an association under Dutch law since the spring of 2008. The network’s partners come from ‘old Europe’, the new EU member states and countries that are now candidates for EU membership. Together they work on the development of democracy and citizenship in Europe.

The other members of Politeia are:

• TASC - Think Tank for Action on Social Change (Ireland)
• Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice (Ireland)
• Centre for Liberal Strategies (Bulgaria)
• Partners Czech (Czech Republic)
• Youth Centre of Dravinja Valley (Slovenia)
• Pro Democracy Association (Romania)
• GONG (Croatia)

The Politeia website ( www.politeia.net ) focuses attention on projects being carried out by the various Politeia partners. In recent years, attention has been given to the news coverage on Europe in various European countries and to projects aimed at involving underrepresented groups of young people, women and migrants in politics and society. The Politeia partners exchange expertise and projects, investigate possible cooperative activities and implement them together.

To intensify the communication among Politeia members, a weblog was begun in 2008. In addition, each year a different Politeia partner organises the annual conference. Both the weblog and the conferences enable the organisations to learn from one another.

More information
Politeia’s articles of association can be found on its website. Organisations interested in joining Politeia or that have other questions can contact Tatjana Meijvogel-Volk, t.meijvogel@publiek-politiek.nl , +31 (0)20 521 7656.

StemWijzer [Voting Analysis]

The StemWijzer is an online instrument created by the IPP in order to test voters’ political preferences. Visitors to the site are asked to give their opinions on about thirty propositions, and then the computer calculates which party is most in keeping with the visitor’s answers. Since visitors also receive information about the positions held by political parties on a wide range of issues, the StemWijzer has proved to be an excellent educational tool.

At the national level, the IPP creates StemWijzers for the elections for the Lower House and the European Parliament; it also makes StemWijzers at the request of by municipal and provincial governments, water boards and social organisations. The StemWijzer attracts millions of users each time. In fact, it has become so popular it now has a number of competitors.

The StemWijzer in Europe
An online voting advice instrument based on the techniques and methodology of the Dutch StemWijzer was launched in 2007 for the French presidential election and elections for the French parliament that year. This tool can still be found at www.monvoteamoi.fr. The IPP also worked together with the Bundeszentrale für politieke Bildung to develop the German Wahl-O-Mat and in 2008 it was commissioned by the British organisation Unlock Democracy to make a Votematch London for the election of the city mayor and council. Various StemWijzers were also created for the European elections of 2009, all of which can be found via www.votematch.eu.

The StemWijzer in the USA
Together with the Dutch current affairs programme EénVandaag, the IPP developed a number of different versions of the StemWijzer for the American presidential election of 2008, which enabled Dutch voters to test their own political preferences. The first versions were made for the Democratic and Republican preliminary elections, and the last versions focused on the choice between Barack Obama and John McCain. The StemWijzers were translated into English for the American public.

The ‘reversed’ StemWijzer: strengthening democracy in Georgia
Working on the premise that a strong opposition is crucial to a stable democracy, the IPP contributed to strengthening the political parties in Georgia. Together with the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) and the Georgian partner organisation Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development (CIPDD), the IPP supported parties in developing their programmes so that they could play a larger role in the political debate.

To this end, the IPP used the StemWijzer but in a completely different way. In workshops with the six largest political parties in Georgia, 117 propositions on a number of important themes in Georgian politics were formulated. The parties then used their own StemWijzer to respond to these propositions and motivate their choices. By doing so, the parties could show the Georgian voters what viewpoints they represented. The results were intended to be used to form a good basis for a party programme for the 2008 elections. Due to the (political) situation, however, the StemWijzer was not launched.

More information
For more information go to www.votematch.net or contact Jochum de Graaf at j.degraaf@publiek-politiek.nl , +31 (0)20 521 7678.

Matra

The IPP regularly carries out projects financed by the Matra programme at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( http://www.minbuza.nl/nl/themas,europese-samenwerking/dossier_matra ). 'Matra' stands for 'Maatschappelijke Transformatie' [Social Transformation]. Since 1994 the Ministry has been using this programme to promote the development of a social middle sector, a civil society, in Central and Eastern European countries.

The objective of Matra projects is to strengthen administrative institutions and civil society, and the related activities help to strengthen democracy and the constitutional state. Solidifying the networks between the Netherlands and the target countries (‘twinning’) is the basic concept of the programme.

Examples:

1. School of Politics
’Training for Democracy’ is the name of the programme on democracy, political education and citizen participation that the IPP organises at the School of Politics in Bulgaria. The objective of the School of Politics, a politically independent organisation located in Sofia, is to improve democracy, the constitutional state and good government in Bulgaria. To this end, it aims at enhancing the expertise and the democratic attitude of political and social leaders by organising intensive courses and training sessions for politicians, journalists, administrators and social organisations. The IPP gives a number of these training sessions itself so that the participants can learn from the IPP’s methods and experiences in the Netherlands. 'Training for democracy' will continue until April 2011.
More information: Jochum de Graaf j.degraaf@publiek-politiek.nl , (020) 521 7678.

2. Women in Turkey
From 2003 to 2006 the IPP carried out a project in Turkey to promote the political participation of women there. The project focused on women in general, but its specific target groups were women’s organisations, other NGOs, political parties and government organisations. In 2003 courses were given in five Turkish cities on the ‘train-the-trainer’ model, after which the trainers then gave the courses in their own organisations. In 2004 both training programmes and material were developed and offered to women in four Turkish cities who wanted to become active in national politics. This was also done in 2005, but then for women looking for a position in local politics.

The IPP worked on this project together with the women’s organisation Ka-der, a national organisation of volunteers established to support women in their political participation. Ka-der is a non-partisan organisation with branches in various cities. Using the knowledge and experience gained in addition to the material that has been developed and tested, Ka-der works in its School for Women in Politics.
More informatioen: Lisette Dekker, l.dekker@publiek-politiek.nl , +31 (0)20 521 7657.

More information
In principle, the IPP is open to working together with partner organisations in the target countries of the Matra programme. For more information contact Lisette Dekker, l.dekker@publiek-politiek.nl , +31 (0)20 521 7657.

Finding your way in local government

For a number of years, the IPP has been involved in the project WegWijs op het gemeentehuis, a project in which a group of secondary school students spend a day at the city or town hall working on project proposals and taking the final decision about implementing one of the projects in the municipality. Since 2006 the IPP has been internationalising this method.
Together with four partner organisations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Croatia and Romania, the IPP has developed an exchange project intended to instruct four European partner organisations in the ‘WegWijs’ method so that this method can be further developed and the IPP can learn from the insights and approaches of the organisations in the countries in question.

The first time that 'WegWijs op het gemeentehuis' took place abroad was on 12 October 2006 when 100 students between the ages of 14 and 19 met at the Croatian coastal city of Rijeka to suggest and develop project proposals. The municipal government of Rijeka had designated 10,000 kuna (about 1350 euros) for the implementation of the chosen project. Both the volunteers from Gong and the representatives of the municipal government were very enthusiastic about this project. Since the initial session, a ‘WegWijs’ day has taken place in Rijeka annually.

You can also read the folder ‘Finding your way in local government’.

More information
For more information contact Tatjana Meijvogel-Volk at t.meijvogel@publiek-politiek.nl , +31 (0)20 521 7656.