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Topic Discussion III
Participation in
Democratic Decision-Making:
The Vital Voices of Women, Civil Society and
Pluralism
Room 2
(7 of 21 pages)
I would like to move on very quickly to the idea of pluralism or multi opinion
or multi point system. It is true that democracy can only be boasted through giving more opportunity for the freedom
of expression for all and everyone in terms of designing the programs. However I would like to give some concrete
examples from those who are in the ruling the world. What can we say about pluralism? Pluralism while it is considered
as support for democracy, and opportunity to make democracy stable, and flourishing, if we have many [inaudible]
political parties, this will lead to instability in certain societies and that's why all democracies that are taken
as examples are examples of democracy where pluralism is quite limited and multi-party system has it's limit. We
all know that the USA has only two major parties. Either the democratic or the republican parties and I think that
this can be said in relation to France as well, where they have a certain number of political parties, which are
aiming at making a unifying their ranks.
This of course applies to Germany as well. When we call for pluralism or multi party system in developing countries,
should be, should go in a specific direction. Yesterday it was said that in one country, they are talking about
120 political parties which means 120 programs, 120 orientations and this of course is not on in a country which
aims at going in a certain direction which is a minimum coordination and harmony and programs.
This leads me to another topic, which is again, a little bit outside our scope, which is Morocco. Morocco has always
been insofar as these three issues are concerned, has been a pioneering country. Despite that fact that it has
been under colonialism in the past, of course shredding off colonialism is not easy and it still has certain implications,
and we can see it's facets rising to the surface sometimes according to the strategies in the world. However, I
would like to say that Morocco has it's own history and culture. It has its institutions and as of the outset,
Morocco has abducted a very clear principle, which is pluralism. And has not into the mono or uni party system.
Despite the fact during post independence to the national party was one and only, but after that pluralism has
become our motto. In order to enable the civil society to express itself and many trade unions or associations
came to the forefront and they became part of those who were calling for independence. As for the woman's issue,
legally speaking and particularly in as far as the politics is concerned, the laws stipulate for what is so called
equality.
The constitution as of the 60's stipulates for this equality however, the social differences do not allow for that
and that's why we find that women's presence is still low and feeble and as proof is I am the first woman, or one
of the first two women who have entered the parliament in '93. From that time, that is say from the time of independence,
to the time of our arrival to the parliament is 40 years and this shows that it has taken us a long time to do
that. But generally speaking, the Moroccan women and even the Moroccan parties are endeavoring nowadays to create
opportunities for women to have more access to political life. And the idea of participation has become an idea
which is very acceptable in the political parties and the political society and we are very concerned in order
to make it and measure for the elections that are going to take place at the parliament to the level in two years
time and we hope that our members, fellow MPs will strive to achieve that, in order to give women the status which
is appropriate to her roll in the economic and social lives as well as to the Moroccan women's qualifications.
And we all know that women are capable and should take up an important role. That was very briefly what I wanted
to present before you in this meeting and thank you for having taken the pains of listening to me. Thank you very
much.
Marina Ottaway: Thank you. Before opening the floor for questions, let me just remind you again of a few
things could be useful to everybody if the speaker identified himself or herself very briefly, just tell us which
country you come from, whether you come from the Angio sector, from the government, from the opposition I think
it would help everybody. There are several issues of great interest that have reason I think issues of a very practical
nature. Let me just pick out a few of them that I hope we can perhaps discuss a little more. One issue that has
come out quite well in all the presentation is that while legislation is extremely important in making participation
possible, legislation is not the only factor. There are social obstacles that are not simply going to be eliminated
by a stroke of the pen. So that perhaps in the discussion of what can be done, we need to focus both on what can
be done in terms of changing legislation, but also what can be done in terms of facilitating the participation
in other forms. Related to that very importantly, the idea that has been put on the table is that whether quotas
and affirmative action have a role to play, I know that this is an enormously controversial issue, but it is not
an issue, it is an issue that needs to be discussed. Finally the other issue that came out clearly in this is the
fact that while participation is a very good thing, participation can also backfire. There can be if you want too
much participation in the wrong way. That political parties can become far too numerous as an Italian who has citizen
of the country who has become the symbol of political instability, due to the excessive number of political parties,
I can sympathize with that. So there is an issue of also how participation can be channeled in constructive directions
rather than becoming a source of instability. Let me stop here and open the floor.
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