The transformation of the citizen participation

The complexity of the social, economical and political structure of a metropolis as Mexico City has derived in the past years into the search and application of a new institutional order. Said process has been characterized by the transit of a vertical public administration, depending of the Federal Government, to the integration of local government organizations and the search for new mechanisms for the citizen participation in the public government.

Until 1997, Mexico City, which was governed by the President of the Republic, was one of the last federal capitals of Latin America (along with Buenos Aires in Argentina that elected its authorities one year earlier) in having a government elected by the democratic venue.

With the democratization process of the city, the political rights of the citizens were widened and the organizations of public representations were reconsidered. This reverberated, among other areas, in the transformation of the local representation and the re design of the instruments for the participation of the citizens at the public issues.

The participation appears then as a phenomenon related to the issues of democratic governance and the modernization of the public government.

The introduction of new mechanisms of citizen participation during the political reform of the Federal District

After the national political reform of 1996, and once that the Head of Government of the Federal District was elected the following year, for the first time in decades, the citizen participation was one of the issues presented to discussion at the capital, in the framework of the political-electoral reform of 1998.

Actually, one of the projects of the reform corresponded to the promulgation of a new Citizen Participation Law, which achieved a high consensus, and therefore, was unanimously approved in the core of the Legislative Assembly on November 26, 1998.

With this law, the figure of Citizen Councils, whose sole background was carried out in 1995, was substituted by the figure of Neighborhood Committees elected by the universal vote of the citizens. With the committees, the citizen representation was organized around geographical spaces named territorial units, which are proximate to the boundaries of the quarters, localities, towns and habitation units, different from the former neighborhood meetings, created in 1970 along with the current 16 political entities of the Federal District.

In the law of 2004 the Citizen Committees were created replacing the figures of Neighborhood Committees, which will be elected by universal, free and secret vote of the citizens; but now through the Citizen Elective Meetings, organized in each one of the territorial units in which the Federal District is divided. Also, in all those territorial areas there will be an instance of coordination of the Citizen Committees with the authorities of the territorial unit with the authorities of the Government of the Federal District, named Citizen Council.

It is important to point out that, in accordance to the fifth transitional article of that law, the current Neighborhood Committees and the local organization forms formally established at the Federal District, continue in office until the Citizen Committees are elected.

The current Citizen Participation Law of the Federal District

The law issued in 1998 was substituted by the Citizen Participation Law of the Federal District of May 17, 2004, and since then it has been reformed in six occasions, on January 28, May 16 and July 13, 2005, May 15, 2007, December 30, 2009, and finally on May 27, 2010.

In this context, with the latest amendments to the Law in May 2010, were added Citizen Organizations as a tool for citizen participation. It also created the figure of the Village Council, which is the representative body of citizens in the native villages, which maintains the traditional figure of authority according to their rules, procedures and practices. It is the equivalent of Citizens' Committee.

Regarding the procedure of choice for Citizens Committees, it is noteworthy that the geographical context has changed, moving from territorial units to colonies, this means that now  a Citizen Committee shall be elected for each colony of the Federal District, or  more than one, because the LPCDF empowers the IEDF to divide the colonies which exceeded three thousand citizens (Article 92, second paragraph).

In addition to the geographical context, another major change in this procedure is that the Citizens Committees will no longer be elected by the Citizens Elective Meetings, but through an elective day.

Thus, the Citizen Participation Law of the Federal District in force, contains the following instruments: plebiscite; referendum; public bills; Popular Consultation; citizen collaboration; accounting presentation; public publicity; network of citizen comptrollers’ offices; visits from the head of the borough, citizen organizations, and citizen meeting. Each one of these instruments is explained briefly as follows.

Plebiscite: Through this instrument, the Head of Government of the Federal District is entitled to consult the electors to express their previous approval or rejection to his acts or decisions that in accordance to his judgment are important to the public life of this entity. (Articles 12 to 22)

The incorporation of this instrument to the Law of 1998 represents an innovation in the mechanisms of direct participation. To carry out a plebiscite it is necessary that the 0.5% of the registered citizens in the Registry of voters that carries out the corresponding call. This citizen petition is expressed by means of a list that contains the name, signature and elector code of the solicitors. The organization of the plebiscite and the determination of the results will be in charge of the Electoral Institute of the Federal District.

In order for the result to have a binding result, it is required that the elected option obtains by the majority of the valid votes and this later corresponds, at least, to the third part of the citizens registered at the Registry of voters.

A relevant difference between the law promulgated in 1998 and the one of 2004 is the percentage of citizens registered at the Registry of voters that could request the Local Executive Power to call for a plebiscite. In the first law considered 1% while the second law considered only 0.5%.

Referendum: This instrument by means of which the citizens express their approval or rejection over the creation, modification, derogation or abrogation of laws that are within the authorities of the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District (ALDF) (Articles 23 al 33).

The referendum is a resource oriented towards the legislative function, where the creation of laws can be submitted to the consideration of the citizens. Notwithstanding, it has no binding effect, this means, it cannot force the Legislators to take it under consideration.

There are two forms to request the Legislative Assembly to carry out a referendum: 1) by the initiative of one or more of its deputies; or 2) by the request of the 0.5% of the citizens registered at the Registry of voters. Notwithstanding, it is the exclusive authority of the ALDF to decide, by resolution of the third part of its members, if it submits or not the approval of the law in process of creation, modification, derogation or abrogation to a referendum.

As part of the reforms of 2004, the Legislative Assembly determined, as with the plebiscite, to decrease the percentage from 1 to 0.5 of the registered citizens in the Registry of voters in order to request a referendum.

Popular bills: This is a mechanism by means of which the Federal District submits to the Legislative Assembly drafts of creation, amendment, reform, derogation or abrogation of laws and decrees belonging to its competence (Articles 34 to 41).

As it happened with the procedures of plebiscite and referendum, this instrument of participation is incorporated to the Law of 1998. Likewise, a popular bill has to be supported by at least 0.5% of the citizens registered at the Registry of voters (1% pursuant to the law promulgated in 1998), in order for the Legislative Assembly to admit carrying out the corresponding study and opinion.

Popular Consultation: Through this instrument, the Head of Government, the instances of the public administration of the Federal District, the Legislative Assembly, the Citizen Meetings the Citizen Committees, and the Citizen Committees or all of them individually, by their own means or collaborating, submit to consideration of the citizens by means of direct questions, forums or any other instrument of consultation, different issues of importance to the different theme and territorial areas of the Federal District (Articles 42 to 45).

Before the reforms of the Citizen Participation Law of 2004, it was called Local Consultation. With such legal modifications, the Head of Government and the Legislative Assembly received the express authority to, if the case might be, issue a call for carrying out a Popular Consultation. Prior to that, these consultations were called exclusively by the heads of the political entities of the Federal District.

The results of the consultation are considered elements of judgment for the exercise of the function of the authority that calls them and its publicity is established in the area in which it was carried out, in a term no longer than 30 calendar days starting from the date it took place.

Citizen collaboration: Through this means the inhabitants of Mexico City can collaborate with the organizations of the public administration of the Federal District and government instances of the localities, in carrying out a construction or providing a public, collective or communitarian service, providing for its performance economical, material or personal work resources (Articles 46 to 48).

A modification to the Citizen Participation Law of 1998 consisted in the fact that the citizen collaboration could also be carried out with the organizations of the public administration of the Federal District, additionally to the political entities.

Accounting presentation: Based on this figure, the inhabitants of the city have the right to receive from their local authorities general and specific reports regarding their acts and, based on such reports, to evaluate the acting of their public servants. Also, the local authorities of the government will render at least annual reports for the purposes of evaluation of the inhabitants of the Federal District (Articles 49 to 50).

This new instrument of participation is integrated to the law since the reforms of 2004.

Public publicity: This form implies that the local authorities of the Government of the Federal District are forced to establish a permanent program of public publicity regarding the actions and functions under their command in accordance to the terms set forth by the applicable law (Articles 51 to 56).

In the framework of the law of 2004 the permanent program of public publicity must be approved by the Head of Government, considering the opinions of the heads of the boroughs.

Network of Citizen Comptroller’s Offices: This is the instrument that permits the citizens to voluntarily and individually assume the commitment of collaborating in an honorary manner with the public administration of the Federal District, in order to secure the transparency, effectiveness and efficiency of the public expense (Articles 57 to 62).

This new instrument of participation is incorporated to the law by the reforms of 2004. The citizens that participate in the collegiate enteritis of the public administration of the capital will have the title of citizen comptrollers and will be accredited by the Head of Government of the Federal District.

Public Hearing: It is an instrument by means of which the inhabitants of the Federal District can propose to the authorities the adoption of agreements or carrying out certain acts, receiving information of the administrative organizations regarding their performance, delivering claims or requests, as well as evaluating the compliance to the established programs (Articles  63 to 69).

With the reforms of 2004, the inhabitants of the Federal District will be able to propose to the Head of Borough as well as to the Head of Government and the heads of the organizations of the public administration of the Federal District, the adoption of certain agreements or carrying out certain acts. Prior to this modification, the public hearing was exclusive competence of the Head of Borough. Also, the call can be made by the government levels aforementioned.

Visits of the head of the borough: With this provision, the Heads of the Boroughs are forced to carry out periodical visits within their territory, in order to verify the form and conditions under which the public services are rendered, as well as the status of the sites, constructions and facilities of interest to the community (Articles 70 to 73).

It must be pointed out that, along with the public hearings, this is a style that had been used traditionally by the Heads of Borough to relate and attend the inhabitants of the community, to which the formality of being an instrument of citizen participation was granted since this Law.

Citizen Organizations: Are all those moral figures nonprofit that its action scope is related to the interests of one of the colonies of the Federal District, and having recognized in its statutes, at least one of the following objectives: to stimulate citizen participation in public life, manage, represent and defend in front of the governing bodies of the Federal District the interests of its members and the general public and promote the development of  civic or social actions in order to improve quality of life strengthening of citizenship and civic culture.

Citizen organizations have the right to obtain registration; to participate actively in the instruments of citizen participation; to participate in meetings of citizens' assemblies, through a representative with a voice and vote;  to join the Citizens Councils; to receive information from government bodies of the Federal District on the exercise of their functions; to express an opinion regarding the plans, programs, projects and actions of government; to submit proposals for decisions, plans, policies, programs and actions government bodies; to receive training by the Electoral Institute of the Federal District; and to participate because of the invitation and in coordination with the Electoral Institute, in the programs of education, training, advice and assessment (Articles 77 and 78).

Citizen Meeting: This is the permanent instrument of information, analysis, consultation, deliberation and decision of the issues of social, collective or communitarian character. Its meetings will also be carried out to revise and follow the programs and public policies to be developed in its Territorial Unit (Articles 74 to 85).

This instrument of participation is incorporated to the law by the reforms of 2004.

The Legislative Assembly can be called by the qualified majority of the Citizen Committee, by the relevant Head of Borough, by the Head of Government or by the 0.5% of the citizens that reside at the corresponding Territorial Unit.

Experience in the application of the instruments of citizen participation in Mexico City

Notwithstanding the consensus achieved to establish a new legal order regarding the citizen participation, as well as the democratization character that this process means, the experience in its application is still limited.

From 1999 to 2007 only two procedures of citizen participation have been carried out: a citizen election and a plebiscite..

As it has been pointed out, the first experience in the election of neighborhood representation organizations for Mexico City took place on November 12, 1995, date in which 365 citizen counselors were elected.  Latter, with the creation of the Electoral Institute of the Federal District in 1999, an organization of professional officers took care of organizing at the middle of that same year the election of Neighborhood Committees. The index of participation in this process was less than nine percent of the Registry of voters of the capital.

The same electoral organization, which up to this date has organized three constitutional elections, took care in the year 2002 of the Plebiscite called by the Head of Government to know the opinion of the inhabitants of the Federal District over the construction of a road construction for the city. In this occasion, the level of participation was less than 7%.

In spite that the majority of citizens that participated at the Plebiscite of 2002 voted in favor of the referred construction, the result was not mandatory to the authorities of the capital; insofar the percentage of participation was far from representing the third part of the Registry of voters of the city. Notwithstanding, apart from this requirement and considering the sense of the vote of the citizens that attended to the urns, the Government of the Federal District decided to carry out the construction of the second levels.

Currently, the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District and the Electoral Institute of the Federal District, have taken actions tending to amend the Citizen Participation Law of the Federal District, from the institutional perspective of each instance.

Until this moment the events organized are the ones that are described as follows:

• 1st and 2nd Forum of Citizen Participation organized by the IEDF and the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District.

• Memory of the internal consultation of the IEDF for the preparation of the Project of proposal of reforms to the Citizen Participation Law of the Federal District.

The model of citizen participation at the Federal District is therefore, a process whose regulation requires of adjustments tending to understand and attend the cultural, socioeconomic and political development of the capital of the Republic, with the purpose of strengthening its different instruments.