Democratization Civil Society and Democratic Governance For the ODIHR, the fundamental aspect of civil society is the voluntary participation of citizens in community life – both local and country-wide – either directly or through organizations or institutions. The extent to which this participation is transparent and effective is a measure of the quality of democratic governance within a given country. Over the past 15 years, the ODIHR has sought to strengthen this participation in line with the OSCE commitments on civil society in general and on NGOs in particular. Since 2004, the ODIHR has taken a more comprehensive approach to strengthening democratic practices by developing and adopting an inclusive strategy characterized by working simultaneously with civil society, political structures, and government institutions. Building on results of the 2004 Human Dimension Seminar on Democratic Institutions and Democratic Governance, the Office intends to complement other programmes aimed at strengthening institutions, legal reform, and promotion of the rule of law with this emphasis on strengthening democratic processes through increasing transparency and expanding participation in policymaking. Two new pilot projects conducted in 2005 are providing valuable insights to further develop this new approach. In addition, the ODIHR continues to facilitate the participation of NGOs in major OSCE events. Main Issues k Democratic culture: More than a decade of OSCE work in the area of democracy-building has shown that democracy is more than a checklist of institutions and laws. A true, functioning democracy also requires the compatibility of norms, rules, and traditions of a given society with a culture of seeking the common good through deliberation. It is only through such a culture of democracy that institutions will be able to function democratically both internally and in relation to one another. k Political representation: International democratization programmes implemented in the OSCE region since the early 1990s have mainly targeted two sectors: government institutions and NGOs. Political parties have been involved in a much less systematic manner, despite the evident problems of weak political actors with poor representativeness and accountability. Political parties need to be effective in order to ensure the proper functioning of legislative structures, a necessary precondition for the promotion of inclusive democracy. Indeed, if political parties are to foster democratic governance effectively, they need to govern themselves democratically as well. k Parliamentary reform: Parliament is the democratic institution par excellence, where citizens’ opinions and government meet through the interaction of parties and factions, whether in opposition or in power. Institutional development of political parties and parliamentary reform are therefore two processes that should go hand-in-hand. 30 ANNUAL REPORT 2005