Total budget: MKD 1.794.180

Timeframe: 01.06.2019 – 30.11.2020

Constituents

The project will cover at least four representatives of each of five political parties, both in the parliament and out of it; among them, there are youth and women’s organizations of four regions: Skopje, Polog, Southeast and Southwest. Members of the parties whose visibility is significant will be included, while not officeholders, to be able to freely discuss without fear for their careers, then the youth who are less burdened with prejudices and members of the women’s organizations of the parties, and other subgroups of the parties that we consider to be ready to play the role of “bridge builders” for communication with the opposite side.

On the Project Supported by Civica Mobilitas

“Social Normalization: Strengthening the Political Dialogues and Depolarization of the Public Discourse”

Background for the Action

After the end of the political crisis, in the period of 2015-2017, the country faced the challenge to release the institutions from the “state capture”, i.e. to liberate them from the authoritarian rule of the political parties that make the executive power, which is superior to the legislative and judicial power. Additionally, the political crisis has caused strong polarization in the society which is an additional threat for establishing a reform process. Moreover, the studies in the area of communications and discursive analyses of the political and ruling styles and policy building show that the polarization is a central tool to maintaining populist and “non-liberal” (authoritarian) manner of governance.

Therefore, the proposal for depolarization will focus on improving the political dialogue between opposite political parties and strengthening the supra-party alliances in policy creation. Additionally, the focus will be on depolarization of the discourses in the civil society and media as a significant representative of the public and social processes.

GOALS AND RESULTS

Goal: Contribution to depolarization of the society by changes to the discursive practices of political antagonism and dialogue between key social actors.

Objective: Building a depolarization model via dialogue and stimulating supra-party alliances in policy creation by including political parties in the parliament and out of it, CSOs, media and other social actors.

Results

  • Raising the public awareness about the necessity of depolarization as a condition to achieve essential reforms in accordance with the “Blueprint”, Urgent Reform Priorities and Recommendations of the expert group led by Reinhard Priebe;
  • Dialogue among the relevant social stakeholders and promotion of a depolarization model;
  • Establishing an informal network with several CSOs in dialogue with the political public and local (but also national) media representatives to set the priorities and practical goals in advocacy policies with supra-party interest and mobilize political party representatives, and, if possible, government and opposition representatives in the parliament.

Activities

  1. Analysis of polarizing discursive practices;
  2. Workshops for depolarizing the public discourse;
  3. Publication of the depolarization model;
  4. Series of public discussions;
  5. Establishing a supra-party alliance.