Klášterec nad Ohří
Duration of the case: 1 year (autumn 1999 – autumn 2000)
Prepared by: Věra Slezáková
Agora Central Europe, Czech Republic
March 2001
Abstract
Agora Central Europe (Agora CE) conducted a participatory project – involvement of citizens
into decision making on communal level in the city of Klasterec nad Ohri. The project was
based on Agora CE Seven steps model - preparing the project, setting the rules, motivating
and involving citizens, choosing priorities – a first public meeting, drafting plans and
preparing activities, decision making and implementation of action plans. The project
proved people are willing to participate. It started the series of successful projects of
Agora CE in the whole country.
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Background
The town of Klášterec nad Ohří expressed an interest in taking part in the first round of the
project called ‘The Citizen and the Town Hall – Conflict or Partnership?’, for which
Agora had received a grant from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in early 2000. The
project is described in the following case study.
About the organization
Agora Central Europe (hereafter referred to as Agora CE) is a Czech non-profit organisation
founded in 1998 with the aim of helping to enhance communication between local
governments, central government bodies and citizens. Its founder Eric Berman based his
work on experience of citizen participation in the Netherlands. The founding of Agora CE
was assisted by the Dutch sister company Agora Europa Foundation and the Dutch Institute
for the Public and Policy.
Agora Central Europe’s general mission is to support democratic processes with the
following objectives:
 Enhance communication and co-operation between citizens and municipal offices,
 Expand the possibilities of municipal offices to plan and make decisions and to involve
citizens in these processes,
 Generate interest of citizens in community issues,
 Back the development of local democracy in the Czech Republic,
 Assist in enhancing the political culture in the Czech Republic.
Major activities and projects
Agora CE carries out a number of activities to achieve its main mission and objectives. All
activities can be divided into four main groups:
I. Citizen participation and engagement of citizens in the policy-making processes
Agora CE creates, co-ordinates and implements specific projects of citizen participation in
decision making in municipalities and regions. Agora CE can provide general management of
the process or just short-term consultations on the basis of the needs of municipalities and
regions.
II. Public debates- development of new discussion forms, enhancement of democracy
Agora CE considers debates on everyday life to be an important step on the way towards the
enhancement of democracy in the Czech Republic.
Agora CE came up with a new concept of public debates in Prague. Agora CE, in
co-operation with the daily newspaper Lidové noviny, organises very lively, interactive and
interesting public debates on current issues every month.
Agora CE prepared a TV programme, "People’s Parliament. It is a precisely
structured discussion programme where the "parliament" consists of a varied sample of the
population and its members discuss current issues.
III. Sharing knowledge – seminars, conferences and publications
Agora CE organises seminars, courses and conferences on partnership and
involvement of citizens in the decision-making process. Agora’s experts provide training
courses on the use of new methods of communication with citizens and public debate
moderation.
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Agora CE published handbooks “Seven Steps To Citizen Participation” and “The
Town Hall Listens to Citizens” (also available in English) in 2001. In 2004 Agora CE
issued a brochure “We Know How To Make Everyone Reach Agreement” and a
methodology handbook “Community Planning Of Social Security Services – A
Methodology”.
IV. International projects
Agora’s experts participate in international projects in Central and East Europe. Their
experience from a post-communist country is highly appreciated.
Agora CE assists on projects in Ukraine, Croatia, Latvia and Serbia.
Other activities
Agora CE has prepared a documentary “What Democracy Means” in co-operation with
the Czech Television. The aim of the documentary is to attract citizens and
representatives, to show them possibilities of participation and to raise their interest.
Methodology
Agora CE used the Seven steps model of involvement citizens into decision making:
1. Preparing the project
2. Setting the rules
3. Motivating and involving citizens
4. Choosing priorities – a first public meeting
5. Drafting plans and preparing activities
6. Decision making
7. Implementation of action plans
Description of the implementation
What was the specific method? First of all, the citizens were involved in the project by means
of questionnaires distributed among all households in the town. In the questionnaires, they
could express their standpoints on the key problems. At the same time, town hall clerks
launched telephone interviewing, and this unusual form of polling the citizens turned out a
great success. A total of 13 local government members and town hall employees were calling
citizens selected at random four nights a week, asking them the questions already included in
the questionnaires. In this way, the civil servants established close contacts with citizens, and
relationships at the town hall improved as well.
The outcomes of telephone interviews as well as newspaper version of the survey were
assessed by students of sociology. Some 950 filled-in questionnaires of a total of 5,300 handouts returned to the town hall, which we perceive as an extraordinary success. Another 420
citizens of Klášterec were surveyed by means of telephone interviews, and the total number
of 1,370 answers is a result town can be proud of. The involvement of local citizens is
immense.
Within the next phase, a public meeting was held to introduce the outcome of the surveys.
Again, the response was great, as more than 250 people turned up and the officials had to
cope with a lack of tables in the room. At the public meeting, citizens commented on the most
serious problems they were experiencing. The problems were ranked in order of their
urgency, and working groups were set up to tackle the five most serious problems. The
working groups were made up of citizens who expressed interest in working on the problems
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at the meeting. The problems chosen by the citizens concerned tidiness and safety, the
premises of an old china factory, retail outlets and a supermarket, and traffic.
Each working group held several sessions, attended by town hall employees. The groups also
sometimes asked further experts to attend the sessions and provide their standpoints. Some
sessions were rather excited, but all participants soon understood the chief objective – a
search for a mutual solution.
Results
The outcome of the work of all groups, the so-called action plans, were introduced to the
public at a second public round-table meeting, held in May at the local community centre
again. This second meeting was also very lively. This was the first time the action plans were
presented, and it was interesting to watch the different reactions to some of the proposed
solutions or measures, on the part of both citizens and local government members.
Another opinion poll, designed to find out about the support for individual solutions among
the Klášterec public, was held at the beginning of June. The results of the second survey –
support for individual solutions – were presented to the local government at its extraordinary
session on June 29. The local government acknowledged all action plans and, at the same
time, ordered the Commission for the Municipal Development Strategy to include these
solutions in the strategy. The local government approved the strategy in November.
Lessons learned
Therefore, it can be said that from the standpoint of Agora CE, the project in Klášterec has
ended. We think that it has been very successful; owing to the great enthusiasm of the
initiators of the project, a huge number of citizens were involved in it – far more than we had
expected. Hence, we would like to thank everyone a lot.
But the project is not over in fact: we are still in for the implementation phase, and we hope
that this pilot project was only an instruction on how to employ Klášterec citizens in the
decision-making on issues that concern everyone.
Contacts information
Ing. Věra Slezáková, project in Klášterec nad Ohří
Tel.: ++420 602 807 847
Agora Central Europe
Petra Rezka 12
140 000 Prague
Czech Republic
Tel: ++420 261 222 914
E-mail: info@agora-ce.cz
www.agora-ce.cz
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