The involvement of citizens in any country’s political process is an essential part of democracy. This is measured through increased citizen participation in local governance which is the current trend in leading democratic states around the globe. 

In Rwanda, grassroots polls which started this week enable citizens to vote for their local leaders such as cell executive committees, including members of cell councils, councilors of sectors and districts, district mayors, as well as representatives of women, youth, and people with disabilities.

This kind of citizen participation in electing their local leaders plays a crucial role in the realisation of goals of national development both at the individual and collective levels.

Through grassroots representative democracy, socio-economic sustainability becomes an all-encompassing phenomenon that makes it an essential task to accomplish.

Notably, alienation of grassroots-level citizens from mainstream decision-making in representative democracy and increasing distance between citizens and government is one of the major problems affecting developing economies.

Most of the countries where democracy is said to be below the par is when the local populace hardly have a chance to choose their own leaders.

Meanwhile, in a sustainable democracy, the political power ultimately must reside in the common people. A new school of thought argues that the advancement of democracy and of sustainable development must be at the heart of citizens’ shared endeavours.

It relies on conventional econometric measurements as its main unit of accounting in addition to the real political gains added to society.

Local participation by voters and candidates drawn from the same village, district or province provides credibility and legitimacy to the entire national democratic process.

The local administration becomes a training ground for citizen’s civic education and for future national leaders. It demonstrates that people have the power and will to exercise it at their very own level.

In fact, they become more aware, interested and willing to participate in democracy when they see their officials as neighbours and what is at stake as something close to home.

It is at the local level that we see the best example of how democracy is connected with the daily lives of citizens, they feel and appreciate being part of the entire system.

The physical proximity of the neighbourhood has the same benefits which can be compared to the modern online community created in social media sites, for instance, a Facebook or WhatsApp group with people having common interests and shared values express and exchange views and insights, influencing one another freely.

This is the same case when local community with the same shared spirits collectively participates in a process.

In other words, citizens’ right of assembly and participation at the local level nurture the longevity of democracy in any given society.

To foster a sustainable democracy, a nation must focus its efforts on building a system that empowers people not only through the right to vote, but also through norms, institutions and values that support that right and make it meaningful. This enhances knowledge and skills of participants in building democratic organizational structures, implementing democratic decision-making and communication processes.

In so doing, as Mahatma Gandhi articulated the organic nature of democracy, "the spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within.” Indeed, people have to be the engineers of any democracy.

They must spearhead and own it.

The heart of democracy beats only with the participation of all citizens in exercising their rights. First by their inclusion in the political agenda issues of concern to them and second to choose those whom they feel would best address their concerns in the political process.

The same political process must be viewed along with the level of development. If development is uneven, then too is the state of democracy. Democracy and development are two sides of the same coin. Having very organized grass-roots political initiatives help them address and solve local issues through collective action, which translates to fostering economic agenda.

Therefore, the structural transformation of modern society towards sustainability can only be achieved through an organised democratic fashion. There is an implicit premise that when democracy is inherently better, more stable, rational, beneficial and legitimate then economic sustainability becomes automatically achievable.

For democracy to strive, however, it only needs to adapt to the reality of the local people when it comes to securing improvements in living conditions. Rwanda’s smooth and calm grassroots elections is a great opportunity in equipping every citizen to create the ripple effect that is needed to translate democracy to deliver sustainable development.

The good records in Rwanda’s development score card are attributed to this grassroots initiatives and decentralization as among the contributing factors. As one scholar once said, ‘democracy is not just a question of having a vote.

It consists of strengthening each citizen’s possibility and capacity to participate in the deliberations involved in life in society.’ This is the right course!

oscar.kimanuka@yahoo.co.uk