The City council recently stepped up work on the reelection of old and establishment of new Bodies of Self-organization of Population (BSP). A new Sample regulation is already worked out and approved. There also will be held first report-electoral conferences in the near future. On these conferences we will be able to see the effectiveness of BSP activity in our city. Cherkasy citizens can make a decision – to elect a new executive staff of BSP of to keep effective one.
The problem of effectiveness
Still, established in our town BSP haven’t become a bulwark of democracy and haven’t gained any popularity and trust of citizens. Of course, we can’t put all BSP on the same level, some of them worked more effective, and some only imitated active work. It’s interesting that most of BSP heads haven’t become well-known residents of micro districts which they represented.
We can hear a lot from executives of BSP about the reasons of their ineffectiveness and insufficient activity. Between the most widespread excuses are, firstly, the lack of funds and material-technical base, and secondly, a small number of paid positions, because people are usually engaged on a voluntary basis. That is quite believable indeed, but if to take a look at BSP work in all Ukraine, it's easy to see that Cherkasy City council is one of the few that do allocate finances for BSP activity. In our city this allocated budget funds BSP usually pays for two positions.
As we can see, there are basic means. Is there a problem only in finances than? Although the new policy is aimed at the development of self-organization in our country, there are no educational establishments for preparing executives of these organizations. All inefficiency and discrediting of this institution of democratic governance that we can observe today is only due to the low-quality management. The system of exchanging good practices between different BSP of the state is not well-developed, although there were some initial attempts to create it. The most active developers of BSP in Ukraine today are international institutions, which support material and intellectual condition of BSP with their grant funds.
A threat of politicization in no publicity conditions
Maximum involvement of citizens. Report-electoral conferences are to start in local BSP, but are the problems that prevented effective activity of current executives taken into consideration? Were citizens maximally informed for involving the largest possible number of people to the election process? Great competition for the head of BSP gives a chance to elect skilled manager who will qualitatively carry out his functions. Such leader will have higher level of public legitimacy what will help him in attracting citizens to the local problems.
Politicization. Today are held first systematic report-electoral conferences in our city’s BSP. Thus, as long as these bodies are elective, there will be political struggle as in all elective bodies. If local elections will be conducted the next time by mixed or majority system, then effective heads of BSP will get sufficient level of recognizability to become members of City Council. That is why BSP can be an effective platform for the political struggle of certain branches for the future political power. It is understood and can be used for personal purposes by the main political players of our city who have at least a small resource.
Besides that, a significant level of politicization of the BSP will prevent penetration of efficient personnel, because the institution will be focused not on the social, but on political benefits. Thus, if the power is really willing to effectively develop such institutions, then forming new executive body of BSP should be transparent and open as much as it’s possible. Additionally, after report-electoral conferences are held, there must be done complex training of all heads and members of BSP.