RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS

Building Pro-European Democratic Culture through Capacity Building of Creators of Public Opinion

Change of attitudes and value orientations of citizens of Serbia is one of the main prerequisites for both a successful process of transition and consolidation of democratic system. The process of values' transition is a very complex and constant process. However, attention and efforts paid to that process are not commensurate with the importance of this issue. A prejudice is widely spread that the success of reforms will be achieved exclusively by the economic growth. Value orientation of Serbian citizens, is considered in the public, especially in the media, as a second-grade, although it can be the key to development, stagnation, and also regression.

A great number of different projects, as well as public opinion researches, carried out by CeSID in the previous period, have given valuable empirical data and reliable insight into dominant values of the voting body in Serbia . Gained experience and collected data, stood as a motive and basis for the outline of the project “Building Pro-European Democratic Culture through Capacity Building of Creators of Public Opinion”.

The findings of the above-mentioned activities, in which CeSID's volunteers were engaged, show that dominant values of the voting body in Serbia are not congruous with declarative orientation of the majority of voters towards the European integration. Issues of the greatest importance for a considerable part of the voting body in Serbia are oriented to the past, to disapproving the processes that are an indispensable condition for reforms (first of all disapproving privatization) and thus point out to the absence of the basic consensus over the ways to overcome numerous obstacles on the way towards the European integration. If we add to this some other occurrences like selective acceptance of international integrations, low level of tolerance of different ethnical, religious, and in general socially excluded groups, widely-spread prejudices and stereotypes, it becomes clear how attitudes and dominant values of (the majority of) citizens represent a serious barrier to the process of reforms. The mentioned attitudes, along with the legacy of the authoritative period of the 1990s, create undemocratic, political culture which provides a base for non-European values and leads our society to isolation.

The basic idea of the project “Building Pro-European Democratic Culture through Capacity Building of Creators of Public Opinion” is to make sensible and stir to activity creators of public opinion (representatives of political parties, civil sector, the media, and the unions) that should represent the main power for the change of dominant values of the voting body in Serbia, that is, citizens in general. In outlining the project we proceeded from the assumption that it is much more efficient to have as direct target groups creators of public opinion in local communities, although we have been aware that the best way is a direct interaction with citizens .The influence that well-informed creators of public opinion have on their community is really great. CeSID has found its role within the process of changing political culture and values of citizens in the field in which it has exceptional experience – in the field of public opinion research. On the basis of that significant segment, further work on that process will be left to the network of creators of public opinion.

The realization of the project “Building Pro-European Democratic Culture through Capacity Building of Creators of Public Opinion” began on March 1 st 2005 an will last 20 months altogether. Within the process of implementation of the project the following activities have been envisaged:

1. Problem Identification through Public Opinion Research
   
   Capacity Strengthening of Creators of Public Opinion starts with identifying attitudes of citizens towards issues that are identified as the greatest social problems, establishing value orientations that dominate the mentioned attitudes.
   
   However, the research will not end here. The aim is to come to the foundations on which dominant values rest, which represents a large step further in researching public opinion.
   
   Five researches that should include 7000 interviewees all over Serbia have been envisaged within this project. Conducting these activities has been enabled by the existence of a developed and large network of CeSID's regional and local centers, coordinators, collaborators and volunteers.

2. Research analysis and making recommendations
   
   After conducting the research, CeSID's team of experts in different fields of social sciences will analyze collected data and make recommendations. The recommendations will include possibilities for the change of dominant undemocratic values and the change of non-European political culture. Findings and recommendations will be printed in the form of publication intended for the target group of the project – creators of public opinion.

3. Presentation of findings and making recommendations to creators of public opinion
   
   Each cycle within the project includes conducting 30 presentations in the form of round tables. Round tables will be organized for representatives of political parties, non-governmental organizations, unions and the media. Presentations will be given in towns, in the centers of regions; within these CeSID's expert team will adjust recommendations to every region in compliance with its specific features.

These activities have as their objective the initiation of informal networks and coalitions made of creators of public opinion within different sectors in the regions where the project is being carried out. Such informal groups should with time take the main role in the systematic action of promotion of pro-European political values and culture.

The realization of the project “Building Pro-European Democratic Culture through Capacity Building of Creators of Public Opinion” has been enabled by the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Belgrade .

All information about the project, carried-out activities and results will be presented on the CeSID's web page regularly.