Democracy Beyond Deliberation
Citizens’ Forums for Inclusive & Agonistic Democracy
Democracy Beyond Deliberation
Modern democratic societies are characterized by diverse identities, interests, values, and political perspectives that are frequently marginalized or undermined by institutional representation. Differences relating to ethnicity, religion, class, gender, geography, livelihood, generation, and political orientation generate competing understandings of social priorities and public interests.
The Citizens’ Forums (පුරවැසි සංසද / பிரஜைகள் மன்றம்) are established as inclusive public spaces where these differences and conflicts can be articulated, discussed, and constructively contested. Rather than seeking to eliminate disagreement or impose artificial consensus, the Forums create sustained opportunities for citizens to engage with competing perspectives while recognizing the democratic legitimacy of adversaries.
Grounded in Chantal Mouffe’s theory of agonistic pluralism, the initiative recognizes that conflict and disagreement are inherent features of democratic politics. The democratic challenge is therefore not to suppress conflict, but to transform potentially antagonistic relationships (viewing opponents as enemies to destroy) into agonistic relationships between legitimate adversaries bounded by democratic recognition.
Five Central Principles
The Citizens’ Forums operate according to five non-negotiable democratic pillars designed to foster sustained citizen participation, pluralism, and constructive community contestation.
Pluralism
Different identities, interests, experiences, and political perspectives are formally recognized as legitimate and indispensable components of democratic society.
Agonistic Engagement
Participants are encouraged to challenge ideas, policies, and positions constructively, while recognizing the constitutional right of others to express competing views.
Equal Citizens’ Voice
Particular attention is devoted to groups whose voices are conventionally absent, weak, or silenced in mainstream socio-political decision-making processes.
Democratic Contestation
Disagreement is treated as an essential, healthy component of democratic life rather than automatically as a problem requiring forced consensus or suppression.
Constructive Citizens’ Action
Connecting discussion and contestation with practical citizen action, community initiatives, and structured, organized engagement with public institutions.
Overall & Specific Objectives
Overall Objective: To strengthen an inclusive, participatory, and pluralistic democratic culture by creating sustained spaces where citizens can articulate diverse interests, engage in constructive political and social contestation, and participate meaningfully in decisions affecting their communities.
Eight Major Project Activities
The programmatic framework encompasses eight structured community-level action lines designed to activate citizens, empower workers, advance interspecies justice, and hold public authorities accountable.
Establish Citizens’ Forums
Establish permanent Citizens’ Forums at community, divisional, and district levels across Sri Lanka. Each forum operates with an inclusive membership structure, transparent assembly protocols, and clear democratic voting procedures to ensure community ownership.
Community Listening and Issue Mapping
Conduct grassroots consultations across villages and estates to identify:
- Major community concerns and systemic grievances
- Competing economic and land interests
- Excluded voices and local structural inequalities
- Public-service delivery gaps and infrastructure priorities
- Issues generating tension or disagreement within communities (understanding where perspectives differ rather than assuming false consensus)
Agonistic Dialogue Sessions
Organize structured civic forums around contested public issues following the agonistic dialogue model:
Issue ➔ Different Perspectives ➔ Evidence & Experiences ➔ Contestation ➔ Possible Areas of Collective Action
Participants are trained to question arguments without personal attacks or denying adversary legitimacy, articulating agonizing subjects into a shared collective will for civic change.
Citizens’ Assemblies / Public Accountability Forums
Hold periodic, high-impact public hearings where ordinary citizens directly interface with:
- Local municipal and Pradeshiya Sabha authorities
- Elected parliamentary and provincial representatives
- Public sector service providers (health, water, agrarian services)
- Collective groups leading agonistic struggles (land rights movements, environmental advocates, animal welfare representatives)
Politics First Youth Forums
Articulate the passionate engagement of youth to take a proactive leadership role in democratic renewal:
- Politics as a Life: Developing moral and political leadership beyond institutional electoral politics
- Reading the Neoliberal Self: Examining technology, technocracy, equality, and justice as sustained struggles
- Representation Beyond Humans: Exploring the future of conviviality between Humans, Non-Humans, and Nature
Women’s Engagement in Agonistic Democracy
Develop institutional mechanisms ensuring women’s perspectives are not merely included numerically, but genuinely govern decisions:
- Women's Cooperative Alliances: Building citizen-oriented cooperative production and distribution networks in local economies
- Civic Leadership Training: Empowering women's passionate engagement on vulnerable issues (land tenure, public health, child rights, environmental defense)
- Political Literacy: Connecting local experiences to global women's rights and economic justice movements
Workers’ Forum (Plantation & Informal Sectors)
Establish estate and plantation workers in an autonomous public platform to advance their struggle for recognition, wage justice, equality, and dignity:
- Workers School & Community Library: Education, reading, and civic political analysis by and for working people
- Decision-Making Shaping: Influencing local council budgets, collective agreements, health, and environment institutions
- Climate Crisis Resilience: Disaster preparedness for landslides, floods, and precarious mountain housing
- Community Kitchens: Direct mutual-aid actions targeting food insecurity and malnutrition in plantation communities
Nature Front & Interspecies Justice
Humans’ moral engagement to foster conviviality between Humans, Non-Humans, and The Nature, developing a Human Front representing Sentient Beings:
- Critical Animal Studies: Interspecies justice, entangled empathy, and granting moral status to animals and nature
- Direct Civic Action: Youth groups exposing illegal poaching, protecting forest boundaries, and compelling wildlife authorities to enforce laws
- Voice for the Voiceless: Formal representation of animal rights and ecosystems in Local Government and District Environmental Forums
- Nature Regeneration: Establishing community mangrove nurseries and protecting endemic regional species
Broad & Socially Representative Target Groups
Rooted in Laclau and Mouffe's Chain of Equivalence, the Forums link diverse societal demands—from estate laborers to wildlife protectors—under a shared democratic framework for equality, participation, and accountability.
Primary Target Groups (Community Mobilization)
The core grassroots base whose direct voices and lived experiences form the bedrock of the assemblies:
Secondary Target Groups (Institutional Dialogue)
Key duty bearers and civic actors engaged through public accountability interfaces:
Seven Expected Outcomes
Measurable civic shifts resulting from the establishment of permanent agonistic forums across the districts.
1. Increased Participation
More citizens, particularly historically excluded groups, actively engage in discussions concerning public affairs and local priorities.
2. Recognition of Pluralism
Communities develop deep awareness that societies contain genuine, legitimate differences of identity, culture, and political perspective.
3. Managing Disagreement
Participants acquire the ability to contest opposing views without treating competitors as enemies—the core Mouffean agonistic foundation.
4. Citizen–Institution Channels
Establishing binding pathways through which communities communicate grievances, scrutinize budgets, and compel state responsiveness.
5. Voice for the Voiceless
Elevating marginalized human communities alongside non-human sentient life and regional natural ecosystems in municipal decision-making.
6. Democratic Accountability
Local authorities and departmental decision-makers encounter regular, structured, community-led scrutiny and social audits.
7. Community Civic Leaders
Grassroots citizens acquire practical mastery in public negotiation, advocacy, democratic facilitation, and the defense of the Public Good.
Anuradhapura
Kurunegala
Anuradhapura
Kurunegala
Monaragala
Badulla
Monaragala
Badulla
Nuwara Eliya
Colombo
Nuwara Eliya
Colombo
Puttalam
Vavuniya
Puttalam
Vavuniya
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Citizens Forums Coordinators
Rev. Fr. Rohan Silva, OMI
Director & Civic Advisor
director@csrsrilanka.lk
Civic Mobilization Lead
Head of Grassroots Assemblies
forums@csrsrilanka.lk
Legal Literacy Facilitator
RTI & Public Interest Advocacy
rti@csrsrilanka.lk