Everyone can explain what democracy is. Power of the people. What exactly does it mean? In short, we elect presidents and deputies of all levels according to our own preferences, thus delegating to them powers on our behalf. Then, as a rule, we are disappointed in most of them, and then everything goes in a circle, and there seems to be no way out.
But why does this happen? Those who have realised that the main function of the state is not to plan and regulate the lives of citizens by law, but rather to promote the development of the individual, understand that democracy is not exactly what is happening in many countries today.
Let’s recall some history. Where did public life take place, for example, in ancient Rome and Greece? What pictures do we see in our minds, shaped by books and films? These are the squares where important events were discussed, the arenas where people were entertained by various spectacles, and we can also recall ancient baths and markets.
Every historical centre of any European city has such places that remind us of the past social life. And, for some reason, it is to them that one is drawn most of all. They are the centres of attraction for the whole city, people go to them. They like to stay there, visit cosy cafes, and socialise. This is the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, where there is a copy of Michelangelo’s famous sculpture of David, Piazza San Marco in Venice, Freedom, Vague, Concorde squares in Paris, Rynok Square in Lviv and many others. These places excite you and you want to come back to them again and again.
What do we see in modern cities, and not just ours? Most of them are devoid of such attractive places for people. Instead, roads and pedestrian paths lead us not to cosy centres of communication, but more often than not to another urban thoroughfare, which means that when planning neighbourhoods, all sorts of problems were taken into account: transport, economic, engineering, but not the need of an individual to communicate not only with neighbours and work colleagues, but also with other residents of a particular territorial unit. It can be a small village, a neighbourhood or a city block. But in order for such a unity of people to take place, other planning decisions are needed when designing the urban environment, which will contribute to the development of public life, and with it, ultimately, responsible democracy. When we talk about responsible democracy, we mean that before society realises that a decision is in its favour, it needs to be discussed, opponents’ opinions need to be heard, and if they are well-reasoned, we need to try to agree with them. This is how beliefs are formed, and with them a person grows up, becomes more educated and able to make useful decisions, not vice versa. You might say that it is impossible to force a person who has been pushed to the wall by a stream of passing cars for many years and only dreamed of returning home or getting to their place of work to communicate with strangers, alien to them, and even on important topics. And you would be right.
Creating attractive places where people can feel free is a crucial task for architects, artists and residents themselves. Indeed, such places should be designed in such a way as to take into account the historical, local and cultural characteristics of a particular part of the living environment. Without community involvement, it is impossible to create a full-fledged project for a residential neighbourhood or district, no matter how creative and talented the team of architects and artists is.
That is why this practice has been used in developed European countries for quite some time. It works, various models of residential neighbourhoods with community involvement have already been created and the living conditions in them are being studied. And the residents of these neighbourhoods feel much more confident because they have contributed to the creation of their own environment. The main thing is that all this was done as a group, issues and problems were discussed and the necessary decisions were made. This is how responsible democracy develops. This is how we should do it here.
Because after such a terrible ordeal, not only our cities and villages have to change, but also we ourselves. Our society, which has demonstrated that it can make decisions on its own, must be united not only at the state level, but also at the level of individual territorial units. Such a unity of communities, architects, artists and local authorities should give a huge impetus to the development of an individual, and this should be the main goal of any state if it wants to be truly democratic and not slip into totalitarianism, where we have already been.
