The Democratic Political Forum is a project implemented by the Centre for Democracy Foundation in cooperation with Fridrih Ebert Stiftung.
The goal of the project is to contribute to improving the image of politics within Serbian society by motivating political parties to attune their programmes and activities to the major concerns of the population, by encouraging the people to participate more in the political process and by promoting a political culture.
The project is aimed at developing channels of communication between the public and the policy makers by organising public debates on various policy issues and by setting up and maintaining an interactive web portal which would provide a framework for the participation of the public in policy making and a tool to promote dialogue between politicians, members of the public, policy makers, non-governmental organisations and experts.
The idea for the project was mainly inspired by a widely held belief among democratically oriented and active politicians, scholars and NGO representatives that there is no strategic political debate in Serbia, a debate which would include all major social actors and stakeholders in defining and promoting key social values in search of the best policies for different areas that are undergoing reform.
So far, we have organised over 70 debates on different topical issues. The Forum gathered policy makers, MPs, representatives of independent institutions, eminent experts, NGO activists and media representatives. The general public has access to these debates through TV broadcasts. Some of the issues we have raised in the Forum are:
- TOLERANCE AND DISCRIMINATION
- DECENT WORK IN SERBIA: STANDARDS AND PRACTICE
- NIKL: ECONOMIC PROFIT AND ECOLOGICAL RISK
- HUMAN RIGHTS AND SECURITY SERVICES
- FOOD QUALITY AND SAFETY, THE HEALTH OF THE PUBLIC AND THE GOVERNMENT’S ACCOUNTABILITY
- INFORMATION ETHICS – STRIKING A BALANCE BETWEEN FREEDOM OF THE PRESS AND RESPONSIBILITY
- THE SOCIAL PRICE OF PUBLIC COMPANY RESTRUCTURING
- DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES
- VIOLENCE AND SCHOOLS
- THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC COMMUNITY: SOLIDARITY AND PROFIT
- SOCIAL CHALLENGES FACING THE YOUTH
- PHILANTROPY AND HUMANITARIAN WORK
- SERBIA AFTER THE ELECTIONS
