The Institute for Political Empowerment
Who are we
The Institute for Political Empowerment carries out activities in areas that enable residents to successfully integrate into political life and raise the quality of political engagement. By empowerment we mean knowledge acquisition, education, and targeted training, so our services are designed to be accessible and intended for a wide range of people. New, modern and, above all, comprehensible political education is inevitably necessary for the formation of new thoughts and actions in the community.
The idea of political empowerment arose from the paradox we have been facing in recent years. On the one hand, there has been an incredible increase in the importance of politics in our lives, and on the other, a decline in interest in politics and a refusal to learn anything about it. This paradox is present both in individuals and in political parties and at all levels of government. We are witnessing a growing callousness, numbness and lack of a concrete purpose and idea that would guide us in political engagement. The meaning and confidence in the essence of political life must be restored to the individual.
Who can we benefit?
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All members of society should acquire basic political knowledge and skills, regardless of whether they want to engage in activism or politics continuously or professionally. Why? Even if we don't deal with politics, politics deals with us. In the political sphere, laws and other regulations are adopted that are binding on everyone. It is there that decisions are made about the distribution of our money and its consumption, which must be aimed at achieving the highest possible standard of living.
Any parent can find himself in a position where an educational reform is planned or implemented that harms the interests of his children. Any student of any science or art can find himself in such a position with the changes in higher education. For any peasant, the public authority can threaten the natural environment necessary for quality production or change the rules of the market in favor of competition, regardless of the quality of production. We all depend on the decisions made in the field of health, social and pension insurance, the labor market, security...
Any parent can find himself in a position where an educational reform is planned or implemented that harms the interests of his children. Any student of any science or art can find himself in such a position with the changes in higher education. For any peasant, the public authority can threaten the natural environment necessary for quality production or change the rules of the market in favor of competition, regardless of the quality of production. We all depend on the decisions made in the field of health, social and pension insurance, the labor market, security...
Even following media information about politics or participating in periodic elections will not help us protect our interests if we do not know how to "decipher" the information (who are the interested participants, what are their motives, intentions and mutual relations, who is an ally of whom and who the opponent...), nor to properly define who we are voting for (who is competent for which area, what powers they have, which regulations they must follow and how these regulations are adopted...).
Therefore, even in principle apolitical individuals do not have the privilege of being so if they want to effectively protect and realize their interests and values.
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Some of us want to actively control, initiate, and direct social and political processes, while remaining outside the position of formal holders of legislative and executive power. These are civil activists who can work in a wide variety of social fields. They unite around different interests and values.
Non-governmental organizations can operate in the field of protection and development of children and youth, elderly persons, persons with special needs, national, religious, racial, sexual, and other minorities, protection of the environment, natural and cultural heritage, and animals. Trade unions deal with the protection of the social and labor rights of employees in various sectors and branches of economic and other activities, professional associations with the improvement of professional standards and achievements, and cooperatives with the protection of the interests of producers of various goods or providers of various services. Religious communities preach their teachings and protect the rights of their members to profess their religion and devote themselves to humanitarian and cultural activities, while ethnic organizations protect the rights of their members to use their own language and script and preserve traditions and improve culture.
The areas of activity of associations and organizations are diverse. Nevertheless, they are united by the need to know the institutional framework in which they operate and the tools they have available to realize their interests (referendum, popular legislative initiative, campaigns, protests...). They must know the sectoral policy implemented in their area of interest and the actors with whom they have similar or conflicting interests. They also benefit from negotiation, media, and other public speaking skills. Journalists should also be included in this target group, since by the very nature of their work they are a kind of civil activists, and they have a great influence on each of the areas in which civil activism is directed.
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In every society there are people who want to participate in the most direct way in the formulation and implementation of laws and policies in practice, either as members or officials in political parties or as independent candidates. Our Institute especially supports all those who want to get directly involved in politics and run for office. We prepare a special program for them, with which they win the elections. We also advise on how to implement mandates and policies in practice. Our courses are prepared both for those who perform their functions voluntarily and for those who are professionally engaged in politics at all levels of government.
Regardless of which category an individual belongs to, he can only successfully engage in politics if he knows the political system well: vertical division of powers (division of powers between higher and lower authorities, from local self-government, through the sub-national level of government in some countries, to state level and the European Union in member and candidate countries), horizontal separation of powers (separation of powers between legislative and executive and their interdependence in different systems or separation of powers between legislative, executive and judicial and the relationship between them in different systems), internal party systems (organization and mode of operation of parties as key holder of political activity), electoral system (institutional mechanism of transfer of electoral votes to the personnel composition of elected authorities), political scenes (number, balance of power and mutual relations of parties and coalitions within elected authorities, as well as fluctuations in the number of votes, which are received at different levels and in different areas), »political compass« (systems of values and ideas represented by different parties and other political participants, their influence on electoral power and the ability to form a coalition) and others.
Of course, given their personal professional interests, political participants must also know relevant sectoral policies at least to the extent that civil activists know them, which also includes negotiation skills and media and other public speaking skills. As a rule, all these segments of knowledge must be acquired not only at the level of one's own political community, but from a comparative point of view, at least from the point of view of their application at the EU level. Journalists should also be included in this target group, since practically every content they publish affects some branch of politics.
The special target group of the Institute are experts and successful individuals from various fields of science, business, art, and others without previous political experience, who have realized that they need to engage politically to achieve broader interests. However, after entering the legislative or executive body they are faced with ignorance of the functioning of institutions, the dynamics of policy implementation and their effects. This group is exposed to a high risk that its best intentions and exceptional competences in certain areas fall victim to an inert system - due to disappointment and unfulfilled expectations, its potentially excellent political engagement is interrupted. Inadequate presentation of good decisions to the public leads to a loss of popularity. Therefore, one of the Institute's goals is to provide services to such politicians to save them valuable time and energy and ensure the sustainability of their political engagement.
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