Čačić: Liberals are absolute legalists and legitimists
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Zagreb, 27th October – „Liberals are absolute legalists and legitimists. When legislation isn't realistic, it is our obligation to speak about it", said Radimir Čačić, CPP president on a Political Academy seminar about strategic political planning, taking his cue from political analyst Davor Gjenero's lecture about liberal-democratic subjects related to the local elections.
„CPP invests the most into recognizing political talents and educating its staff", Gjenero said at the start of his lecture. He continued with the explanation of liberalism's ideology as opposed to socialism and conservatism, remarking that parties are a part of democracy, and that, if they function according to the Constitution, they are key democratic mechanisms.
„Liberalism is, as conservatism, a civil political ideology. However, liberals differ from conservatives in the fact that their view of the world bases itself on rational judgement and decision, whereas conservative ideology bases itself on tradition, irrational elements, moral and faith. Introducing moral as a political criterion, conservatives (like Christian democrats) introduce collectivism into political decisions, while liberalism is an individualistic political ideology. Further, liberalism is an „advancement" ideology and stands for social development, whereas the basis of conservatism and christian democracy is the maintenance of a social status-quo", said Gjenero at the start of his lecture.
He continued in clarifiying that liberalism, politically speaking, is a civil ideology (liberal parties were historically created in the parliament, through the connecting of representatives of liberal world views) as opposed to socialism which was created, as a political ideology, in opposition to parlamentarism. Socialists gather politically outside of the parliament (laborists, for example, with the help of syndicate organisations), similar to nationalist and populist movements. He also said that socialists and liberals are linked by the fact relating to two advancement ideologies which is based on political rationalism.
Gjenero highlighted here that liberalists are individualists as opposed to socialists and conservatives which belong to collectivists and defined socialistic collectivism as „class", as opposed to conservative which is „national". Speaking about the advocacy of a state social policy, he said that both liberals and socialists advocate it, unlike conservatives who think that it only serves to violate the acting of market patterns. Socialists consider a market economy as itself provoking injustice and that it should be limited, as well as the right to private property. On the other side, liberals think that the market is the only successful machanism of resource allocation, but that the state must ensure every individual's right to equal participation in social life and market competition. Every member of a society has an equal and general right to vote, by the same logic he is entitled to a right to participate in a part of a society's wealth.
„A liberal social policy insists on every individual's responsibility for their fate, where a socialist one is inclined to a paternalistic approach, sponsorship and a redistribution which allows an individual to becoma a „client" of the state, instead of being a responsible person", highlighted Gjenero.
In the second part of the lecture, he said that both conservatives and liberals intercede for the principle of the reign of rights. The conservative political philosophy is based on a concept of sovereignty, that is, the existence of an institution which has an unlimited right to bring about social decisions. For conservatives, a law is a law already by the fact that it was enacted in some circumstances. A law is better for them the older it is and the longer it regulates a given social practice. Liberals, as opposed to them, consider a law legitimate only when it is enacted through a lawful procedure, respecting the social consensus, which is rational and contributes to the general good. As opposed to the liberals, for which legislative procedure, is before everything else a rational process, conservatives think that what is important in it is moral, tradition and spontaneity.
„Politics is a rational trade for liberals which serves to realise social benefits, and the state is a framework which enables such a trade for the benefit of the general good", concludes Davor Gjenero. Taking his cue from Gjenero, the CPP president said that CPP is characterized by its values. Liberal democrats are expected da use their head to think rationally. Speaking on the rule of rights, that is the relation to the law he emphasised that the most important thing is to create a functional system.
„Liberals are absolute legalists and legitimists. When the legislation isn't real, it is our obligation to speak about it. A funkcional system based on the principle create, then distribute must be created. Investing into education and quality of staff, enables investing into freedom. Only through such investments can we reach a component of excellence which enables us not to be reduced to the weakest link. Only through education can we reach that which is best among us", highlighted Čačić.
In the second part of the seminar, Marijana Grbeša from the University of political sciences, University of Zagreb lectured. Speaking of the strategy to creating an election campaign she remarked that parties in the country show a much greater degree of organisation in national and local election campaigns. In order to build a strategy for a contemporary campaign it is important to follow all 8 steps. The beginning is analyzing the context, defining the goal, analysing the market, and furthermore, a target group must be determined, the image of the candidates/party, the general tone and type of campaign and finally, define the themes of the campaign.
„Market analysis is the alpha and omega of every political campaign, without research there can't be a good campaign. There are too many variables in a campaign to do it by heart. Market analysis is therefore the first step, and the definition of the message is the final result of all steps. With market analysis surveys are extremely important and it begs the question as to whether media presentation of surveys can truly influence the voters preference?", said Grbeša. To follow up, she said that public opinion studies can only tell us to who we will speak in the campaign, which is so called market segmentation. It is exactly for this reason that public opinion studies are important for local elections and other tricky subjects in every individual milieu, because we are able to know who we are speaking to and who our potential voters are.
In the second part of the lecture a workshop on the subject of creating a local election campaign strategy for the City of Zagreb due in 2 months, was held. On the example of the workshop, the elections saw, among others 3 independent and one party candidate. Participants had to make a campaign strategy on the basis of steps they heard in the theoretical part of Marijana Grbeša's lecture.
„Electoral success depends on the political moment and the social context in which the elections are held. Every single elections are special! Electoral success is always a combination of several factors. The basis of each successful campaign is a carefully defined strategy and there aren't any advertisements that can hide a lackof strategy. Believe me that there isn't a magical formula to win elections, but there are steps which you can undertake in order to increase the possibility of you success. The final rule is to follow all steps during strategy creation, to be creative", concluded Grbeša.
The seminar was held as part of the 4th department of CPP's Political Academy sponsored by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for freedom, and the people that took part were presidents and spokespeople of county organisations, city spokespeople and Academy teachers.