session 4: participation and politics
Participation as an essential feature of politics, from social movements to participatory democracies, from campaigning sprees to public international institutions. We are going to test the hypothesis that without willing engagement with one’s polity, there can be no politics.
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Special weekend activity:
It's Your Country! (three-hour simulation) led by Diederik Stolk and Brahim Harmane of Pax Ludens, The Hague. |
student reflection
© The Godfather (1972)By Robert de Meel
BSc (Hons) Medicine, Leiden University
Today we did a group experiment about group dynamics in governance. As the experiment was a surprise, we had not prepared anything. This made the class activity very spontaneous. The game we played was about governance on different levels (national, regional and local). The purpose of the game was not clear, however we had to try to keep ‘our citizens’ alive and try to achieve the highest quality of life possible for ‘our citizens’. The first problem I encountered was whether I had to try to get the best results for my local community, for my region or for the whole nation. When I asked who I had to serve, the ‘game master’ said that I could make my own definition of ‘citizens’. I chose to define ‘citizens’ by those living in my local community. This had a great impact on my strategy.
In my region first there was an attempt by our ‘regional leader’ to fall into communism and to merge all the people and resources. With my definition of ‘citizens’ I of course was fiercely against this ‘movement’. Fortunately I convinced the rest of the region to reject this merge and fall back into individual communities. As argument I said it was important for each community to try to achieve the highest production possible in the most efficient way. This could only happen when every community thought about its own interests.
My primary objective was to keep all my citizens alive. This objective was accomplished at the end of the game as not even one of my citizens had died because of food shortages. I had to be harsh and did not let possible starving in other communities affect my actions as these people were not my ‘citizens’. Also I tried to achieve the highest quality of life possible. Again I did not care for my neighbours as they ended with quality of life percentages as low as 5%, while my people had a quality of life of 60%.
One of the most important factors for my success was information. The saying ‘information is power’ is true, but you also need to know how to act on this information. I tried to find communities who were greatly in need of ‘infrastructure’(the only product my community produces). Then I tried to sell my‘infrastructure’ for the best rate possible (always somewhat more profitable for the other community than what the world bank had to offer). In order to get for example 5 ‘services’ for 3 ‘infrastructure’ I would argue that infrastructure would last longer (as only 1/3 was consumed every turn) and that infrastructure increases production. When the exchange rate of world bank went up it was actually lucrative for me as I could ask for more.
Even though the production potential of all the communities together could have made our country prosperous, we had unnecessary deaths and low quality of life because of lack of information and inefficient decisions.
BSc (Hons) Medicine, Leiden University
Today we did a group experiment about group dynamics in governance. As the experiment was a surprise, we had not prepared anything. This made the class activity very spontaneous. The game we played was about governance on different levels (national, regional and local). The purpose of the game was not clear, however we had to try to keep ‘our citizens’ alive and try to achieve the highest quality of life possible for ‘our citizens’. The first problem I encountered was whether I had to try to get the best results for my local community, for my region or for the whole nation. When I asked who I had to serve, the ‘game master’ said that I could make my own definition of ‘citizens’. I chose to define ‘citizens’ by those living in my local community. This had a great impact on my strategy.
In my region first there was an attempt by our ‘regional leader’ to fall into communism and to merge all the people and resources. With my definition of ‘citizens’ I of course was fiercely against this ‘movement’. Fortunately I convinced the rest of the region to reject this merge and fall back into individual communities. As argument I said it was important for each community to try to achieve the highest production possible in the most efficient way. This could only happen when every community thought about its own interests.
My primary objective was to keep all my citizens alive. This objective was accomplished at the end of the game as not even one of my citizens had died because of food shortages. I had to be harsh and did not let possible starving in other communities affect my actions as these people were not my ‘citizens’. Also I tried to achieve the highest quality of life possible. Again I did not care for my neighbours as they ended with quality of life percentages as low as 5%, while my people had a quality of life of 60%.
One of the most important factors for my success was information. The saying ‘information is power’ is true, but you also need to know how to act on this information. I tried to find communities who were greatly in need of ‘infrastructure’(the only product my community produces). Then I tried to sell my‘infrastructure’ for the best rate possible (always somewhat more profitable for the other community than what the world bank had to offer). In order to get for example 5 ‘services’ for 3 ‘infrastructure’ I would argue that infrastructure would last longer (as only 1/3 was consumed every turn) and that infrastructure increases production. When the exchange rate of world bank went up it was actually lucrative for me as I could ask for more.
Even though the production potential of all the communities together could have made our country prosperous, we had unnecessary deaths and low quality of life because of lack of information and inefficient decisions.