Tuesday, 26 November 2024

E Editorial

Agora and Liberty Square in Yerevan

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The form of organization of modern societies has its foundation in Ancient Greece, which contributed to various spheres, including science, philosophy, art, and public administration system. Even their Greek names are still preserved.

Markets, the central parts of cities in ancient Greece and later in ancient Rome, were platforms for public life and public decision-making. These "markets" were called Agora In ancient Greece, and Forum in ancient Rome respectively. Agoras and Forums were, in fact, commercial areas, but later became centers of political life, where the need for joint public decision-making led to the formation of public decision-making rules, and in the next stage, the establishment of the institution of those responsible for implementing those decisions.

These were the platforms for creating democracy, governing institutions, as well as election rules and procedures. In the agora, that is, in the markets, those rules and important decisions were engraved on the stones, which were later considered to be mandatory laws for execution.

Back in those days, they understood the importance of putting up the rules of the decision-making for public discussion in terms of being legal and mandatory for everyone. This is how modern institutions were spontaneously developed.

Against this backdrop, now, let's talk about the processes taking place in our "Agora" - in Liberty Square.  A very interesting situation has been created in Armenia.  At least a significant segment of the public does not accept the powers of official governing bodies. In other words, it has a deep distrust of those institutions, as a result of which, by setting up tents in Liberty Square, it tries to create a platform in parallel with the official institutions, through which, according to the organizers’ statements, the resignation of the incumbent government should be achieved.

Let's leave aside the political part of the situation and consider the nature of that "Agora". Accordingly, any public process has a transparent form of organization and a list of those responsible, and decisions are made publicly or simply presented to the public with specific justifications. The main requirement is clarified, and the final results of the meetings are clearly formulated. If we use business vocabulary, the result must be measurable.

In other words, there should be criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the given initiative.

These are the simple rules that were understood and applied three thousand years ago in Ancient Greece, which made it the origin of modern civilization. Unfortunately, three thousand years later, these simple rules have not yet been understood in our "Agora" and, of course, have not been observed. This is probably the reason why the desired results are still unattainable or maybe not required for us.

The Armenian Center for National and International Studies

Yerznkian 75, 0033
Yerevan, Armenia

Tel.:

+374 10 528780 / 274818

Website:

www.acnis.am

  

The views of the authors do not necessarily reflect those of the Center.

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