GFDD and FUNGLODE’s Honorary President Recognized for Outstanding Regional Leadership

The former President of the Dominican Republic , Dr. Leonel Fernández, and honorary President of GFDD and FUNGLODE stated  last Thursday, that  the only viable model of true democracy is through citizen participation.

Dr. Frenández  described participatory democracy as "the relationship, the ongoing interaction, the dialogue between those who govern and those who are governed.’’ This form of government, he
continued, is what makes progress, growth, prosperity and people’s welfare possible.

He also said that the new Constitution, enacted in 2010 in the Dominican Republic, is the result of exercising participatory democracy, because Dominican society has actively participated in its evolution through its various civic organizations.

President Fernández made these statements during the Forty-Seventh Annual Conference of Executives (CADE): "Towards a new democracy with the participation of all". During the meeting, the 2013 CADE chairman, Themistocles Rosas, made a special acknowledgement to the former Dominican President Fernández, taking into consideration the important leadership role that he has played in Latin America and the
Caribbean.

When talking about the DR’s new Constitution, Fernández said the Dominican Republic, wanted to move from our nineteenth-century liberal Constitution to a modern Constitution of a democratic and social state subject to the rule of law.” He explained that creating the new Dominican Magna Carta "was not just the meeting of a group that outlined the guidelines and
decided.’’  He affirmed that, all these social groups were consulted to put forward their respective aspirations and vision regarding the organization of a modern state in the Dominican Republic. "The response was overwhelming. We received tens of thousands of proposals stating what type of society, and the exact nature of the state that should be established".

The former Dominican President added that the new
Dominican Constitution also enshrines the participatory budget. A measure that aims for civic organization, through their leaders, to decide how to allocate the resources that must be invested in their respective areas.

Another of the achievements of the new constitution is the creation of the Dominican Economic and Social Council, an advisory body to the Executive Power, which ensures continuous collaboration between the Executive and the civic organizations in
any given project.

Furthermore, Dr. Leonel Fernández stressed the importance of the referendum and the plebiscite, two new statutes contained in the new Substantive Law. In this regard, the former head of state affirmed that, "in case of any controversy, when important decisions need to be taken regarding issues that are not only within the Executive framework, a plebiscite or a referendum is called in order to have the people’s voice regarding
an issue of great importance or a vital problem for the interest of the nation."

As part of his lecture, Fernández said that, the phenomenon now occurring in the Dominican Republic is happening  around the globe; "No one can rule in isolation from society," he proclaimed.

After this conference Fernández traveled from Panama to
the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to participate in the International Accompaniment Program to be held in a context of upcoming presidential elections.