Process of National Agreement in Costa Rica
The Process of National Agreement in Costa Rica, called the "Consensus for a Shared Future" was convened by the President-elect in 1998 after elections that showed a high degree of electoral abstention and a tight difference between the main candidates. Individuals who voluntarily decided to participate in the conciliation process had to comply with the rules of participation, mechanisms for taking agreements, and structure and hierarchy of the bodies, as established in these regulations; respect for the agreements reached; no carrying out or favoring any action that promotes or strengthens any unfair practice against the conciliation process; and respect the opinions of others, the right to dissent and the right of everyone to express and defend their rights. This process of agreement was developed through various bodies that interacted with each other. They were: the National Forum, the Coordinating Table, the Board of Mediators, the Agreement Verification Commission, and the Executive Secretariat.
Institutional design
Formalization: is the innovation embedded in the constitution or legislation, in an administrative act, or not formalized at all?
Frequency: how often does the innovation take place: only once, sporadically, or is it permanent or regular?
Mode of Selection of Participants: is the innovation open to all participants, access is restricted to some kind of condition, or both methods apply?
Type of participants: those who participate are individual citizens, civil society organizations, private stakeholders or a combination of those?
Decisiveness: does the innovation takes binding, non-binding or no decision at all?
Co-governance: is there involvement of the government in the process or not?
- Formalization
- embedded in the constitution/legislation
- Frequency
- single
- Mode of selection of participants
- restricted
- Type of participants
- civil society private stakeholders
- Decisiveness
- democratic innovation yields a non-binding decision
- Co-Governance
- yes
Means
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Ends
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