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peaceful use of them is a critical factor for the democratic development of the
society. As the government people want to have the public trust in the
government, the government people need to have the trust in the general
public. They should make efforts to introduce and enrich systems and measures
for the public to have more and easier access to government offices and
government information on policies and activities. They should try to increase
opportunities for the people to participate in the process of government and
administration such as policy planning, making and implementation, monitoring
and evaluation through various organs and opportunities such as advisory
councils, policy forum, and town meetings..

Second, the existence or “fostering” well informed active citizens is
important. Whatever government systems exist, democracy is fostered and
supported by the people in the final analysis. Education is of crucial importance.
Practice and experience is important. Experience at school and in local
community is effective to understand the democracy. Experiencing the process
to consider subjects or issues of common interest or concerns, to speak, to
listen to what others say, to discuss, to persuade, to negotiate, to make a
compromise, to decide, and to carry out what is decided is important to train
young people to address issues constructively and to solve problems in peaceful
manner. There are many opportunities at schools and in local communities.
These are really the school of democracy. There are many cases of active
participation of the people at various stages of the government and
administrative process. The existence of the well informed active citizens is a
prerequisite for the appropriate sustainable democracy.

Third, the existence of pro-democracy, influential mass media is important.
With the rapid development and considerable changes in ICT technologies and
their usage, the world of media has drastically changed. The influence of the
so-called social media is enormous. However, it is not so easy for the general
เอกสารประกอบการอภิปรายร่วมระหว่างผู้แทนจากต่างประเทศ
public to get necessary data and information continuously. News is “consumed”
every day. New News comes in and old news disappears. Citizens need to be
well informed continuously or can have access to data and information
continuously. The high quality, unbiased, informative mass media continue to be
the extremely important infrastructure for appropriate sustainable democracy.

Finally, the role of opinion poll is to be mentioned. In many countries,
public opinion poll is regularly carried out. In Japan, major newspaper
companies, news service agencies and TV networks carry out opinion poll every
month and more frequently when the election comes close. Questions and the
results of survey are made open to the public. The question and answer which
attract the attention most is the ratio of people’s support of the Prime Minister
or the Cabinet, and political parties and reasons why people support or not