Online simulation game "Our Community" on 13th/14th April and 26th/27th April 2021 – Romania and Moldova
On 14 April, the simulation game “Our Community” began for students from Romania or Moldova. The fictitious city called “Our Town” is undergoing political upheaval and the task of the participants is to arrive at overall political decisions despite increasing differentiation. In this simulation, each participant played either the representative of a party or a particular lobby group.
After the introduction on the first day, we started with methods of democracy and its basic values. Lively discussions of the participants developed, and different views were shared. Then the simulations started. The development of roles and the first preparations in the new roles were the end of the first day. The next day the first step was to get to know the interests of the other parties but also of the lobby groups. For this purpose, party programmes and lobby programmes were designed and shortly presented on a padlet. Then the tragic and sudden death of the mayor put the politicians of “Our Town” on to a whole new level. The third day of seminar started with a longer presentation of the programs. After that it was time to come to an agreement and find common views. In various coalition talks the parties of “Our Town” tried to form a coalition. The Lobby Groups tried to influence the political decisions. The coalition talk took place until the night came. On the next day, after these long negotiations, the coalition managed to win the election for the new mayor of “Our Town”. With this election and many new promises for the future of “Our Town” the simulation ended on 27th of April.
The participants shared their experiences with the simulation game in a very personal feedback - above all, the power of a single argument.
The event was organised by the CIVIC-Institute in cooperation with the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation Romania and Moldova.
