New Models Of Participatory And Direct Democracy

Horizontal Democracy Now: From Alterglobalization to Occupation

by Marianne Maeckelbergh

Interface: a journal for and about social movements 4(1)

This article examines the 15 May movement in Barcelona to explore some continuities and discontinuities between social... more This article examines the 15 May movement in Barcelona to explore some continuities and discontinuities between social movement responses to the economic crisis and previous experiments with horizontal democracy within global social movement networks. Specifically, this article examines two meeting structures embodied in the occupied square in Barcelona to explore the mechanisms through which decision making within the 15 May movement foster diversity and embrace conflict. Based on a decade of involvement in the alterglobalization movement, attendance at meetings in the acampada in Barcelona at the height of the 15 May uprising, as well as follow up interviews and discussions with long-time activists in Barcelona, this article shows how the decision making practices used in the squares in Barcelona mimic, build on and expand on horizontal decision-making methods practiced within the alterglobalization movement. Some of the dilemmas created by the grounding of horizontal decision- making within local squares and the much larger scale of these meetings are explored.

Participation, Public Policies, and Democracy (International Solidarity and Anti-Militarism in the Basque Country and Catalonia)

by Asier Blas Mendoza

R. Gomà, R. González, S. Martí, Ll. Peláez, M. Truñó, P. Ibarra, M.J. Monteserín, y Asier Blas (2003):“Participation, Public Policies, and Democracy (International Solidarity and Anti-Militarism in the Basque Country and Catalonia)”, in Ibarra, Social movements and Democracy, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 169-194.

La participación: estado de la cuestión

by Asier Blas Mendoza

Blas, A. y Ibarra, P. (2006): La participación. Estado de la cuestión. Bilbao: Hegoa Working Papers.

Poder político y participación. Demokrazia: ogi gogorrari hagin zorrotza.

by Asier Blas Mendoza

Martínez, Z. y Blas, A. (2008): Poder político y participación. Construyendo Ciudadanía 11. Bilbao: Eusko Jaurlaritza-Gobierno Vasco.

Port Huron at Fifty: The New Left and Labor: An Interview with Kim Moody

by Christopher Phelps

Published in Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas, Volume 9, Issue 2 (summer 2012): 25-46.

This interview with Kim Moody, who was present at the Port Huron convention of 1962 as a twenty-two-year-old Johns... more This interview with Kim Moody, who was present at the Port Huron convention of 1962 as a twenty-two-year-old Johns Hopkins University student, illuminates the early history of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), especially the neglected labor-related portions of The Port Huron Statement, one of the most influential manifestos of the sixties radicalization. In a wide-ranging discussion on labor and the New Left, Moody explains the different views of labor represented at Port Huron, appraises individual thinkers such as Tom Hayden and C. Wright Mills, and explores topics such as the meaning of participatory democracy, the politics of labor in the 1960s, class relations in the civil rights movement, the SDS economic and research action projects, and the general relationship between organized labor and the New Left.

Mapa de experiencias de participación ciudadana en los municipios del País Vasco

by Asier Blas Mendoza

Ajangiz, R. y Blas Mendoza, A. (2008): Mapa de experiencias de participación ciudadana en los municipios del País Vasco. Eusko Jauriaritzaren Argitalpen Zerbitzu Nagusia = Servicio Central de Publicaciones del Gobierno Vasco, 2008 - 222 páginas.

El reto de la descentralización participativa en el ámbito local, un acercamiento a los problemas y las disyuntivas

by Asier Blas Mendoza

Demokrazia parte-hartzailea: ezkerraren helburu berria?

by Asier Blas Mendoza

UZTARO, 53 - 2005, 119 - 129

Western Democracy, as we know it today, is said to have been born at the end of the 18th century, with the dawning of... more Western Democracy, as we know it today, is said to have been born at the end of the 18th century, with the dawning of the American and French Revolutions to be exact. Nevertheless, it took shape in the 19th and first part of the 20th century as we know it today. In those days, women and workers had no right to take part in elections in those restricted representative “democracies” while rich men had a free hand at choosing their political representatives in many Western countries. Nowadays, however, in rich Western countries where people work fewer hours, models for living have changed while leisure time has increased. In face of this, the democratic system has undergone few fitting changes and institutions basically have remained the same. However, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, democratic optimism has spread across the world. “Democracy” was declared to be the winner at the end of the Cold War. Nevertheless, what democratic models have been imposed? All of them are based on representation and, furthermore, in manners of institutionalization that are over 150 years old. Have our societies not changed since then?

Transformation Institutionalized? Making Sense of Participatory Democracy in the Lula Era

by gianpaolo baiocchi

Please cite this paper as: Baiocchi, G., E. Braathen, and A. C. Teixeira. (2012) “Transformation Institutionalized? Making Sense of Participatory Democracy in the Lula Era.” In Stokke C. and O. Thornquist (eds), Democratization in the Global South: The Importance of Transformative Politics. London, UK: Palgrave McMillan.

Jensen, Helge Hiram; Løffler, David; Bodin, Halvor (eds.): Kontur Arkitektur (Del 1: Samfunnsbyggverket.). Oslo: Kontur tidsskrift 2003 (ISBN 82-996807-0-0) 180 p. Kontur

by Helge Hiram Jensen

Kontur Journal # 7/8 was a special issue on architecture. The first part (#7) takes a critical approach to the politics of contemporary planning.

Jensen, Helge Hiram; Løffler, David; Bodin, Halvor (eds.): Kontur Arkitektur (Del 2: Økologi - dialog og plan). Oslo: Kontur tidsskrift 2003 (ISBN 82-996807-0-0) 180 p. Kontur

by Helge Hiram Jensen

Kontur Journal # 7/8 was a special issue on architecture. The second part (#8) takes an enthusiastic approach to emerging practice of urban ecology.

Occupy the US: Musings on Horizontal Decision-Making and Bureaucracy

by Marianne Maeckelbergh

Here I explore a few of the important lessons that seem to stand out after participating in horizontal decision-making... more Here I explore a few of the important lessons that seem to stand out after participating in horizontal decision-making processes in Barcelona, New York and Oakland. First, more awareness of the political values that underlie these seemingly practical meeting procedures referred to as “process” would be helpful. Second, the link between these political values and the social relations of economics could use some analysis: in order to create new political structures we actually have to let go of certain economic relations which we take as given. For example, horizontal decision-making does not work when we assume a) that resources are scarce, b) that we therefore need to compete with each other and c) ownership is an exclusionary relation – a proprietary relation. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the more we try to set the rules in stone, to find the ‘golden key’, the ideal set of procedures, the more we disengage from the central political questions of how we decide – a terrain of politics that has to remain open if it is to remain horizontal. In order for a ‘general assembly’ to be productive, effective and empowering to participants, the procedures have to maintain a certain degree of flexibility as the circumstances in which we find ourselves shift.

Public Space as emancipation: meditations on anarchism, radical democracy, neoliberalism and violence

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2011. Public Space as emancipation: meditations on anarchism, radical democracy, neoliberalism and violence. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography. 43 (2), 525-562.

In establishing an anarchic framework for understanding public space as a vision for radical democracy, this article... more In establishing an anarchic framework for understanding public space as a vision for radical democracy, this article proceeds as a theoretical inquiry into how an agonistic public space might become the basis of emancipation. Public space is presented as an opportunity to move beyond the technocratic elitism that often characterizes both civil societies and the neoliberal approach to development, and is further recognized as the battlefield on which the conflicting interests of the world's rich and poor are set. Contributing to the growing recognition that geographies of resistance are relational, where the “global” and the “local” are understood as co-constitutive, a radical democratic ideal grounded in material public space is presented as paramount to repealing archic power in general, and neoliberalism’s exclusionary logic in particular.

Bookchin Breaks with Anarchism

by Janet Biehl

Making Direct Democracy Deliberative through Random Assemblies

by Robert Richards

by John Gastil and Robert Richards. Paper to be presented at ASA 2012: The Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, 17-20 August 2012, Denver, Colorado, USA.

We examine closely the problems that beset modern direct-democratic elections. These include the provision of... more We examine closely the problems that beset modern direct-democratic elections. These include the provision of inadequate or unusable information about ballot measures to voters; the distortion of policy information by campaigns and the media; the frequent enactment of measures that are unconstitutional or that result in unintended consequences, such as the substantial erosion of state and local tax bases; the exercise of majority tyranny; and the manipulation of public sentiment by special interests. We then review the history of randomly selected citizen assemblies, from the legislative bodies of ancient Athens through twentieth- and twenty-first century proposals, such as demarchical institutions and popular legislative branches.

Finally, we propose five different varieties of random assembly forms — Priority Conferences, Design Panels, Citizens’ Assemblies, Citizens’ Initiative Reviews, and Policy Juries — and explain how they can address the deliberative deficit of direct democracy. After selecting members through stratified random sampling of citizens, each of these assemblies would operate at a different stage of the legislative process, from initial problem identification through approval of a finished ballot measure. Highly structured procedures guided by professional moderators and featuring expert testimony on policy and legal matters would ensure deliberative quality and adherence to democratic standards of participant interaction. Further, these procedures would yield measures that are more likely to achieve desired policy objectives, less likely to result in unintended consequences, and more robust to court challenges than measures produced by today’s flawed initiative and referendum processes.

Cognitive aspects of participation: Evidence from 3 studies

by Ryszard Stocki

Submitted for publication

Participation always has three aspects: physical, legal and cognitive - related to the cognitive structures of persons... more Participation always has three aspects: physical, legal and cognitive - related to the cognitive structures of persons involved in participative behavior. The trouble of proving the effects of participation lies in the mismatch between the three aspects. In economic studies we usually rely on the physical or legal aspects and real participation's consequences can hardly be measured, as they do not necessarily coincide with the declarations. In our studies, we decided to construct a formal model of ownership, assuming that the relation „A owns B” is only one of 10 similar relations on a spectrum from „A is a part of B” - greatest involvement to „A does not know about B” - the least involvement. Participation in management may be described by means of this model as various instances of „ownership spectrum” where „A” and „B” take different values of: a person, an institution, a community, a group, an object (material, energetic, informational, purchasing).
Once formalized we can view the studies in participation from one, system theory point of view, and formulate the hypotheses related to both aspects of ownership as it is revealed in a variety of participation forms. In our studies we have applied multiple measures of both participation and effectiveness. We measured various aspects of organization functioning, we also asked employees to fill in questionnaires related to their perception of various forms of participation. We also conducted similar studies in non-profit organization, where there is no possibility of legal ownership, yet different levels of cognitive ownership may be noticed. The possible consequences of this approach to participation for future research and managerial practice will be presented.

Systems Theory Approach to the Health Care Organization on National Level

by Ryszard Stocki

Bielecki & Stocki

National health care systems have been found ineffective in most countries. The subsystems of the health care systems... more National health care systems have been found ineffective in most countries. The subsystems of the health care systems are not autonomous and as such cannot be competitive in the market. A participative health care system with empowered patients as customers and hospitals as providers is proposed. The consequences for both further modeling and implementation of such systems are discussed.

Spectacular Political Experiments: the Constitution, Mediation and Performance of Large-Scale Public Participation Execises

by Nick Mahony

Making Democracy Spectacular

by Nick Mahony

Transnational Participatory Democracy in Action: the Case of La Via Campesina

by Michael Menser

Journal of Social Philosophy, Volume 39, Issue 1; 2008. 

I shall argue for a version of the agency view that I call “maximal democracy” or maxD. MaxD builds upon participatory... more I shall argue for a version of the agency view that I call “maximal democracy” or maxD. MaxD builds upon participatory democratic traditions within demo-
cratic theory and recent work by Carol Gould and identifies the social realm, broadly construed, as the primary locus of democratization. My conception is also informed by actors outside the framework of democratic theory––and much of Anglo-American political philosophy––since it draws upon analyses of the norms
and practices of movements and organizations comprising the Global Justice Movement (GJM), especially those identifying as postsocialist, anarchist, anti-capitalist and/or indigenous. In particular, I articulate this conception of democracy by drawing upon case studies of a transnational association of peasants called La Via Campesina (“the way of the peasant”; LVC). LVC is composed of more than 130 organizations in more than sixty countries and represents tens of millions of small farmers, fishermen and women, and landless and agricultural workers in
what it describes as the fight against neoliberal globalization that “places economic interests over and above social and environmental conditions.” I shall
argue that LVC and its members show that participatory democracy in a transnational context is not “unrealistic.” On the contrary, it is viable and spreading. This
model of participatory democracy (PD) also forwards a unique conceptual framework for linking together social and environmental issues by way of understand-
ing democracy not just as reason-giving, deliberation, and/or representation but as self-determination and socio-ecologically sustainable production. The essay proceeds as follows: a discussion of participatory democracy and democratic theory, the explication and justification of my own view of maximal democracy, a brief explication of the Global Justice Movement, a longer analysis of the transnational structure of LVC and its maximally democratic program for Food Sovereignty and agroecology. The essay concludes with a summary of problems and possibilities with respect to both LVC and maximal democracy.