PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY vs REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY
We as citizens of the United States observe politics from afar and the vast majority of us may participate in the political process only to the extent that we go to the polls once a year to vote. We may endeavor to follow the news accounts of our nation's politics as they unfold, and of the consequences those political actions yield, but we have little power to influence our "democratically" elected officials. Perhaps we write an occasional letter to our senator or representative, but we almost inevitably receive a vague and impersonal response explaining why they will vote in our opposition.
Over the decades, our representative democracy has been systematically undermined and has ultimately failed in preserving the well being of the people of this nation. The system that the founding fathers painstakingly devised in order to best serve the interests and the will of the people has been corrupted and the systems of checks and balances on power that they instituted have been stripped away. Most of us accept this reality as being beyond our control and continue to observe, comment, and complain without aspiring to achieving any real change, without any hope of instituting a new system of governance that would instead take directly into account your views, and the views of your neighbors, and would empower you to make real positive change possible in your communities.
This site will attempt to explore in depth the places in the world where people are successfully bringing about that type of change in the face of similar odds, where an alternate form of democracy, which is called participatory or direct democracy, is taking root. Initiative, referendum & recall, community councils, and grassroots organizing are but a few ways in which direct/participatory democracy is achieving great success around the world.
Our system of representative democracy does not admit the voice of the people into congressional halls, the high courts, or the oval office where our rights and our liberties are being sold out from underneath us. Our local leaders and activists in our communities, and even those local elected officials who may have the best of intentions are for the most part powerless to make real positive change happen in our neighborhoods, towns and villages when there is so much corruption from above.
In places like Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Brazil, South Africa, India, and the Phillipines, new experiments in grass roots community based governance are taking place. There is much to be learned from these and other examples of participatory democracy from around the world when we try to examine how this grass-roots based governance could begin to take root here in our own country in order to alter our political system so that it might better serve the American people.
In the hope that one day we can become a nation working together as a united people practicing true democracy as true equals, we open this forum…
El PRI en el estado de Michoacán, Mexico ha tomado la decisión de no legislar por ahora las figuras de plebiscito, referéndum y revocación de mandato, mientras el PRD sigue luchando por estos elementos basicos del poder popular y la democracia directa y participativa. - Editor
Rechaza el PRI legislar sobre participación ciudadana
Para el legislador Martín Cardona Mendoza hay otras prioridades como educación, salud y seguridad pública
Martes 29 de Julio de 2008 Fuente: http://www.cambiodemichoacan.com.mx/vernota.php?id=83523
La fracción del PRI descarta presentar una iniciativa de Ley que regule las figuras de participación ciudadana en Michoacán, mientras que el PRD será quien impulse el proyecto pero sigue sin tener fecha para hacerlo.
El diputado local del PRI, Martín Cardona Mendoza manifestó que Michoacán no está preparado para legislar las figuras de plebiscito, referéndum y revocación de mandato por la cultura “politizada que se tiene entre los diferentes grupos”.
Asimismo, manifestó que existen otras prioridades que requieren atención como es el tema de educación, seguridad pública y salud, en lugar de regular acciones que “se prestarían para manipulaciones políticas siempre a favor del partido que esté en el poder”.
“Lamentablemente tenemos una cultura de manifestaciones, plantones y movilizaciones, donde podría resultar contraproducente reglamentar estas figuras jurídicas porque en lugar de resolver los problemas los incrementaría al haber grupos inconformes de diferentes partidos o intereses que buscaría destituir a las autoridades o servidores públicos”.
Asimismo, consideró fundamental contar con una sociedad educada e informada de los problemas de la entidad, de lo contrario el consultar a las personas no tiene sentido si desconocen del tema que opinan.
Por su parte, el coordinador del PRD, Raúl Morón Orozco, señaló que su fracción ya tiene lista la iniciativa de Ley de Participación Ciudadana a través de la cual se reglamenta las figuras de la democracia que permite a los ciudadanos opinar, misma que podría ser presentada cuando los diputados regresen de vacaciones y se reanuden las sesiones a mediados de agosto.
Con ello, el legislador perredistas espera sensibilidad de las otras fuerzas políticas para discutir el tema a fin de avanzar en la democracia participativa que permitirá a los michoacanos involucrarse en las decisiones de las autoridades.
Raúl Morón expresó que entre las figuras de participación que han causado polémica con las demás fuerzas políticas se encuentra la revocación de mandato así como la constitución de los consejos populares.
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