LA ESQUINA CALIENTE (THE HOT CORNER) - A STUDY OF PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY IN ACTION AROUND THE WORLD

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…
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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

PARAGUAY: Lugo abre Polémica por Plebiscito tras Crisis en Senado Paraguay

Lugo abre polémica por plebiscito tras crisis en Senado Paraguay

jueves 28 de agosto de 2008 12:13 GYT
Fuente: http://lta.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idLTAN2830411420080828?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

ASUNCION (Reuters) - El presidente de Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, dijo que podría llamar a una consulta popular si el conflicto que paraliza el Senado se prolonga, en lo que sus opositores interpretaron como una amenaza al Poder Legislativo.

El flamante mandatario admitió en una entrevista transmitida el miércoles en la medianoche por el canal local Telefuturo que la convocatoria a un plebiscito es posible "dentro del marco del respeto, de la sobriedad, de la solidaridad y de la racionalidad."

Lugo enfrenta su primera crisis institucional a menos de dos semanas de asumir el cargo, que se desató por la incorporación del ex presidente Nicanor Duarte al Senado, en un acto que sus opositores declararon nulo, ratificando a su suplente.

El conflicto amenaza la aprobación de proyectos clave para el Gobierno, como el presupuesto 2009, varios créditos y donaciones y la confirmación de funcionarios de alto rango.

"Ojalá no haya polarizaciones irreconciliables que tiñan el proceso, en donde no se permita la gobernabilidad. Supongamos que este Congreso, hace un mes que no funciona, pasan dos, tres meses, le voy a preguntar a la ciudadanía: ¿ese es el Congreso que ustedes votaron?," dijo.

"¿Es el comportamiento que nos merecemos los paraguayos, de un Congreso que estemos pagando y no dé resultados? (...) Pero no van a tener que responderme a mí, sino a esa ciudadanía que les votó," agregó el mandatario.

Las declaraciones de Lugo elevaron la voz de alarma entre legisladores de la oposición, quienes lo acusaron de pretender disolver el Congreso, donde no tiene una mayoría propia pese a haber llegado a acuerdos con partidos minoritarios para asegurar la gobernabilidad.

También advirtieron que podría seguir los pasos de sus colegas de izquierda de Venezuela y Ecuador, quienes llevaron adelante consultas populares para aprobar polémicas reformas con el objetivo de dar mayor poder al Ejecutivo.

"Un plebiscito sobre la gestión del Congreso no solucionará la crisis dentro del marco de la constitucionalidad (...) Si (Lugo) quiere disolver el Congreso que proceda y veremos cómo siguen las cosas," dijo a una radio local el senador opositor Juan Carlos Galaverna.

Tras las críticas, aliados de Lugo dijeron que el nuevo jefe de Estado no pretende llamar a un plebiscito y que las palabras del presidente fueron mal interpretadas.

"El presidente no habló de llamar a ninguna consulta popular, sino que la gente finalmente va a terminar evaluando la conducta de los políticos," dijo el ministro del Interior, Rafael Filizzola.

El asesor jurídico de la presidencia, Emilio Camacho, dijo que Lugo no descarta un mecanismo para saber lo que piensa la ciudadanía, pero que ello no significa "una amenaza con un plebiscito, que ni siquiera existe en la Constitución."

(Reporte de Mariel Cristaldo. Editado por Lucila Sigal)

Posted by Democracy By The People at 10:48 AM

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