Participatory democracy, a response to the crisis of representative democracry

The central thesis of this article consists in argueing that the actual crisis of representative democracy, due to a political fatigue that has caused a descontent and mistrust of the represented citicenship by their representatives, has provoked mainly in this century, the emergence of diverse mech...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Rabasa Gamboa, Emilio
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:México
Institución:UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO
Repositorio:Cuestiones Constitucionales. Revista Mexicana de Derecho Constitucional
Idioma:español
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/15188
Acceso en línea:https://revistas.juridicas.unam.mx/index.php/cuestiones-constitucionales/article/view/15188
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:representative democracy
democratic fatigue
participatory democracy
democracy´s present day crisis
Mexico´s direct democracy types (popular consultation
referendum
plebiscite
mandate recall) democratic melting
democracia representativa
fatiga democrática
democracia participativa
crisis de la democracia actual
modalidades de democracia directa en México (consulta popular
referéndum
plebiscito
revocación de mandato)
la fusión democrática
Descripción
Sumario:The central thesis of this article consists in argueing that the actual crisis of representative democracy, due to a political fatigue that has caused a descontent and mistrust of the represented citicenship by their representatives, has provoked mainly in this century, the emergence of diverse mechanisms of direct democracy such as popular consultation, referendum, plebiscite, mandate recall and others analized in the text. To provide theoretical foundation to my thesis, several updated authors that have researched the crisis of democracy and elections, are included such as Levitsky y Ziblatt (How Democracies Die), Yasch Mounk (The People vs Democracy), Temelkuran (How to lose a country), Cadena Roa y López Leyva (The disconfort with representation in Mexico) y Van Reybrouck (Against elections, how to save democracy). In the same token and at more depth, the present crisis is analyzed through the genesis and design of representative democracy with autors such as Benajmin Contant, Hans Kelsen and Roberto Gargarella, in order to argue that its origin lies in the XVIII Century, but has now become more acute due to changing economic condictios in societies fallen wellbeing that grew during last century´s 30s and 80s; social such as the growth of migration and the new pluriethnic changes in modern societies composition, and the comunicaions revolution with internet and social media. Next is included an analysis of democracy´s types (representative, direct, paritipatory, deliberative and radical) with the purpose of proposing an armonic fusion of representative democracy´s diverse components with others of participatory democracy, as a solution to the present political crisis. Other countries´experience in that road in Latin America such as Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia are included to grasp a comparative view. Finally Mexico´s direct democracy´s mechanisms in force in the federal constitution (including the recent constitucional reform of December 2019) Mexico´s City constitution and other states, are presented to support the main thesis of this article. Closing remarks include counter-argument about the difficuties of constitutional engeniering for melting together both types of democracy.