From the Politics in the squares to # wikidemocracy.

A tale of a democratic awakening in Spain.

Maria Llanos del Corral

1

1 http://www.letra.org/spip/spip.php?article4060

For Spanish people hope is weakened today by the broken relation between the

ensconced political class and those whom they represent. The political class distances

itself day by day from the citizens through corruption, deceit and constant distortions of

the democratic contract, which fades like ink on wet paper. Breaches of campaign

promises occurred in both the centre-left and the conservative party on the right. Subtle

differences distinguish the left from right today; both are subject to the imperatives of

institutions that have little to do with the general interests of the people. Both the PSOE

in the left and the conservative Partido Popular (the two mayor political parties, the ones

vying for power since the birth of our democracy in the late 1970's) are subject to the

constraints of the EU, seduced by banking lobbies and the interests of profit, devoted to

the economic orthodoxy that even today, after recurrent financial crises, remains

unchallenged. Disempowerment arises when we find ourselves trapped into this

bipartisan political reality.

In 2008 the crisis begins to glimpse in the distance to a government that does not want

to see what is already a fact. Preventive measures are not taken by the government until

imposed harder impositions sneak into the reality of all Spaniards. While Spain rests in

the shade of a particularly hot summer, the signing of the Euro pact2 amended a

constitution that hitherto seemed untouchable. That change in our core democratic

document in 2011 privileged the payment of debt over the citizens´ well-being. The

foreseeable consequences unfold in the form of austerity reforms resulting in major cuts

in public services including health and education. The results of these policies have

affected people’s welfare at a frenetic pace. Profound change in the ways of living

leaves people stunned and incapable of believing the reality they face. The impunity of

the official corruption including that of the bankers, feeds the suffering and disbelief of

a nation that is beginning to awaken.

In this situation outraged groups, young people and pensioners, students, professionals,

unemployed, are all beginning to coalesce gradually constituting a new form of political

expression. Inspired by the hope of Arab Springs and pushed by the growing

indignation, social movements took to the streets and squares on May 15, 20113. This is

where a democracy of the People to the People begins to emerge. With assemblies in

2 http://www.social-europe.eu/2011/09/the-eurocrisis-and-the-stability-and-growth-pact/3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ds7b3pboW4

every corner of Madrid, the centre of the city is more alive than ever. The excitement

and desire to participate spreads out all over the cities and villages throughout the

Peninsula.

Within days, a parallel society had emerged, the fruit of constant decisions made by the

people who finally felt empowered. This was a malleable society that evolved according

to the changing situation. Moments, days of chaotic spontaneity that gave birth to a self

organised community incredibly aware of its own complexity. There was direct

participation, consensus emerged among thousands of people reaching agreements that

gave people a deeply transformative experience of collaborative thinking. Creating from

the common sharing a new way of relating, a new way of thinking needed tremendously

in this times where a different future is unravelling as we create it, word by word, us we

construct collectively our discourse.

Boundless creativity displayed in every banner, every chant4, every meeting, sprouting

flash mobs5, demonstrations, and interventions undertaken by different people but all

sharing the same values of non violence, participation, equality and joy, lots of joy6.

Despite the vastness of the collective, sense making is beginning to emerge, and a

common spirit appears now recognizable. Boundless creativity at the core, free of the

voices of cynicism and judgement willing to expand the limits of the human

imagination to create a good live for all. Creativity is today our most vital tool to

conceive together an emerging future, overcoming any resemblance to the past but

unfolding the possibilities of its own nature.

A participatory community lived for a month in the heart of the country and is still

today in our memory. This demo (people) - cracy (power), this political wake up call

was the seed, planted that May, whose fruits we continue harvest.

A revolution on and offline; these social movements occurred in two dimensions, online

and in the streets. They are leading to the emergence of a new political arena of great

relevance, which is today breaking into the realm of mainstream politics.

4 http://www.letra.org/spip/spip.php?article40605 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLJxRLTiviA6 Some of the behavioural principles and conducts resembles to from the Gene Sharp work “From

dictatorship to democracy” (2002). The books is available in http://www.aeinstein.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/FDTD.pdf

As a result a range of democratic choices is unfolding in front of us right now. One of

these is EQUO7, a party born during the months of that revolutionary May. Their motto

is "reset". They aim to reset the failed democratic, economic and social system and to

enrich it with the spirit of these new political events and adapt it to the challenges of the

XXI century.

“Politics must innovate to be relevant”8 for today's social context, that has little to do

with societies of centuries ago, those which led to the birth of our current democratic

system. Equo aims to regenerate politics to regain people’s enthusiasm and commitment

for participation.

EQUO distinguishes itself from the current bipartisan narrative between left and right. It

is diversifying the contemporary political vocabulary with its commitment to ecological

politics whose social, democratic and economic approach is aligned with the European

Greens. The party argues for a participatory democracy. A Board of Citizens,

participatory budgets, improvements in the Law of Popular Legislative Initiatives9 and

binding referendum. EQUO stands for a richer democracy informed by the knowledge,

experience and judgement of the people.

Direct political participation is finally understood as an intrinsic right, although it is

timidly exercised yet. This realisation amongst Spanish population could potentially

reduce the enormous gap of mistrust and disengagement between Politics and citizens.

Podemos10, another newborn political party, runs also for the European election this

May 2014. The leader of the party posted three conditions that had to be met before he

would stand. Firstly; a petition for popular support for the project of at least 50.000

people was demanded, which was achieved in just one day. This evidences a sense of

the appetite for collective ownership of political duty. Secondly; a statement. This is not

only a political party but a platform for unity and togetherness of social actors, inside

7 http://partidoequo.es/8 http://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/politics-needs-innovate-relevant/9 http://www.on-federalism.eu/attachments/118_download.pdf10 http://www.podemos.info/

and outside the political realm. Thirdly a proposal; the Methodology used is based on

the principal of letting people choose, “to translate the outrage into political power”.

The Circle of citizens is the means used to get together people who are willing to

participate into discussion groups. This container has particular recommended

procedures to preserve democracy within the group. The circle format proposed by

Podemos ensures community discussion which prevent from an individual isolated

process of decision making, a real challenge of today’s technological tools used in the

direct democracy proposals. The circles are a follow up from the neighbourhood

assemblies undertaken in the squares years before. This quality of Participation is one of

the fruitful lessons displayed by this slow revolution.

The circles are entitled to shape the electoral program. Within these circles the

representatives of the party will also be appointed. The tools for participation are

already available for the collective reconstruction of the final political document. E

margin, an on-line collaborative annotation tool, is been used by participants to shape

the different programs in construction. Economy, rights, sovereignty, equality, freedom

fraternity are the topics currently addressed by the Podemos. This Political action

undertaken by a courageous group of interdisciplinary professionals have had an

outstanding welcome with in the Spanish society.

Another direct democracy exploration is the one proposed by Partido X11.

This party advocates for a wiki democracy to create a new political future using the

power of modern social media to make direct democracy a reality. In this new politics

representatives are elected by the people that belong to the Red Ciudadana, directly

using Internet. Anyone, who wants to be elected, will have to demonstrate their

competence and then will be eligible. The elected representatives, who form the Kernel

or core group with other support members, will put forward proposals on this Red

Ciudadana, which will discuss, reshape and vote upon the proposals. The Red

Ciudadana is also the guardian of the political steps undertaken by the representatives.

The Matrix will support the Kernel´s role of constructing the ideas, give form to the

electoral programme and put it into practice. The wider Agenda X offers the opportunity

to be informed to all of those who hold an interest on what it is that Partido X is doing.

11 http://partidox.org/informacion-basica/

Different levels of engagement are displayed by this structure that allows a process of

learning how to become politically active. The opportunity is offered for us to step up in

which ever way we are ready. Partido X has designed a complex system, tailor-made to

suit an intricate decision making reality.

Democracy 4.012 complies with one person one vote. The Partido X today presents a

reliable and feasible option which economic, social and governance proposals resemble

to those discussed years before in the squares.

Under the slogan "A country for those who inhabit it, not whom governs it" Partido X

posed a roadmap whose main foundation is “Democracy, Period”. They practice

sustainable politics. A way of politics that facilitates, nurtures and opens a public space

in which citizens, organizations, social movements can make proposals, deliberate, vote

and veto on specific issues.

From this point of view a political party is responsible for enabling the adequate

conditions for the emergence of sovereignty for the People and to the People. The

Partido X brings this approach to politics as they state that the party "is not the solution

but a catalyst for solutions."

Nevertheless these alternatives brought into live in Spain, still pose a number of

challenges;

They require actual participation from the people which required a profound change in

our framework of thought. Capacity and will is needed to take control over power from

those political representatives that easily confiscate it.

The Will; An urge to overcome historical manners. The political vision of the Spanish

dictatorship constrained the act of being a citizen through implacable behavioural laws13

and the moral impositions of the government’s right hand, the Catholic Church.

Religion, in words of Hanna Ardent14, stays away from opinions and bases its discourse

in the irrefutable existence of a revealed truth for all. Deep in the educational system

12 http://demo4punto0.net/es/home13 http://lacomunidad.elpais.com/favicon.ico14 A political judgment is expressed as an opinion. But neither philosophers (with exceptions, like Kant and Jaspers) nor religious ideologues respect opinion; the philosophers say opinion has nothing to do with absolute truth, and religious people (both authentically religious people and ideologues) respect only revealed Truth.

and in the surface of our cultural behaviours, yet today one can taste the flavours of a

hierarchical system which influences the individuals’ perception of the right to think.

There is still a communal defenselessness that exhale from the Spanish collective

caused by the alienation of individuals’ minds from where Totalitarianisms obtain its

strength. A totalitarian government exercises its power by removing it from each

individual and closing down the spaces for collective discussion. The source to

concentrate power resides in the ruthless denigration of population. The current political

party holding power in Spain today has very much learned this lesson. Attempts to

crush the emergent activism through citizens security laws15 dangerously resemble our

recent past. The legitimacy to opine was usurped for many years and still is in jeopardy

today. Yet it is now, under the incredulous eyes of an elderly population, that the right

to create collective thinking is being battled by social movements in many fields.

Nevertheless this historical and structural wound can only be healed with the

progressive political awakening of each one of us.

To instigate the will to participate lots of work needs to be done around what it means to

be a citizen and to set up the conditions for collective empowerment. The analysis of the

15 of May massive participation is a good case study in which threads to stable

participation can be found. A crosspollination of several factors endowed the collective

feeling of power such as; the perception of unity, overcoming the shared sense of

disconnection with others. Feelings of shared responsibility, infatuated by the

purposely denial of an anthropomorphic figure of leadership. The visual achievements,

shortly conquered, emerging from each camp throughout the peninsula. This holistic

and deep insight of participation, leadership and human behaviour is at the forefront of

social change making and reveals the keys of the political and social future.

Nevertheless a process-oriented mind set which reclaimed the assemblies as equally

important if not more, as the consensus achieved, is not yet wide spread. The mindset

shift undercovering the idea of direct democracy needs to be addressed and materialise

in the formal and informal education spheres.

15 http://www.publico.es/politica/485865/que-sanciona-la-nueva-ley-de-seguridad-ciudadana

In order to become political animals we need the will to participate and a context that

allow it to happen. We need to be educated and informed. We need therefore access to a

variety of media to provide objective information, which will imply changes in the

current set of public structures. As political decision makers we will need time in order

to participate, which also could imply a massive rearrangement of the political offices as

the responsibility would rest under the population, in a great percentage.

New politics will demand from us to accept uncertainty, and embrace trust amongst us;

these are inherent requirements of participatory processes.

We must reconceptualise the role of the politicians. A politician facilitates safe and

public spaces for the collective expression to emerge and decide actions of its

competence. These ideas align with the political practice viewed by Hannah Arendt,

whose analysis of totalitarianism, participation and politics have today an outstanding

relevance.

Being directly involved in our political affairs requires an empowered educated

citizenry willing to engage. As we have seen in many democracies, access to

participation does not always result in the exercise of that right. It is essential to begin

educating ourselves on what it means to be an active citizen and what values and

principles underlies the concept of direct democracy. This democratic model gives us

the right to act on our reality, shaping it through a collective construction of meaning.

However we should not forget that all rights accompany an obligation. Obligation to

exercise that right with commitment and dedication as a social duty, and structures and

time used will need to shape in service of the acquired rights. This right implies

therefore a different concept of collective and individual which focuses in reclaiming

the importance of community building amongst each individual.

In a state where power over people is being exercised as a futile effort to control a

critical situation, the balance of power required in a direct democracy seem to be a

delicate issue of which the consequences are yet unforeseeable. A shift in the conceptual

approximation of power, as referred to by A. Kahane, is demanded to comprehend the

dismantling of politicians’ supremacy and the rise of each person’s will in the political

realm. The lobbing games, the pressure of one-way interest will change as we go along,

building power as the collective conciseness for self-realization.

Are the structures created to suit our present day representative democracy valid and

adaptable to a direct democracy? What needs to change and adapt to this new form of

sovereignty? Is the question of scale going to be an issue to be considered in the future?

The kaleidoscopic nature of our reality will require an institutional framework capable

of comprehending it. The act of creating new democratic parties and tools which will

potentially multiply by millions the participants in politics will demand highly complex

frameworks and structures. It would also shift the pace of political decision making, as

it will be a collective construction, a constant dialogue embedded in the society. These

questions cannot yet be answered. Nevertheless what appear obvious today is that rigid

and hierarchical structures of today's political parties can not longer endure without

adapting to the change that already awaits them.

Social movements and the use of new technologies have greatly contributed to the

transformation of the Spanish political landscape. Today we see that direct democracy is

not a utopia, but it is within reach of our hands and in the light of experiences like those

of Iceland16 and Porto Alegre17 in Brazil. Today we transit from an erode democracy

where people’s voices have been silenced, to a decision making where representatives

and represented draw together the new frontiers of political representation.

References

16 http://www.opendemocracy.net/thorvaldur-gylfason/iceland-direct-democracy-in-action17 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/10/participatory-democracy-in-porto-alegre

1. Hanna Ardent. (1958). The Human condition. University of Chicago Press.

Chicago.

2. A. Kahane (2010) Power and Love a theory and practice of social change.

Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. San Francisco

3. R. Poynton (2008). Everything´s an offer: How to do more with less. On your

feet. Portland Oregon

4. O. Scharmer and K. Kaufer (2013). Leading from the Emerging future. Berret-

Koehler. San Francisco

5. Gene Sharp (2002). From dictatorship to democracy; a conceptual framework

for liberation. Albert Einstein Istitution, Bankok.

6. M. Wheatley (2006). Leadership and the New Science; Discovering order in a

chaotic world. Barret-Koheler Publishers. San Francisco

7. E. Young-Bruehl (2006). Why Hannah Ardent Matters. Yale University Press,

New Haven.