We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

The Syntagma Experiment – Democracy From The Bottom Up

Click here to access article by Jérôme E. Roos from The New Significance.

Political scientist and author of this article offers his observations of Greek activists attempting to create a new form of inclusive democracy to replace the capitalist fake version of democracy called representative democracy where the representatives are controlled by the owners of economic property. 
What we are witnessing here in Athens — and in Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Paris, and hundreds of other squares around the continent — is a genuine experiment in direct, participatory democracy. Democracy from the bottom up. Democracy for and by the people. Democracy without representation, hierarchy or borders.