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A question
may contain more gunpowder
Thousand answers
Jostein Gaarder
The public consultation that ends today, in which it is asked which is the best location for the international airport, triggered a heated debate. Those who oppose its implementation argue that the subject should not be a reason for consultation (because it is a highly complex topic from a technical point of view) and that its organization did not respect the minimum parameters so that its results are reliable: number and location of polling stations, list of voters, effective mechanisms to prevent a person from voting more than once, transparency of the count of votes voice and lack of challenge mechanisms. The new government stresses that the issue is about citizenship and that consultation is based on a principle of trust (in good faith) of the organizers and voters; although he recognizes that there have been mistakes that he has tried to correct. He also announced that popular consultation mechanisms would be a recurring practice within his government and, to that end, he proposed constitutional amendments.
It should be mentioned that democratic practice, viewed in the form of popular participation, is divided into two types: representative and direct. Given the fact that political representatives have, for the most part and for decades, abandoned their commitment to voters, to submit to the will and interests of economic or political elites, it is not surprising that we live off-peak hours.
Direct democracy refers to the political system in which citizens exercise, without intermediaries or representatives, that is, by themselves the powers of the state. Given the complexity of its exercise, this form of democracy is often limited to the legislative function. Direct democracy has its origin in ancient Greece. In classical political philosophy, Jean-Jacques Rousseau is his great defender because, he argues, the sovereignty of the people can only be represented by the people themselves.
Although the assembly is a common means of visualizing the practice of direct democracy, it has been used, such as the popular consultation, the referendum, the popular initiative, the revocation of the mandate and the plebiscite. This type of democracy implies that there is a political community of people who can and should be consulted on public affairs. Although, in the past, this possibility seemed far from reality, modern computing means now make it feasible.
The use of the instruments of direct democracy, especially plebiscite, dates back to the fourth century, when the Romans used it to legitimize their decisions. It became a common practice during the French Revolution and was used extensively by Napoleon Bonaparte to approve his proposed amendments to the Constitution. Direct democracy mechanisms have been widely used in several countries: Canada, United States, France, Great Britain, Switzerland, among others. The UN has used this means to resolve disputes over territorial boundaries and sovereignty (I invite the interested reader to review the brief but excellent text of Jean-François Prud's man, Popular consultation and direct democracy, published by the INE).
However, as everywhere, direct democracy has its advantages and disadvantages, which must be weighted in such a way that its implementation gives the expected results. Potential benefits include: allowing the direct expression of public opinion in government processes, reinforcing the sense of identity between voters and government, and breaking the monopoly of decision-making by groups with a political or economic interest. Possible disadvantages include: it dilutes government accountability and polarizes policy options.
Our General Constitution (Article 35), reformed in 2014, provides for popular consultation as a mechanism for direct democracy. Although its normative deployment has been designed, given the complexity of the procedure, it is rather a question of the desire to hinder its exercise (as a figure of independent candidates). Since, since its approval, no consultation has been held under this constitutional provision. While the intention of the new government is to implement consultations on a recurring basis, its intention to amend the constitutional framework is welcome, but this must be done both to enhance its virtues and to minimize its risks. Although, also to reduce the costs engendered by the electoral processes today. For example, the PRD internal election, organized by INE in 2014 and in which 2 million voters took part and which cost more than 100 million voters, constituted a exercise similar to a consultation in terms of the number of participants. pesos.
To reduce costs and ensure the reliability of results, it is essential to rely on technological tools. But this requires, beyond the naive opinion of using a simple version of the Internet, the application of recent computer innovations, especially based on the technology of "chains of blocks "(blockchain).
If we aspire to gather public opinion reliably and completely during the exercise of public power, and taking into account the experience of the consultation that concludes today, the implementation effective mechanisms for direct democracy, although achievable, remain to be
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