Chapter Two - “Participatory Democracy: Power to the People”

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Submitted by Steve on Tue, 02/03/2009 - 2:33pm

In this chapter, we go back in time to the 1992 Charlottetown Accord where Judy first starting thinking about a deeper form of democracy. From the Canadian experience with constitutional conferences and a cross-country referendum that the government lost, we explore the participatory budget founded in Brazil and now spread around the world. Chapter Two looks at participatory democracy in Brazil, Argentina, Toronto, Spain and Venezuela. Judy concludes:

“What I have found, wherever I have looked, is that ordinary people, when they are given, or when they take, the opportunity, are quite capable of making good decisions—in many ways more capable than those who have the official positions of decision-makers.”

*You can see a video of Pepe Vargas, who was the mayor of a city in Brazil that implemented the participatory budget on the multimedia page of this web site.

Related Links:

Relevant Blog Entries:
http://transformingpower.ca/en/category/book-chapters/chapter-two

Bolivian Constitution
http://www.embavenez-us.org/constitution/intro.htm

Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada-United_States_Free_Trade_Agreement

Charlottetown Accord
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlottetown_Accord

Days of Action
http://www.troublemakershandbook.org/Text/Strikes/La%20Botz%20Days%20of%...

FIM (Think Tank)
http://www.fimcivilsociety.org/

Lebowitz, Michael A.
http://www.zmag.org/zspace/michaellebowitz

MAS (Movement Towards Socialism)
http://www.masbolivia.org/, http://boliviarising.blogspot.com/

National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC)
http://www.nac-cca.ca/index_e.htm

New Democratic Party (Ontario)
http://ontariondp.com/

Porto Alegre: Participatory Budgeting
http://www.citymayors.com/finance/participatory_budget.html

PT. See Brazil Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores [PT])
http://www.pt.org.br,

Steelworkers Union
http://www.uswa.ca/

Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC)
http://www.torontohousing.ca/

Wainwright, Hilary
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/

World Social Forum (WSF)
http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/,
http://www.fsm2009amazonia.org.br/?set_language=en
 

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