Participative Budgets and the Mondragon experience

[Leopoldo Salgui <lsalgui(at)demopunk.net>]

Dear Doug,
thanks for introducing the Mondragon's experience before the WDDM and the
other forums
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6455

Formally, the Mondragon's experience is not an example of Participative
Budgets which are oriented mainly to the municipal scope. Mondragon (in the
Basque country, in the North of Spain) is a significant experience on
Participative Economics, which is a wide area where innovative democracy
concepts could grow.

Let me to submit a few thoughts. Initiative&Referendum, i.e. the classic form
of Direct Democracy, are still unknown (or adulterated) Political Freedoom is
the vast majority of our countries. This is because we are looking forward to
promoting them among our societies, and, for instance, we are carrying out
trojan initiatives in Spanish before the Supreme Court to defense the concept
of the referendum assaulted by the Spanish Government during the last
plebiscite on the so-called European Constitution.
http://www.demopunk.net/en/intern/europe/pcon_index_en.html#INFO20F

However, in Europe, USA and wherever the liberal democracy is hegemonic
(perhaps, the complete world?) the activism for I&R is lacking for a serious
criticism on the inherent defects of the DD which has been already uncovered
by the present experience in Swiss or USA. It is evident the lobbies are
being the main users of the DD's freedoms meanwhile the people is rejecting
its use as reflected by the low turnouts.

Participative Democracy (PD) is an emerging area, mainly from Latin American.
It is not a mature area, i.e. it cannot define clear procedures in contrast
of older democracy procedures as representative's elections or I&R
procedures, however PD is trying to address wide areas where the Constituent
Power of the crowd is clearly usurped by the elites (supposedly democrats
elites).

I would like to promote such ideas in the WDDM's community, by introducing
several facts and experiences. I encourage WDDM's members to submit
experiences of PD from wherever.

Regards, Leo




El Sábado, 14 de Mayo de 2005 03:22, Doug Everingham escribió:
> Dear Leo and friends,
>
> I note your claim below: "Spain is being the gateway into
> Europe of this procedure of Participative Democracy."
>
> This suggests to me that you are impressed by the magnificent example of
> the Mondragón Co-operative Corporation which has grown steadily, first
> in the north of Spain, to include tens of thousands of participants.
> They are
> networking (with cross-liaison among related services and adjoining
> levels
> of administration) to supply a wide range of services.  Each participant
> ('stakeholder') in each process and project there has maximum
> opportunity to contribute to the decision making.  They have an
> excellent
> competitive record in nearly all aspects. This is well documented by Dr
> Shann Turnbull,  Principal,
> International Institute for Self-governance,
> http://ssrn.com/author=26239
>       I can e-mail on request a copy of his 80-pages 2002 pocket-book
> 'A New Way to Govern -- Organisations and society after Enron'.
>       A similar initiative in the Netherlands is documented by the
> Sociocratisch Centrum    http://www.sociocracy.biz
> I look forward to your report on Participative Budgets.
>       --      Doug Everingham
>       Queensland state co-ordinator for ISPO
>       (International Simultaneous Policy Organisation  www.simpol.org ]
> ===============================>
> Leopoldo Salgui <lsalgui(at)demopunk.net> wrote on May 8, 2005
> To: wddm@world-wide-democracy.net, Democracy Europe
> <democracy-europe(at)yahoogroups.com>, teameuropechat(at)yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Ale hop ... and Participative Budgets
>
> Dear friends,
> I beg your pardon to delay my contributions to the WDDM's workshop on
> Monitoring Democracy and my poor support of the TEAM's activities.
>
> During last weeks we have been hardly working at a comprehensive report
> on the
> governmental propaganda activities during the Spanish plebiscite. The
> Spanish
> version can be downloaded from
> http://www.demopunk.net/sp/intern/europe/pcon_index_sp.html#INFO20F
>
> However the English version is still an incomplete (but available) work
> http://www.demopunk.net/en/intern/europe/pcon_index_en.html#INFO20F
> because the Spanish Supreme Court has just required us to formalize our
> lawsuit against the electoral authorities due to relinquishment of
> functions.
> I will keep you informed on this affair.
>
> On the other side, I am trying to fulfil a petition from Mirek Kolar to
> keep
> you informed on the Participative Budgets in Spain. This month the
> Spanish
> magazine "El Viejo Topo" publishes a report on the 1-year experience of
> the
> Participative Budgets in Seville. [I am in charge of the section Europe
> of
> the magazine]
>
> Seville is a big city in the South of Spain (over 2 millions of
> inhabitants).
> I am trying to get the electronic copy of the report and to get in
> touch its
> author with the European democracy activism. Spain is being the gateway
> into
> Europe of this procedure of Participative Democracy.
> http://www.demopunk.net/sp/sp/direct/porto/pp.html
>
> Regards, Leo