HARMONIOUS DEMOCRACY: THE BALANCED CONJUCTION OF DEMOCRATIC MODELS

Abstract

The author advocates a “harmonious democracy”, which is not a new model of democracy but the balanced relationship of the two classic forms of democracy (representative and direct) to which could be added “participatory democracy” promoted by citizens, individually or in groups, outside of political parties. The result would be a new political brand with “less representative democracy” (that of political parties and elected representatives) which is the current exclusive and exclusionary democracy in advanced political societies, with “more direct democracy” (that of citizens who would vote on policies not just their representatives) and a “new political space” occupied by political citizen-agents without partisan militancy. In each of these three democratic models the definition of the model is analysed, the stage they are currently on and concrete proposals for change.