Democracy

[IClibsoc]

Can someone tell me the name of a leftist
ideology that has participatory democracy in it?

[GPDP]

I would certainly hope all of them would feature participatory democracy as something desirable.

[ElectricSheep1203]

are you talking about social democracy? or just democracy in general?

[Muzk]

Anarchism has the most of it, probably... but the other ones have it too(or the same amount). Y'know, "left" means people's rule amongst other nice things too :cool:

Equality needs democracy just as much as democracy needs equality, they can't exist without each other

[Red Commissar]

All true "leftist" ideologies that structure around a socialist economic ideal value "participatory" democracy. If we are to judge by the authoritarian systems in places like China as representing "leftist" ideology, then you have fallen in to the trap that western societies have exploited.

The problem comes in defining what democracy is, and what you feel it is. People having ruleover their life is a given in things like anarchism (all the branches aside from the pseudo anarcho-capitalists), but it's a core concept in marxist and non-marxist branches of socialism, they just differ on how much of a state there will be.

[CH405]

Democracy was created by the elites of ancient Greece to make sure that the elite stayed in power, instead of a leader figure who had the power to choose a proletariat if he saw fit.

So, in essence, democracy is bourgeoisie. I'm not opposing it, just saying...

[cb9's_unity]

Democracy was created by the elites of ancient Greece to make sure that the elite stayed in power, instead of a leader figure who had the power to choose a proletariat if he saw fit.

So, in essence, democracy is bourgeoisie. I'm not opposing it, just saying...

Well except no bourgeoisie existed in ancient Greece. Rich doesn't automatically equal bourgeois, the bourgeoisie are a special group in relation to the means of production that own private property and use wage. I'm no expert on ancient Greece, but to my knowledge merchants and slave owners were the ones most likely to have power.

Also you've seemed to imply that anything that comes from the bourgeoisie is somehow tainted. Socialists don't intend to totally destroy modern society, we only intend to use what is useful to the working class and throw away all else. This is why we will control the factory and not burn it to the ground. Every useful invention the bourgeois creates is one we won't have to when we take power.

[Decolonize The Left]

Can someone tell me the name of a leftist
ideology that has participatory democracy in it?

All democracy is by definition participatory. A democracy is 'a government for, of, and by, the people.'

The only form of democracy which actually holds to this definition is direct democracy - whereby each person counts as one vote and votes are cast on every issue in a direct fashion. This can be thought of as an alternative to representative democracy whereby each person has a representative in government who counts as one vote and is elected to be the voice of their consistency. In this system, the government is not 'of, or by' the people as the people are indirectly removed from actual governance.

Most leftist ideologies embody some form of democracy. Many forms of Marxist communism advocate direct democracy, and anarchism (on the whole) does as well. It should be noted that direct democracy really only functions in a decentralized manner.

If you wish to speak of a centralized nation-state, as some forms of communism do, then you are forced to consider representative democracy as a viable alternative.

- August

[(A)narcho-Matt]

Can someone tell me the name of a leftist
ideology that has participatory democracy in it?


You might be mistaking participatory democracy with direct democracy.

Participatory democracy is a part of liberal democracy which allows people to participate in ways other than just electing a representative. So things like referenda and town hall meetings would be participatory elements of liberal democracy. The swiss system is a good example of this type of participatory democracy.

Direct Democracy is the type of democracy advocated by many leftists and anarchists, although the forms it takes do differ. One of the main debates is consesnsus vs majoritarian models. Usually within direct democracy local decisions are left to those groups, when making decisions on a higher level then a delegate structure may be used, however the issues would be discussed at the local level and the delegates would be expressing the consensus decision of their local group.

Then there is leninist democratic centralism which is something completely different altogether...