Die Neue Zeit
9th January 2015, 03:41
http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=1028
Differences were clearest in the debate over organisational principles, which polarised round two different conceptions of democracy and leadership. Iglesiass document was based on a centralist conception whereby the general secretary chooses an executive of 15, while a citizens council, a political leadership consisting of 62 people, would be elected online by all those listed as members on the basis of both individual candidates and open lists which could be voted for as a block or separately. The council in turn would endorse the executive and interpret the mandates of a national assembly that meets every three years. While the general secretary can call assemblies at any level and propose or remove members of the executive at will, in order for the membership to do the same, 25 percent of those registered, over 60,000 people at the time of writing, or 30 percent of the circles, need to support such a move.
Opposition to Iglesiass position came from a grouping, Sumando Podemos (joining together we can), supported by three of the partys MEPs, Anticapitalist Left (IA), and many local activists and centred on organising the party on the basis of direct participatory democracy, rooted in the localities, the social movements and the circles. Iglesias pointed instead to the many people outside the circles to whom we want to give instruments and mechanisms so they can form part of this enormous collective process.
If and when Podemos wins the elections, those charged with carrying out its programme would be, in Iglesiass words, the best experts available. According to Iglesias:
We dont want a Podemos government but a government of the best. It is not politicians that make public administration and hospitals work; they are made to work by the people, in particular the most prepared people. We want to count on all of them so the country has a reasonable, decent, government.
A reflection of what type of administration is imagined can be seen by looking at those elected in November on Iglesiass list to Podemoss leadership. In contrast to the partys mass base, all are university educated; most holding professional, teaching or research posts. There are few activists and hardly anyone with workplace or trade union experience. So it seems that a Podemos government would be based on a sort of technocratic elite, made immune by both ideology and direct control by the electorate from the temptations to adapt, if not betray, that have befallen so many previous would-be reformers in parliamentary institutions around the world.
Leaving aside questions of policy, key strengths and key weaknesses abound these new organizational arrangements.
Differences were clearest in the debate over organisational principles, which polarised round two different conceptions of democracy and leadership. Iglesiass document was based on a centralist conception whereby the general secretary chooses an executive of 15, while a citizens council, a political leadership consisting of 62 people, would be elected online by all those listed as members on the basis of both individual candidates and open lists which could be voted for as a block or separately. The council in turn would endorse the executive and interpret the mandates of a national assembly that meets every three years. While the general secretary can call assemblies at any level and propose or remove members of the executive at will, in order for the membership to do the same, 25 percent of those registered, over 60,000 people at the time of writing, or 30 percent of the circles, need to support such a move.
Opposition to Iglesiass position came from a grouping, Sumando Podemos (joining together we can), supported by three of the partys MEPs, Anticapitalist Left (IA), and many local activists and centred on organising the party on the basis of direct participatory democracy, rooted in the localities, the social movements and the circles. Iglesias pointed instead to the many people outside the circles to whom we want to give instruments and mechanisms so they can form part of this enormous collective process.
If and when Podemos wins the elections, those charged with carrying out its programme would be, in Iglesiass words, the best experts available. According to Iglesias:
We dont want a Podemos government but a government of the best. It is not politicians that make public administration and hospitals work; they are made to work by the people, in particular the most prepared people. We want to count on all of them so the country has a reasonable, decent, government.
A reflection of what type of administration is imagined can be seen by looking at those elected in November on Iglesiass list to Podemoss leadership. In contrast to the partys mass base, all are university educated; most holding professional, teaching or research posts. There are few activists and hardly anyone with workplace or trade union experience. So it seems that a Podemos government would be based on a sort of technocratic elite, made immune by both ideology and direct control by the electorate from the temptations to adapt, if not betray, that have befallen so many previous would-be reformers in parliamentary institutions around the world.
Leaving aside questions of policy, key strengths and key weaknesses abound these new organizational arrangements.