Participatory democracy at the crossroads
‘Citizens’ participation’ is a fashionable political concept, but one that increasingly means all things to all people. It is time to reclaim ‘participation’ from those who would use it simply to legitimise existing political institutions. This issue of Eurotopia explores different models of participatory democracy in Europe.
Participatory democracy in Europe
Jax Jacobsen
Interview with Jeronimo Fernandez Cortes
Eurotopia Team
Participation in Italy
Anna Pizzo
If participative democracy is the answer, what is the question?
Joan Subirats
Managing water through participative processes: the case of Catalonia
Jordi Pacheco i Canals
Facing the problems, learning the lessons
Hilary Wainwright
Participatory Democracy in 6 Steps
Tomás Rodríguez Villasante
Recent publications from Public Services & Democracy
Privatising EuropeThis working paper and infographic provide an overview of a great ‘fire sale’ of public services and national assets across Europe that is providing profits for a few transnational companies but is often fiercely opposed by its citizens. |
Participatory alternatives to privatisationExperience worldwide shows that EC-imposed privatisation on crisis countries will not work. The alternative is not reinforcing the status quo, but using citizen power and labour to reinvigorate public services and democratically transform the state.
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The future of Public Enterprises in Latin America and the WorldAn international seminar in Montevideo, co-organised by TNI and the Uruguayan government, shared the latest learning and innovation by state-owned enterprises across Latin America and affirmed their importance as instruments for economic and social development. |
Something rotten in the ANC stateThe palaces of President Zuma and the massacre of miners at Marikana symbolise how the gulf between rich and poor has grown in the 18 years since the African National Congress came to power in South Africa. Hilary Wainwright reports on how formerly loyal ANC activists are turning against their government |




