Yesterday I blogged about Brazil's participative democracy culture, and could not resist asking Geraldo for his insight on today's event. Here are his impressions:
By Geraldo Adriano Godoy de Campos, lecturer in Sociology and International Relations in Sao Paulo
Talking to a group with young people between 16 and 18 years old here in York, I have found out that from the 160 students from their school only 8 of them had picked up “Politics” as a subject.
This apparently innocent fact might tell us more than we imagine about the necessity of renewing the democratic mechanisms and institutions of your society. This and another symptoms have been motivating a group of people to put forward the initiative called 'European Citizens Consultation'.
Coming from Brazil, a country that became internationally recognized by its practices in participatory democracy, it's very interesting to follow such an innovative and creative experiment. All attempts to develop participatory mechanisms always carry with them with a double-side dimension: at one side they show the difficulties of implementing such programs, since it involves dealing with very dynamic social processes with human beings above all, with all the contradictions and complexity that a real and live democracy should entail.
On the other side such attempts show the viability and demonstrate that it is possible, absolutely feasible to enhance in terms of democratic practices and popular participation. They show how rotten are the old arguments that claim that politics should be left to the “professional politicians”, and that an ordinary citizen doesn't have the ability to deal with the world of ideas and policies. These innovative attempts also give a concrete proof that the viability of this mechanisms are related to a lot of hard work, anchored in the belief that, even with all the problems that will naturally appear, it is worth trying. Not only it is worth trying, but it is also urgent.
Being here as an observer from Latin America has been very interesting. It is exciting to think about the possibility of an Europe build from bottom-up, created from the ideas and desire of regular people. An utopia? I keep believing in the description of the word 'Utopia' as something that has never happened, but it absolutely feasible.
European Citizens consultation is showing that it is possible.
Geraldo is also the former co-ordinator of international relations for the participatory budget in Sao Paulo.
