Danny Sriskandarajah, Secretary General of the Civicus global civil society network. All rights reserved.
Francesc: Thank you Danny for having us. So my first question – you would agree with me that we are nowadays witnessing what is being called a “democratic recession” around the world. In your opinion, which are the driving forces behing this recession?
Danny Sriskandarajah: In design terms, I think that the democratic institutions that we have built are not fit for the 21st century. They’re not fit to respond to a population that is increasingly thirsty for participation – especially a young generation who want instant action and direct communication. We built our democratic institutions as if holding an election every few years – with a remote connection to the leadership – is sufficient to be “democratic”. I think part of the issue is that we’ve got a sort of gap between what many people increasingly expect in terms of participatory democracy and formal institutions that might have felt relevant in the 1800s or 1900s but no longer do.
