"Look, the dog." "The dog they set loose on me." "Look at it." "Look." "I want to ask all the police here where the fuck they're from." "Aren't you great, eh?" "Don't you see those children there?" "Don't you think they could be one of yours?" "Have a little more consideration!" "How can you abuse us like this?" "We live here, we look after it." "Who do they think they are here?" "I hate them so much." "So much impotence." "There's no justice for us, but there is for the mining companies." "It's an outrage, in Argentina, they do this to us in our own country." "It's an outrage, it's disgusting." "The government, who else?" "The government." "You delegate responsibility and they take on additional powers." "This is just shocking, there are children, see for yourselves," "We were sitting there, they attacked us when we were doing a peaceful protest." "You delegate responsibility and they take on additional powers." "You delegate responsibility and they take on additional powers." "Powerful words, right?" "And you know what?" "They showed this footage all day, but they cut her out." "It really is a moving testimony." "But that phrase, questioning the delegation of power, was edited out." "As if there were a tacit agreement not to discuss representativity." "No?" "Come in, this way." "Come down here." "There is where I do all my thinking." "I'll open the blinds a bit, so there's natural light." "All right." "We'll start when you like." "I think that... the world still hasn't found a better system than democracy." "WHAT DEMOCRACY?" "This democracy is a catastrophe but it's the best that can exist, there's no alternative, because you can say "what do I compare it with?"" "The world doesn't have any other option." "Democracy was originally treated as badly as anarchy." "In certain texts from the 17th, 18th century where anarchy has negative connotations, it's assimilated with democracy." "Democracy is anarchy." "Well, there we have a fundamental problem." "Our current democracies are not democracies in that sense of the word." "There's an essential problem there." "How did you start with the investigation?" "Back in 2003, when I was coming out of the polling booth." "All that happened in 2001, the community assemblies, crisis of representativity, all that affected me a lot, because I'd never felt that inner freedom I felt back then." "It wasn't just me, there were people in the squares, parks, street corners, voting, deciding." "You know what that was like?" "It really marked me." "And from that moment, I started to doubt." "I said:" ""This regulatory democracy, there's something that isn't right."" "And when I came out of the polling booth, I really felt like an idiot." "And I said:" "something else has to be done." "Because I realized that it's all organised so that real participation by citizens is impossible." "I felt like an idiot because after the freedom of the assemblies, feeling them deeply, I was part of the election circus again so that was what made me look into all this." "Because if we really know that we don't take part in decision-making, if we know they're all corrupt, and they lie to us all day long what is it that makes people go and vote?" "Castoriadis says:" ""it's like this democracy makes it possible to diffuse conflicts, every night it gives the citizen a pill to sleep peacefully, without worries, without conflicts, so that everything stays in the hands of the powers that be."" "Right?" "You." "You've already taken the pill." "THE CLICK" "Hello and welcome." "We're going to look at the Senate building and its history." "We're in the central hall, also known as the Salón Carlos Perete." "This building, which took a total of 50 years to complete, captures the spirit of a wealthy era." "This beautiful palace houses the two national houses of representatives the Deputies and the Senators." "Both institutions are essential to the democratic system." "All the decorations and details such as columns, hand-crafted stained glass windows and the roofs, have classical motifs representing the values of the republican system." "Imposing as this palace may be, those who work here call it "the house"." "You see what this video is like?" "You see?" "I swear, I swear it hasn't been touched up." "It's not like I'm doing this for the interview." "Have you been on a tour of Congress?" "Yes, I went on one five years ago," "I'll never forget it, they showed me this very same video." "Maybe we could go there again?" "You're crazy." "Again?" "No, no." "It's enough having to watch this video again." "No, no way." "No." "All the same, everything happens for a reason, and this helped me." "It helped me because it made something important click." "Because of this... come here, bring the camera round, if you like." "Here we are." "This is the webpage of the Ministry of the Interior." "Because of this I had this click, which was what I was telling you earlier, about the figures." "Look, 1985, let's take... no, sorry." "1983, the return of democracy." "OK?" "The first elections." "Here is the voter turnout, the people who went to vote." "85% 85%, this in '83, the first elections, the dictatorship had ended and these were the first elections." "This black line decreases." "That's voter turnout." "What is voter turnout?" "It's that fewer and fewer people are going to vote, or they cast blank or spoiled ballots." "You see this?" "Going down, going down." "And the troughs?" "OK, let's see the troughs." "What do you think was the year when fewest people voted?" "2001" "No." "You're wrong." "Look. 2005." "This red trough is when fewest people participated." "I had it here somewhere..." "You got all this from the Ministry of the Interior?" "Yes." "All official." "Because the data are there, sometimes you have to know where to look." "My name is Alejandro Tullio," "I'm the National Electoral Director of the National Government." "I've been in this post for over 9 years, since 2001." "And I've had to ...work in over a third of the elections that have been held in these 27 years of democracy." "Representative democracy is the expression of the Social Contract, in which we citizens as a whole delegate in certain citizens leadership in a certain number of issues." "Now, you might say that" "Congress and the political parties don't represent us enough." "But that is a question not of design but of practice." "So representative democracy can presume the legitimacy of all its actions." "But then in the exercise of power one re-legitimises the mandate conferred by the people." "26,634,313." "This was the number of people who could vote in 2007." "So I ask:" "how many turned out to vote?" "Huh?" "20,246,328" "These are those who could vote, and these are those who did." "Can you see the difference between these and these?" "It's 6,387, 985." "So there were over 6 million 6,387,985 people who did not vote." "How about that?" "I'm not a sociologist or political analyst, but I have a vision of the world and this is the same all over the world." "But here the vote is obligatory." "Yes..." "But I think over 70% turnout at an election is OK." "So what do we do?" "To these 6 million we add the blank and null ballots, this leaves:" "What's this number?" "That's the total number of those who didn't vote," "That's a fallacy." "It's mathematically correct, but it has no political correlation." "Why?" "Because in reality, the votes for are the votes for, and it's those who vote that count, and those who vote in favour of someone." "And those who cast null or blank votes, no..." "They aren't counted." "But it's a political attitude..." "But they know that beforehand." "It's a political attitude, but it's a political attitude that is irrelevant to democracy." "Look at the number of voters in each province." "Let's take one at random..." "La Pampa and the south..." "If you add up 7,700,000 voters, it's more than half the country." "More than Patagonia!" "They don't count, and that's the way it is." "Or rather, they're counted but they don't count." ""If you don't want to take part, don't take part."" "Right, exactly." "Why?" "Because the social pact is:" ""Voters represent the whole, and the elected represent everyone."" "Whether they vote for you or not." "In 2007, the winner polled" "You follow?" "It's what we talked about earlier." "So, what percentage is this 8 million of the total of positive votes?" "By positive votes I mean the people who turned out to vote, minus blank and null ballots, as we said before, right?" "45.8%" "Is that the official figure?" "That's the official figure, OK, you're following me." "Now let's calculate the percentage of how much is 8,651,066" "over 26,634,313, which is those who can vote." "How much is it?" "What's the real percentage?" "32.4%" "So, that 45.8%... if I go to the Ministry of the Interior they'll say: "The winner of those elections polled 45.8%"?" "Exactly, that's the figure they'll give you." "Because it's based on positive votes" "The positive votes, which are these, see?" "If they took it from the total electoral roll, the winner would take 30%." "32...yes, I'll give you the 4, but it's 32.4%." "In the USA the vote is voluntary, and well... the most important wars of the 20th century were decided by people who had" "50% of the votes of 40% of the population." "But hey, those are the rules of democracy." "You remember we said that 7,762,784 were those who hadn't voted at all, didn't turn out, blank, null votes, yes?" "I gave you the null votes, yes?" "What's the percentage over the total electoral roll?" "29.9%" "The other figure was 32.4%." "This is the winner, these are the unrepresented." "That's when I started to doubt, that's when I started to investigate," "I said: "How can it be that no one talks of this 29.9%?"" "So those who say:" ""Democracy is representative"" "it isn't even representative." "And look, if we had real democracy here, this 29.9% that was represented in some way, how many deputies would that be, what power would that be?" "Because the first 32.4% it's a 3% difference," "Less, 2.4% less." "There's a 2.5% difference between this and this." "I think they would need a place, no?" "We, the representatives of the people of the Argentine Nation, assembled in General Constituent Congress, by the will and election of the provinces of Argentina, in observance with pre-existent pacts, with the object of constituting national union." "We... guarantee justice," "consolidate internal peace, provide common defence, promote general well-being, and ensure the benefits of freedom for us, for our posterity, and for all the men of the world who wish to live in Argentina:" "invoking God's protection, source of all reason and justice:" "we order, decree and establish this Constitution for the Argentine Nation." "EDUCATING THE CITIZEN I" "Look at this, come here, I want to show you something remarkable." "Look" "Sarmiento says that "we have to educate citizens."" "While Alberdi said "inhabitants"." "Sarmiento said: "no, citizens, so that they construct nationality."" "Sarmiento was right and this is the great challenge for public schools." "The great challenge for public schools today is to create world citizens." "You see how it is?" "To instil that." "To educate citizens." "That's the basic idea." "Look, come here." "Let's wipe these numbers." "When you're young here at primary school they tell you:" ""Democracy is all we have, with democracy you get involved"" "and then election year comes round." "you're at pre-school and what do the kids do?" "They make their own ID cards, they make ballot boxes, polling booth." "What for?" "So they can vote like mum and dad." "Later on, they make you recite the preamble of the constitution, then they teach you about the division of powers, of course." ""We are all equal before the law", civil rights, that we all have the right to housing, work, food... they repeat it and repeat it..." "of course, it's all theoretical, right?" "But what good is this?" "It makes you believe the representative system is the only way of participating." "You say "I don't deny democracy but can't I participate more?"" "It starts at school, don't question the rules, don't question anything, don't think differently" "All that begins here." "Representative Democracy" ""A social contract is needed, such equality that all agree on where all have the same rights"." ""So that no political institution becomes monopolistic, a division of powers is needed."" ""It is necessary to have faith in the State"." "Representative Democracy." "Argentina 1976-1983." "Dictatorship." "1983, beginning of the "Democratic Spring"." "Argentines, the dictatorship is over." "Well, with democracy we opened up a new path." "And so let us go now to the democracy that brings votes but also the democracy that feeds, that educates, that cures." "It was a sensation of happiness, of well-being, relaxed and celebrating." "A lot of mobilizations, participation, a lot of enthusiasm, putting our hopes putting our hopes in the future." "I was chief polling station officer because I was a teacher." "It was very exciting, very emotional." "A really high percentage voted." "And I was very happy to see how enthusiastic the young were, it was the first time they'd voted." "I'll never forget that." "I remember..." "I wasn't a teacher." "As parents we really wanted to get involved." "I clearly remember that my dad took me to Plaza de Mayo where President Alfonsín gave his speech." "Establish national union, consolidate interior peace, guarantee justice." "Demobilization went hand in hand" "with the sensation of protecting ourselves, protecting the family, and the whole project that was coming before the dictatorship began to be felt, in economic terms." "It was all wonderful." "You'd go like this and there'd be a street party, people were happy." "Not just "the people", we were all happy." "That joy lasted all of 1984 and some of '85, then the bubble burst." "It burst because people saw they'd been tricked by people they trusted." "CONSTRUCTING THE CANDIDATE" "Politics is a millionaire's sport, a dollar multimillionaire's sport." "For you to understand this, the idea of setting oneself up, what does this mean?" "For people to know who you are, for good or for bad, for them to get to know you that usually costs 5 to 10 million dollars." "What is exactly political marketing?" "It's a number of tools, just like marketing, and politics that allow us to get a clear message across, as clear as possible for the citizen." "Political consultancy expects that on a given day people will vote as you expect." "On Sunday, let's fill Congress with a new idea, that started only a short time ago, and you started it." "Follow it!" "And to think you voted for them to solve your problems" "And now, will you vote for them again?" "On Sunday, vote seriously." "political marketing, properly understood, makes the distinction that people aren't buying a product, something else is at stake, and that something has a number of important issues in everyday life." "The candidate isn't a product, he or she is a human being with passions, complications," "to deal with." "They say I'm boring, boring!" "Ha!" "It's an interesting ad because it uses a technique, a strategy that advertisers used many decades ago to sell the famous VW Beetle," "saying "it's true, it's ugly, it's not an attractive car, but it's reliable, it's economical, efficient"." "I don't want the people to suffer, while a few have all the fun." "I want a happy country." "I want the people to be happy!" "Somebody is thinking about the people." "You have a group of citizens you can tip the scales in terms of voting, one way or another." "And that really forces you to compete hard to win over that small group, a critical mass, which will allow you to reel in an election victory." "A good strategy is a general campaign plan" "that analyses absolutely everything that is done and not done in the campaign, based strictly on research." "Come on Menem!" "This is the dance, this is the rhythm that everyone loves the rhythm of the "chino"." "Democracy is the people!" "Democracy is not political power for the few!" "and you dance it like this and you move like this." "and the rhythm of "el chino" is the one for Peru 2000" "No one votes with their heads." "That's a lie." "No one votes for programs." "No one votes for ideological stances." "That's a lie." "The election of something generally has very high levels of emotion and human psychology." "So this game has very little rationality." "What neurolinguistic studies are showing is that people ultimately vote based on impressions, based on their perception of the candidate, how they identify with the candidate and what the candidate..." "What is neurolinguistics?" "It studies how..." "It studies the human brain." "But De La Rúa was a trick, and the political marketing that won him the presidency, with a talented guy like Agulla," "The Alliance is as big as our hope, let's make it grow." "Let's make them feel the strength of a decent people!" "There are more of us." "It's important to understand this because otherwise we who do this work are seen as manipulators who try to adjust the candidates, when what we really do is try to create a greater connection without distorting the candidate." "People are more used to image spin, and it's good that they're used to it, as you have to be more competitive in other areas." "Image is no longer enough to win." "This is the famous second floor of Mexico City." "How did López Obrador pay for it?" "He got into debt." "Pensions?" "He got into debt." "Motorway interchanges?" "Debt." "He tripled Mexico DC's debt." "If he becomes president, he will take us further into debt." "And at some stage an economic crisis will come, devaluation, unemployment, foreclosures." "These are the big plans for López the Debtor" "Media training was developed by Jack Hilton who advised on the Kennedy-Nixon debates," "He advised Kennedy and then developed a theory on improving candidates' appearances." "All media training focuses on TV and audiovisual media." "It works on exercises for different press situations." "There is the one typical situation, being accosted by journalists, when there's a mob of journalists accosting the candidate to ask a question." "Another different exercise is the classic news interview." "With a table, a couch, interviewer and interviewee." "A roundtable, where as well as the interviewer there's an opponent of the candidate, or someone who acts like an opponent, usually an actor for the practice." "There's the bridge technique, when the candidate is asked a hostile question, he acknowledges the question and then looks for a connector to lead to another issue where he doesn't feel so exposed, right?" "And some acting techniques that are sometimes called into question but are to do not with acting, but understanding some of TV's rules, and when candidates understand these, they perform better." "I want to bring you all together our feet firmly on the ground, but our eyes to the skies, to build the Chile of the future." "What we're starting to see in political sociology is the distorted role of polls." "Not only are polls more visible, they've become more important." "Today, polls and poll results are more important than much of the discourse built up around the candidate." "There are candidates who canvass an advertisement, others who canvass voting intentions, to define their election strategies, to see where there are gaps and opportunities, gaps in terms of ideology, programs, proposals." "To get this perfectly straight:" "I go and poll people on what they want and then I promise in the campaign what the people who were polled said they wanted." "There were people who said that he would privatise health and education." "So what billboards did we put up?" ""More free education, more free healthcare."" "Dumber advertising than that?" "Impossible!" "The future will be what you want it to be." "That's why I'm asking for your support." "because now, more than ever, we need your vote." "This world we work in has to do with power." "And yes, you have to know how to manage it." "Power is overwhelming, power is devastating, and you have to be careful because as a dear friend once said to me," ""You suddenly get all muddied up with this, and when you look in the mirror, you no longer recognise yourself." "You have to have a shower now and again to wash off the mud."" "EDUCATING THE CITIZEN II" "La Matanza is the district most coveted by politicians because of voter numbers." "Paradoxically, it is also the most forsaken." "I don't know what solution politicians would have, they expect us to vote for them, and if we do... we vote for them, but then they forget about us." "Who are you going to vote as mayor?" "I'll have to think about it, the vote is secret." "I have no intention of voting, because it's always the same." "I don't know who to vote for, because they're all the same." "Our institutional system allows voters in the first round to vote out of conviction, according to who represents their ideas, their interests, and in the second round they vote out of preference, choose the lesser of two evils." "The national elections are drawing close." "Let's exercise our right to vote, and vote responsibly." "Vote." "Your vote is worth something." "This is a message from Catholic Action Argentina." "This Sunday all Argentine citizens are obliged to go to the polls between 8am and 6pm." "Under the electoral code, those who don't face up to 2 years' prison." "This other man is Fredy Enrique Koler, Dorado mayor candidate for an off-shoot of the Frente Renovador." "He gives out bonds, promising in the event of his election victory a wooden house for the lucky winner." "as well as motorbikes, bikes and food hampers as consolation prizes." "He's just trying to buy votes with this." "I don't think it's anything else because it's all lies." "It's a lie, it's impossible." "He'll win the vote and then forget about the people." "Working as a polling station officer is a way to ensure democracy." "There are not enough officers at 90% of polling stations in Buenos Aires." "..and that brings us to the end of the polling officers training course" "Congratulations." "We're looking for volunteers for polling station officers," "I'm going to give you my card..." "Vote." "Your vote is worth something." "And regardless of how you feel about different political leaders, whether you like one or another, whether you don't like any, and so on, we must take care with the elections, as a fundamental means of democracy," "and it is our means, our means of expression." "If we don't vote we don't harm A, or B, or C, or D, or anyone, we harm ourselves." "I think the most important thing is for Argentines to go and vote." "It doesn't matter who they vote for." "They should just vote." "This 28 June it is very important to remember that the decision is in your hands." "Imagine if one day 90% of voters said "we're not going to vote" and only 10% went." "Those 10% elect, and it is legally valid, those 10%, that minority chooses the president." "So that we realise that the solution to the dissatisfaction we always get from the system, does not lie in not voting." "The number of voters is decreasing." "In 2007 it was a little over 71%, in 2003 it was 78%, in '83 it was 84%, so it's been decreasing." "It's very important that citizens participate in the election." "I'm asking you for one day." "In democracy the worst penalty is not voting." "Just one day." "We must vote." "One Sunday every two years, to be there." "This Sunday we elect the new Congress, a key decision, an election that could change the political map." "STAGING" "The thing is every party has a ballot paper and you have to wait for the officer to inspect everything and then they come in and they're all desperate for the ballot paper." "No one's going to take it off them!" "They don't let us get ready and we're wasting time, that's what it is." "And the people want to vote." "What time do they start?" "At 11?" "You know who changes the country?" "The people, not politicians, sadly." "So why do we vote for politicians?" "Because they make us, otherwise we go to prison, it'd get us nowhere," "I'd rather not vote." "I'd do a picket to not vote so that they see that people are tired of voting, and tired of broken promises." "Here we're pretty irritated because it's totally disorganised, because the polling officer and the inspectors haven't shown up, and we can't work like this, there needs to be better organization." "We've still come to obey a law that benefits others." "And it's totally disorganized, things can't work like this." "How's it going?" "Nice day today, eh?" "How are you guys?" "Fine, you?" "Fine." "How's the documentary going?" ".Fine, it's coming along." "DELAYS IN OPENING POLLING STATIONS" "Male booths 58 86 and 58 87 are now open." "Why do the women have to wait?" "Because the polling officers haven't arrived." "How many?" "The five polling officers." "From a total of how many booths?" "From a total of five female booths." "Let's see the moment when the Mayor Elect Mauricio Macri voted in Palermo." "I hope all of us vote, that we can overcome apathy and get involved by voting because only with a better democracy can we have a better society." "Let's be honest, very few want to come and vote." "It's worse to stay at home and not vote." "Because if we don't vote we withdraw from that involvement and these people stay in charge of the same issues and I'm going to be ostracised." "So the only way to get involved is this." "Another system, I don't know." "It would be anarchy." "Everyone governing individually, everyone by themselves." "Now I'm going to church with my family, like every Sunday." "A lot of people are going to vote." "I heard early this morning that 100% of the polling stations opened, that's important." "People don't believe in this anymore, not anymore... they don't find out what they propose and they wouldn't believe them anyway." "People have lost hope." "A lot of disappointment." "Look, I'll show you." "About 50% haven't come to vote." "We know we're all equal, but you know..." "There's nothing else for it, we have to elect one." "You have to vote for someone." "I think it's the nicest day for democracy when we can vote, no?" "Politicians?" "They're deaf." "Unfortunately, they're deaf." "They promise everything until they come into power, then they're deaf." "Envelope!" "Hang on..." "No, pass it down..." "We've got one...hang on" "You should pass the envelopes along." "But we have to do..." "No, no, there are too many votes, you don't have enough votes, the problem is here." "We live hand to mouth, we don't even have time to participate in a political activity." "With things like that, what are we supposed to do?" "Democracy works when citizens get actively involved in it." "And we need the institutional system to be as legitimate as possible." "So what the system does is to change the dog's collar." "Look at the candidates." "How are they doing?" "Those of us at the bottom..." "they don't let you get ahead, so it's an unfair competition." "Because it's all about means." "So I say it's economic determinism that leads to success." "All the merchandising means people vote according to the media." "There's no depth." "What's the plan?" "What quality of life do we want?" "One perhaps, because of the continuity of democracy, can't appreciate the value that each citizen, that each citizen can decide what kind of country." "I was part of that generation that grew up in a country where no one could decide a thing..." "It's perverse." "It's perverse, this." "But as a German philosopher once said:" ""In this organized chaos, where everything seems organised"," "I believe something can always be done." "And I share that with my partner, my colleagues, my friends, and I always say "we must not give up"." "Let's look for a better time." "Look, Sunday 24 June 2007." "Macri told the Nova Agency that:" ""the low turnout this morning was because of the cold"." ""The cold weather today meant that many people found it hard to get out"." "We estimate voter turnout, as people are still voting, at 65-70%." "Can I say something obvious?" "I'd like to remind viewers that they are obliged to vote." "It's not a case of "I'll do them a favour and vote in the second round."" "No, it's obligatory to vote in the first and second round." "Maybe some people are a bit lazy, but OK, there's still time." "How do you compare '83 to today, the democracy?" "There was a very big difference at that time." "We were coming out of a dictatorship so the people..." "The public assemblies were extraordinary." "The end of the election has been postponed until 6pm, sorry, another hour, until 7pm." "It's closed, mate, you can't vote." "They told me until 7." "No, no, until 6, all our lives it's been until 6." "No, it's until 7, they said on the news." "At the police station they told us." "we can vote until 7." "No, mate." "Yes!" "Aren't you watching the news?" "We're done, all right?" "You missed it." "69 isn't the dead man." "77" "77 is the dead man." "81" "80, 80's there, 81 isn't." "86, and done." "Then the extras." "All right." "Shall we?" "Sure, we'll put the slips in there and you take them out after." "Otherwise it'll all pile up." "How many voters have we got?" " ..." "That's what you have to do first." "You have president, governor, deputies, senators..." "How many?" "337 voters." "Now let's count the envelopes." "There are 319." "A difference of 2 or 3 is normal, but 19..." "There are nearly 19, 18 votes' difference." "He told me 337 votes, and I counted 319." "The number of envelopes is 319, there are no more envelopes." "In just seconds we will tell you who's winning the election." "Five seconds..." "Three seconds..." "Two...one..." "Cristina is winning." "I see, I see" "What do you see?" "Something." "What is it?" "That we're going to govern again like in '73." "We are the heirs of Perón and Evita despite the bombs and the firing squads our dead comrades the disappeared they have not defeated us." "OK, simply," "Thank you." "Thank you to everyone who went to vote today." "Because in voting today we all further consolidated our democracy." "Power was always sacred, always sanctified." "This sanctity of power is something that has perpetuated in democracy." "But democracy is exactly the opposite, it cuts off this divine transcendence, there is no longer a direct line with God." "Once democracy reconstructs the elite's political power, it goes back to covering itself in the sacred glitz of traditional power." "Democracy is no longer a political regime, it's a state of society." "Why is democracy unrepresented?" "Why can it not be represented by another?" "Because the capacity for doing, power, can be delegated." "It can elect a representative in my place who does what I want." "But my will cannot be delegated, I cannot delegate my will." "Because if I delegate my will it is someone else's will." "It's like desire, if I want something, it's me who wants it." "If I say to someone else:" ""desire this for me"" "my desire no longer exists as desire." "In the same way, will cannot be delegated." "Like desire itself, so too is the will." "If the people delegates its will in the government, it no longer has that will." "The Argentine Constitution says: "The people does not deliberate or govern."" "You don't need a PhD in political science to see that it then says:" ""through its representatives."" "You don't need to be very bright to see that if the representatives govern, one does not govern oneself." "Participation isn't a slogan." "Participation is something we all have to demand of society." "I think you have to get involved, that people have to get involved." "And there are many ways to get involved, it's not just about getting elected councillor or anything like that." "It's about being elected chair of a cooperative or the local sports club, or secretary of the" "DIY federation." "That's participation." "If people work on something, if they have information about something, they know, they can decide." "But who can decide anything about the hidden elements of the State?" "And also political leadership increasingly says it's harder to govern that it's not for all the people, there's a kind of elite, that it's complex... technological, economical problems, the people can't decide on housing, food or national debt" "or bank profits." "We don't know that?" "It's odd, but they tell us we don't, that we should elect those who've studied for this." "Freedom in ancient times was democratic freedom." "the freedom to discuss in an assembly and take decisions." "But freedom in modern times is the freedom to be left alone to one's personal desires and everyday pleasures." "Meaning you can do with your private life whatever you want and let others take care of public matters because that's what they've elected those representatives for." "If one thing works in world democracy it's that people vote to decide a political course." "There is a representation crisis in the world, representative democracy is in crisis." "People are realising that they support leaders who then rip them off." "So people are reflecting that in fact it's not that you have to choose your representative wisely, but rather:" "Do we need representatives?" "Why don't we take charge?" "The president is a hangover from direct democracy, because having a president means the people say to someone:" ""You're the first person that we order"" ""you're the leader, but we led you there"." "But if a government says:" ""I'm going to do white"" "and it's not that they then do light grey, they do black, what are they saying to the people?" "That their vote is worthless." "Really, in constitutional representative democracies, the direct relationship is quickly lost, and in the case of political structure that anarchists might propose via a communalist, federalist relationship or collectives like in Spain, the relationship is direct and there is permanent control of the political delegation." "Which means that the mandate I give can be kept in check and revoked." "Mandates don't exist anymore." "The people no longer give mandates to governors, governors do not commit themselves to any order." "So if there is no mandate, there is no taking stock, if he doesn't do what I want I can get rid of him," ""No, I'm not disobeying an order of yours, you voted for me to do as my heart desires."" "It doesn't work like that, governments have to do what the people say, and if they don't they should be able to change them." "That's democracy." "The very structure in the election of the candidate means that when the people go to vote, when they are called to vote, they elect the lesser evil, the least bad." "The election of the lesser evil is, by definition, the election of evil, lesser, but still evil." "How can we say that the will of the people is to elect the lesser evil?" "Evidently, that's not the way to go." "It's simply that the options available are those." "The true position of someone who is told:" ""Look, go and vote for this one or that one."" "Me?" "I don't like either of them." "So what do I do?" "I don't vote." "That would be the basic position of a sensible person." "But because everyone's been told that the vote is a democratic right that has been hard won, that when one has it and doesn't use it..." "When I was young, I too protested for free elections, because I wasn't allowed to vote, then when I was allowed I didn't, because I realised." "In the reality of the vote, of universal suffrage, there's another problem and that's who you vote for." "Political reality means that to get to be a candidate, you have to have the party's support, major support from economic groups, so not anyone can say:" ""I want to be president."" "In the election campaign, every citizen is one vote the man who sells newspapers on the street corner has one vote, just as the owner of Clarín newspaper has one vote." "When you get into government the opinion of the owner of Clarín is very dangerous, and unfortunately the opinion of the newspaper seller, not so much." "I don't think that campaign contributors condition what the government does." "That happens, it's a problem and it has to do with the close relation that contemporary globalised societies have with all sectors of capital." "Obviously, compared to a society 30 to 40 years ago, the power that capital has now is much higher in relation to politics." ""The Barrick mining company contributes money to Cristina's campaigns"." "We're heading for a world where people are freer, more alone, more hedonist, more individualist." "It looks like it's heading that way." "This individual is becoming increasingly privatised." "Privatised in the sense that outside ties are gradually being lost, the primary groups tend to be reduced to the enjoyment of certain consumer possibilities and they ignore all aspects of collective life, which gradually disappear and..." "What is the consciousness of the neo-liberal individual?" "His consciousness is" ""Who's going to change this?" "No one."" ""It's impossible to change the world because I alone cannot,"" ""and since I'm alone what else can I do but stay at home."" ""or go and vote when I'm asked?"" "So in a plebeian public space the people in the street, you saw it in 2001, have the capacity to act, they can overthrow a government, but anyone sitting at home watching TV is totally useless," "incapable of changing anything." "Representative democracy was invented to stop the people from deciding, it was created precisely in the framework of the capitalist system so that a small minority class could be in charge of a majority." "Yes, it's true, today politics is part of the power structure." "That's why I say that it's capitalism that's won." "What does it mean that capitalism has won?" "That this participatory republican democracy is relatively participatory it's clear that it's relatively participatory." "A more modern democracy should use far more direct consultation mechanisms." "It's not as if representative democracy exists outside of the capitalist system." "When Churchill said "Democracy is an imperfect system... but it is the least bad of existing systems", it's because all human systems are imperfect and all systems that are used to confer power are even more imperfect." "There are interpretations that delegitimise the system, and interpretations that legitimise it." "I believe in the interpretations that legitimise it, because otherwise... we shouldn't attack the problem but attack the system directly." "But there's no other system." "It's the least bad of all systems, they say." ""If you don't like it much, there's no choice, it's either this or dictatorship."" "No!" "How so?" "Because representative democracy came about to prevent direct democracy." "At times when communal movements were advancing, in the USA, for example, the War of Independence was based on the leadership of the people that fought." "And then comes prohibition: "OK, now that we've won, you don't deliberate or govern anymore."" "In the US Constitution, the constituents when they were writing it it says this clearly," "People are moved by passion and there is an elite that is moved by reason." "How do we have democracy but people don't triumph with their passion, but rather the elite with their reason?"" "And so they invented representative democracy." "They took representative democracy." "And they put up a House of Deputies and said "What if the deputies are demagogues and the people pressure them when there are elections?" "And they end up being pressured by the passion of the majority?" "Let's put in a Senate as a filter, as a check."" "Then they put in a president The president says:" ""In case all this fails I should have veto powers... so I can veto a law that comes out in favour of the people."" "And that's why they give them veto powers, inherited from monarchical vetoes." "And lastly is the power of the judiciary, which decides whether a law is valid or not, and it's the only power that the people do not vote for." "The dominant class, the bourgeoisie, in capitalism tries not to resort to repressive means, it tries to construct a hegemony in which they teach and educate that that is the system, which like the sun cannot change." "Everything else can be debated, but not the system of representation." "People think that society is how they found it when they were born." "At times of revolution or insurrection, the utopian project becomes part of the collective project, it becomes an element that says yes, this thing that doesn't exist can be done, it can be built," "In this respect change is fundamental and it is change that will lead to all the revolutions because as men think that they made things as they are they'll then think that if they made it that way, they can make it another way." "Let's go!" "Let's participate!" "I convene the assembly." "I summon my neighbour." "I summon my cousin too, and, why not?" "My sister." "And my sister-in-law." "I ask to speak." "I ask to speak." "I ask to speak." "I ask to speak." "And we have all spoken." "It's time to tell us your arguments, baby." "Oh yeah, it's time." "Hello!" "I've come to tell you my idea about participating democracy it's not what you think it's much easier than they say." "If we want to change this story we have to get involved, it's very easy it's not just about voting every four years." "Participating is much more than voting!" "Participating is much more than voting!" "We'll never achieve the real idea with the official list of candidates." "Participating is much more than voting!" "Participating is much more than voting!" "We'll never achieve the real idea with the official list of candidates." "Our dreams don't fit in a ballot box!" "Don't give up, you're not beaten" "Don't feel like a slave, you're not a slave trembling in fear, be brave attack ferociously, even if you're badly injured." "Here ends our visit to the palace, or rather the "House of Laws"." "This is truly one of the places that exists so that democracy can exist." "This house is truly for all of you and you can come as often as you like to see sessions, committee meetings, ask questions or study in the library." "How closely tied is our fate to the leaders who we elect, who we elect via the popular vote." "We understand the specific responsibility of the vote and that slogan:" ""they all must go"" "was followed by a conviction that someone has to stay, that someone has to take responsibility for the situation." "And while this hard and cruel reality was coming into being, the institutions continued to work and with that a certainty that democracy is the only tool at out disposal and that the system is not up for discussion." "For all those who fight to change the world and don't buckle under."