Author: David Van Reybrouck
- Non-Fiction
- Taurus
- ISBN: 9788430618422
- Release Date: 08-08-2008
Synopsis
Las últimas elecciones han confirmado el auge de los populismos basados en el miedo y una amplia desconfianza hacia las élites, y se han convertido en concursos de popularidad en lugar de ser un contraste razonado de propuestas.
Como explica este brillante libro, el objetivo inicial de las elecciones era excluir a la gente del poder mediante la selección de una élite que les gobernara. De hecho, durante la mayor parte de los 3.000 años de historia de la democracia, las elecciones no existían, y los cargos se repartían usando una combinación de sorteos y voluntarios que se ofrecían.
A partir de estudios y ejemplos de todo el mundo, este influyentey radical manifiesto presenta una propuesta real para una democracia verdadera, una democracia que funcione de verdad. Urgente, heterodoxo y enormemente persuasivo, Contra las elecciones solo deja una pregunta sin contestar: «¿A qué estamos esperando?».
Against Elections offers a new diagnosis ?and an ancient remedy. David Van Reybrouck reminds us that the original purpose of elections was to exclude the people from power by appointing an elite to govern over them. He demonstrates how over time their effect has been to reduce the people's participation in government to an absolute minimum, ensure power remains in the hands of those who already wield it, and force politicians to judge policies not on their merits but on their likelihood to win or lose votes. And that's when elections go well.
Yet for most of democracy's 3000-year history governments were not chosen by election at all: they were appointed, much like the jury system, through a combination of volunteering and lottery. Drawing on vast learning, an international array of evidence, and a growing number of successful trials, Against Elections demonstrates how a sophisticated and practical version of this ancient system would work today and thus eliminate the underlying cause of democracy's sickness. Urgent, heretical, and completely convincing, this book leaves only one question to be answered: what are we waiting for?
