Whoah. Change.org or not, this is a fascinating greater-than-life-size
experiment.
Mexico City is at once one of the most difficult and one of the most
vibrant urban regions in the world. The spirit of the early 20th century
Mexican Revolution, relayed by 1968, continually clashes with the
massively corrupt political-economic oligarchy, itself both entangled in
and threatened by the narco cartels, which are street-level gangs
fractalizing into murderously efficient transnational supply chains. In
my view, the destiny of North America is being played out in Mexico. Can
that country's capital govern itself as a democracy? What an audacious
thought!
Please note, this is not a referendum. Ideas are being crowdsourced, via
a dubious corporate platform to be sure, but they are the raw material
for the deliberations of the 27-member constitutional commission. "Among
its functions," reads the official platform, "is the evaluation of
citizen's opinions according to the criteria of legality, quality,
viability and social benefit." So we are not talking about direct
democracy, nor about some potentially out-of-control electro-populist
nightmare. This is a high-level mainstream attempt at achieving
substantial mega-city democracy, driven by a PRD mayor representing the
left side of Mexico's official political spectrum. I reckon there's a
real chance it will go beyond the simple beautification of the
historical districts carried out by past administrations, towards
addressing some of the staggering problems faced by this colossal
agglomeration. Let's see what happens!
BH
On 06/05/2016 05:25 PM, nettime's consitutional hobbyist wrote:
Mexico is launching a big experiment in democracy that promises to turn
people’s ideas into the new law of the land.
By Rafa Fernandez De Castro
http://fusion.net/story/298572/how-mexico-city-is-using-the-internet-to-crowdsource-its-new-constitution/
In January President Enrique Peña Nieto signed a reform that made
Mexico’s capital, which has always been known as Distrito Federal or
Federal District (similar to Washington, D.C.), its own sovereign city.
Now the local government is getting more autonomy, which means local
lawmakers will be able to approve the city’s budget and draft their own
constitution, among other measures.
<...>
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