New transnational scenarios and the asymmetric democracy

Authors

  • Gabriel Real Ferrer Universidade de Alicante
  • Paulo Márcio Cruz

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4013/442

Abstract

This article addresses Representative Democracy and its inadequacy to deal with very complex societies. It considers the asymmetric nature of its representativity, and the urgent need for a reevaluation of the current models of Democracy that will enable them to adequately meet the current demands for participation. Globalization is creating a need for reflection on the Democracy of modern times and questioning its bases, the institutions which guarantee its exercise and its limits. The hypotheses of this article are based on the premise that authentic participation in the Nation can only be achieved when all those involved feel they are participating in spirit. The renewal of the democratic theory is based, above all, on the formulation of democratic criteria of participation that are not restricted to the act of voting. Participatory Democracy can represent a more advanced stage of the concept of Democracy - as a social value and not only as a procedure. The general objective is to demonstrate that Modern Representative Democracy is unable to reach other forms of life outside politics, or other political orders, other than those restricted to the Modern Constitutional State. Behind the theories which seek to orient the adoption of “democracies” capable of co-existing with the diversity and with the complexity, with solidarity and participation, there is an in-built and irrefutable optimism regarding the possibility of elaborating what could be called a democratic post-modern theory.

Key words: representative democracy, participatory democracy, asymmetric democracy, modern constitutional state, globalization.

Author Biographies

Gabriel Real Ferrer, Universidade de Alicante

Doutor em Direito pela Universidade de Alicante, na Espanha, Diretor do Programa de Doutorado em Direito Ambiental e primeiro diretor do Mestrado em Direito Ambiental e da Sustentabilidade da Universidade de Alicante. Professor visitante da Université de Limoges, na França, da Universidade do Vale do Itajaí – UNIVALI, no Brasil, e da Universidad Autônoma Metropolitana do México. Membro da Academia de Direito Ambiental e da Comissão de Direito Ambiental da UICN. É Vice-presidente da European Environmental Law Assotiation.

Paulo Márcio Cruz

Pós-Doutor em Direito do Estado pela Universidade de Alicante, na Espanha, Doutor em Direito do Estado pela Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina e Mestre em Instituições Jurídico-Políticas também pela Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina – UFSC.  Coordenador e professor do Programa de Pós-Graduação Stricto Sensu em Ciência Jurídica da Universidade do Vale do Itajaí – UNIVALI em seus programas de Doutorado e Mestrado em Ciência Jurídica. Foi Secretário de Estado em Santa Catarina e Vice-reitor da UNIVALI. É professor visitante nas universidades de Alicante, na Espanha, e de Perugia, na Itália

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Published

2011-04-04

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 2 (2010): July/December

Section

Articles

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