Debates around 15M | News | Federation of Egalitarian Communities

The Spanish political debate, energized by the 15M movement and the prospect of early legislative elections, is taking place on The Life of Ideas. We welcome exchanges between philosophers, historians and political scientists, on the subject of political participation and the interpretation of republican thought in Spain and in our democracies.

Last May, The Life of Ideas published an article on the Spanish 15M movement (started on May 15, 2011, also known as the Indignés movement). The historian Eva Botella Ordinas described the functioning of the assemblies, and took a position in the debates of the Spanish left on republican political thought. These debates, relatively unknown in France, were born from José Luis Zapatero’s borrowing of references to the republicanism of Philip Pettit to legitimize his program and his action. In 2008, the philosopher endorsed these loans by publishing a positive diagnosis on the republican dimension of the first Zapatero government. Would claiming republicanism therefore lead to defending the institutional order and opposing “ Outraged » from May 2011 ? Would their demands for more intense and more democratic political participation not be republican? ?

Thanks to the reactions generated by this article, The Life of Ideas can now deepen the debate. The responses from Philip Pettit and his Spanish collaborators are supplemented by essays from historians, a political scientist and a sociologist. The 15M thus provides the opportunity to reflect on republicanism and democratic participation in Spain, in the Hispanic world and in current social movements.

On the folder menu:

Republican reflections on the 15M by Philip Pettit (09/20/2011) ;

Republicanism and citizen participation. Response to “ The direct democracy of Puerta del Sol » by José Luis Martí and Félix Ovejero (09/21/2011) ;

A Hispanic tradition of local democracy: The cabildos abiertos of XVI^e century to the present by Eva Botella, Domingo Centenero and Antonio Terrasa ;

The Indignés and the democracy of social movements by Eduardo Romanos (11/18/2011) ;

An engine of indignation. Electoral law in Spain by Robert Liñeira (11/18/2011) ;

And always on The Life of Ideas

The direct democracy of Puerta del Sol by Eva Botella Ordinas (05/24/2011) ;

The long history of Spanish democracy by Florencia Peyrou (05/24/2011).