Deepening Democracy: Democratic Innovations in the Case of the Basque 'Local Independent Platforms' (1991-2016)

This research has as starting point the emergence and growth of a political actor which is getting more representation in the local government since 1991: “local independent platforms”. They have become a real alternative to traditional political parties in the local arena of the Basque Country, specially in Biscay. So, the first objective of this study is to define exactly what “local independent platforms” are. A work related to the second goal of this contribution: identifying what kind of political actor do “local independent platforms” form, which it is thought to be a hybrid between political parties and social movements. After this, the third aim of this research is to analyze how “local independent platforms” have deepened democracy at three levels of analysis: at the structural-institutional level, at the middle-level and at the micro-level. At the structural-institutional level, “local independent platforms” have implemented public policies which promote more democratic depth, such as inclusive public policies (in order to integrate excluded collectives) or public policies which foster equality (in the economical, educational and cultural sense). At the middle level “local independent platforms” have deepened democracy by driving participatory invited spaces (Gaventa, 2007; Blas and Ibarra, 2006; Cornwall 2004) and implementing democratic innovations such as participatory budgeting, e-democracy or participatory processes inspired in la démocratie du proximité. In this part, we develop discussions about three models of democracy: deliberative, agonistic and participatory democracy, exploring the possibility that some theoretical positions of participatory democracy can be put into practice from the agonistic viewpoint. Finally, at the micro level, “local independent platforms” have contributed to democratic deepening by faciltating the conditions through which claimed and irruptive spaces (Gaventa, 2007; Blas and Ibarra, 2006; Cornwall, 2004), subaltern counterpublics (Fraser, 1999: 115-117) but also para-publics can emerge. This study considers three areas of study -public policies, democratic innovations and social movements- that seem to have developed in parallel and, as a consequence, have given rise to a knowledge gap. The perspective of this work puts those areas in dialogue in order to achieve the final objective: deepening democracy. The methodological approach of this work is qualitative, carrying out 12 in-depth interviews to six municipal mayors belonging to Basque “local independent platforms”. BLAS e IBARRA; Asier y Pedro (2006): “Participación: estado de la cuestión” en Cuadernos de Trabajo Hegoa, nº 39, pp. 1-44, CORNWALL, Andrea (2002): “Making Spaces, changing places: Situating Participation in Development”, IDS Working Paper 173, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton. FRASER, Nancy (1999): “Esferas públicas, genealogías y órdenes simbólicos”, en Justicia interrupta. Reflexiones críticas desde la posición postsocialista, Siglo del Hombre Editores, Bogotá. GAVENTA, John (2006): “Finding The Spaces for Change: A Power Analysis” Development in Practice vol. 37, nº 6, pp. 23-33.