Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-12-15-Speech-3-107"
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"en.20101215.6.3-107"2
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"Madam President
is the title of a book by a recognised analyst of the theoretical and practical changes that contemporary democracies are undergoing.
We are indeed in the middle of an unfinished journey in which many stages have been completed, but we are in a period of risks, uncertainty and many doubts. However, among those doubts, we do have a few certainties.
The first is that the structure that has endured has been representative democracy: our institutions; without free parliaments based on the will of the people, democracy has never survived.
It is, however, also true that democracy now needs innovation, reforms and changes to improve its quality, while maintaining the structures that have served us so far and the strength of their foundations.
What type of changes do we need? We need to move towards a style of democracy that expands the participatory forum, so that citizens are more than just voters every four or five years. We need a democracy that increases the space for debate, in which citizens discuss, reason and exchange views, and one which increases social capital, in which citizens are no longer isolated and can integrate into the community. We also need a European dimension for this style of democracy.
I think we have achieved that by bringing in legislation for this citizens’ initiative. There are now no longer two types of legitimacy, rather there are two voices for citizens: one is here in Parliament and the other is in the citizens’ initiative. This will give us a stronger, more participatory and more legitimate democracy."@en1
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