The civic responsibility for a quality Democracy

It is sufficiently demonstrated that the people with the vote build their own present and the future of all. The hegemonic projects are based on fear, lack of information and, at least, on the gifts to those who have less and preferences to friends of power. To the corrupt we can say stop with the intelligent vote of the people. We can look straight ahead and show them the way out with the popular vote. Let each one put on the coat that fits.

Quality democracy is based on the transparency of the administration acts of the public powers; to achieve this end, monitoring by citizens is necessary. Those who are involved in this process should appreciate how it is highly convenient that management follow-up mechanisms exist, given that those who work equanimously at the service of the community are also positively highlighted. To the extent that in the electoral acts is particularly considered to those who perform in these parameters, close observation by the population will increase its effect on decision making. The latter is the key: in the same way that there is the so-called punishment vote, the vote of confidence must be applied.

Quality democracy is also based on responsible citizenship that fulfills its obligations in the broadest sense of the concept. The responsibility as an inhabitant is observed in the most daily issues such as the treatment of household waste, respect for the rules of coexistence, conduct on public roads, etc. and in general matters such as, for example, comply with electoral obligations , make complaints before the information about illicit, fully know the specific legislation, contribute to the general support of the State, and so on.

Citizen participation also improves the conditions in which political parties operate and in those who exercise executive, legislative and judicial responsibilities. Civil society organizations in general and citizens in particular give their contributions to the reflections and debates that enrich the basis of resolutions. The autocratic and clientelistic decisions are closing the capacity of general vision in the manner of a gorge that ends in a swamp; the consultation, the search for consensus and alliances increase the perspective as if it were before a broad valley where it can be seen clearly at a great distance. And, mainly, the community and intimate processes of each inhabitant have a high value in themselves especially when they are the basis of new and permanent processes of critical revision.

Luckily, on the other hand, the new millennium has begun to walk with clear signs of strengthening the democratic systems that were periodically reviled by those who should have been its faithful efficient custodians even in the face of the attacks of the violent authoritarians. And, undoubtedly, the main peculiarity of that force that sustains freedom is given by the increasingly intelligent responsible participation of citizens.

Citizen participation and responsible vote

Also, in addition to advancing the controls, the great tool for improving the quality of electoral processes is the intelligent training of the population and favoring the awareness of each of the inhabitants on the fact that responsible voting contributes in much to the quality of democracy. Sufficient information about the proposals and background of each candidate will greatly help the full pronouncement of the voters.

The electoral processes are a magnificent democratic tool where the candidates are put to unappealable consideration of who ultimately sustains the power: the people. The vote must be responsible for that we must demand to know previously what the electoral promises are, compare them with the others and register them in order to be accountable. Of course, the background of the candidates is important to include them in the evaluation and evaluate them to the extent that each one considers appropriate.

Therefore, responsible voting makes us free and citizen participation is the full exercise of the human condition without any impairment; passivity or letting even the corrupt decide for oneself is to have allowed to diminish the capacity to be integrally. In this sense, let us remember what was expressed by Bertolt Brecht: "The worst illiterate is the political illiterate. He does not listen, does not speak, nor participates in political events. He does not know that the cost of living, the price of beans, fish, flour, rent, shoes and remedies depend on political decisions. The political illiterate is so gross that he takes pride in inflating his chest by saying he hates politics. The imbecile does not know that from his political ignorance are born the prostitutes, the abandoned child, and the worst of all the bandits, who is the deceitful politician, the corrupt lackey of the exploiters of the people ". (1)

Encouraging the participation of the inhabitants of a community in their own issues is, ultimately, to build a politically literate society, with foundational cultural and ethical values and supporters of equitable communities, where all its members can fully develop.

Alejandro Rojo Vivot - Independent Consultant Asociación Ambiente Sur 1) Quoted by Mempo Giardinelli in Diatriba for the fatherland. Vergara Page 9. Buenos Aires, Argentina. April 2002