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Podemos
Perhaps Podemos has found the sweet spot between the openness of the occupy movement and political effectiveness.
It is a new kind of party, a movement-party, or rather a party-movement, based on the following ideas:
- People are not fed up with politics, they are just fed up with this kind of politics.
- The overwhelming majority of citizens do not feel politically mobilised, nor do they take to the streets to demonstrate, but stay at home instead, filled with anger and sympathizing with the demonstrators.
- Political activism is important, but politics calls for the actual involvement of citizens who are not necessarily “politically active”. Being a member of the political class is of necessity a temporary condition, which precludes earning more than the country’s average wage.
- The internet allows forms of interaction that did not exist before.
- Elected parliamentarians do not make up topics or positions, but simply convey those arising from the discussions at the bottom.
- People are not fed up with politics, they are just fed up with this kind of politics.
- The overwhelming majority of citizens do not feel politically mobilised, nor do they take to the streets to demonstrate, but stay at home instead, filled with anger and sympathizing with the demonstrators.
- Political activism is important, but politics calls for the actual involvement of citizens who are not necessarily “politically active”. Being a member of the political class is of necessity a temporary condition, which precludes earning more than the country’s average wage.
- The internet allows forms of interaction that did not exist before.
- Elected parliamentarians do not make up topics or positions, but simply convey those arising from the discussions at the bottom.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/boaventura-de-sousa-santos/podemos-wave
