Crisis of reperesentation, legitimacy of exercise and types of resposability

Abstract

Abstract:
The economic crisis that began in 2008 has put in question the definition of Spain stated in Art 1.1 of the Constitution. Cutbacks in social spending and cases of corruption have finally harmed the democratic system because representatives are blamed for not being sensitive enough to citizens’ demands. The crisis affects more the way in which representatives exercise their functions than the way in which they are elected or take decisions. For this reason, the best method to address the crisis is to enhance the principle of responsibility of public powers. This criterion serves to review the institutions of direct and participatory democracy which exist in our system, and for proposing some improvements. However, the principle is especially useful for approaching
the problems that affect the exercise of representation. It is always possible to improve the electoral system. However, no electoral system guarantees that representatives exercise their function properly. There are other ways to ensure that representative assemblies, their members and political parties are more receptive to citizens’ demands. This paper proposes to strengthen the social, political and juridical controls that make effective the responsibility of representatives because these type of controls are the other face of democracy.