Presentation of the book “Who’s in charge here?”

In March 2016, Felipe González took over the José Bonifacio Chair, an academic programme at the University of São Paulo at the initiative of the Ibero-American Centre (CIBA). The objective of this academic programme of talks, presentations and the preparation of documents is to strengthen Latin American relations with the support of persons involved in the world of culture, economics and politics and had previously been organised by Nélida Piñón, Ricardo Lagos and Enrique Iglesias.

In this context the Felipe González Foundation and publishing house Debate publish ¿Quién manda aquí? La crisis global de la democracia representativa (´Who´s in Charge Here?) The global crisis of representative democracy`, a publication which features essays by twelve experts on the four cornerstones on which the Chair is founded: the effectiveness of government; the crisis of parliaments as representative institutions; the conflict between the judiciary and the other elements of representative government; and the problems generated by the globalisation process for democratic governance.

The governance model for western societies is in crisis. The basic cornerstones which sustain representative democracies are more and more called into question by society. Many voters feel that their priorities are not taken sufficiently into account by politicians which opens the way for alternative forms of channelling the demands of society. In turn governments complain that they face greater and greater obstacles and restrictions when applying their policies while the founding principles of the separation of powers with majority governments and democratic accountability are being eroded.

This work which is subtitled ´The global crisis of representative democracy` therefore seeks to throw some light onto these problems and provide some solutions which are organised around four basic questions: what leads to governments being perceived as ineffective?, why is it so difficult for parliaments to fulfil their representative role?, how can the increasing conflict between the different arms of representative government be understood? and to what extent does globalisation affect the viability of representative democracy as a form of government?

The authors of the articles in this book are Felipe González, José Fernández-Albertos, Gerson Damiani, Víctor Lapuente Giné, Ignacio Molina, Roberto Gargarella, Rafael Jiménez Asensio, Berta Barbet, Juan Rodríguez Teruel, Kelly Komatsu Agyopan, Alberto Penadés and  Wagner Pinheiro Pereira.

Who´s in charge here? The global crisis of representative democracy will be presented on the 28^th of March in Madrid at the Espacio Bertelsmann, in a public event will attend by several of the authors and will be the first public activity of the Foundation.

Check the invitation