La criminalisation de la participation citoyenne par des conceptions consensualistes de la démocratie participative

PEÑAFIEL, Ricardo. La criminalisation de la participation citoyenne par des conceptions consensualistes de la démocratie participative, Hors-série mars 2015 L'État de droit en Amérique latine et au Canada, 1 mars 2015, Revue québécoise de droit international (RQDI).

In a context where the idea of participative democracy is being raised to the rank of “new paradigm of public action”, we are witnessing the exacerbation of the representative government’s authoritarian tendencies, which can be observed through, for example, the actual trend of criminalization of collective action and the trivialization of the state of emergency. Rather than viewing this as a contradiction between a “participative” discourse and authoritarian practices, this article seeks to demonstrate how the contemporary criminalization of social protest finds its possibility conditions within the “participation discourse” itself, as well as through the practices and social and political institutions which are related to it. By analyzing four types of legitimation of massive and systemic repression of collective actions in the Americas (Quebec, Chile, Ecuador, Venezuela), this text highlights how the exercise of fundamental rights (such as those of association, expression and assembly) is considered a threat to “democracy” in the name of consensus supposedly attained within “deliberative” (consultative) forums organized by the authority in place and within which this authority preserves its prerogatives for the “qualification” of participants and especially for the “decision”. Results a fight for the meaning between two conceptions and practices of participation: one “consensual” and contained, and the other “wild” or transgressive. In order to illustrate this wild conception (non-domesticated) of democracy and participation, this text is based upon “narratives” from anonymous participants of transgressive dissenting actions that happened in the Americas during the last quarter century. This analysis of two conceptions and practices of citizen participation tends to demonstrate that, far from representing a danger for democracy, transgressive participation constitutes its dynamic principle.

This content has been updated on June 25, 2020.