{"id":340,"date":"2017-03-03T11:34:44","date_gmt":"2017-03-03T06:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.itforchange.net\/mavc\/?p=340"},"modified":"2017-03-03T11:34:44","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T06:04:44","slug":"participation-in-spanish-municipalities-the-makings-of-a-network-of-open-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projects.itforchange.net\/mavc\/blog\/2017\/03\/03\/participation-in-spanish-municipalities-the-makings-of-a-network-of-open-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"Participation in Spanish Municipalities: The Makings of a Network of Open cities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"decidim.barcelona <\/a><\/p>\n

In September 2015, Madrid \u2013 the capital of Spain \u2013 initiated a participatory democracy project, Decide Madrid<\/i><\/a><\/u><\/span> (Madrid decides), to enable participatory strategic planning for the municipality. Less than half a year after, in February 2016, Barcelona \u2013 the second largest city in Spain and capital of Catalonia \u2013 issued their own participatory democracy project: decidim.barcelona<\/i><\/a><\/u><\/span> (Barcelona we decide). Both cities use the same free software platform as a base, and are guided by the same political vision.<\/p>\n

The success of the initiatives and the strong political vision behind them have caused an outburst of other initiatives around the whole state \u2013 and most especially in Catalonia \u2013 that are working to emulate the two big cities. They are sharing their free-software-based technology, their procedures and protocols, their reflections both on open events as in formal official meetings. What began as seemingly a one-time project, has spread both in length and width. In length, because it will not only stay but grow over time. In width, because there are serious plans to expand its adoption both at the regional level, led by the Barcelona County Council, and at the Spanish State level, being replicated by other municipalities.<\/p>\n

Of course, the big question is whether this has had any positive impact in the quality of democracy, the very intention behind the participatory initiative in Barcelona.<\/span><\/p>\n

Available open documentation suggests that<\/span> decidim.barcelona<\/i> has increased the information access of the citizens, has gathered more citizens around key issues. There has been an increase of participation, with citizen created proposals that have been widely supported and legitimated and finally accepted to be part of the municipality strategic plan. As pluralism has been enhanced without damaging the existing social capital, we can only think that the increase of participation has led to an improvement of democratic processes, especially in bolstering legitimacy around decision making.<\/span><\/p>\n

This can be summarized in four key points:<\/span><\/p>\n