Governance and inclusive democracy

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to offer a research agenda to improve on representative, participatory and deliberative forms of democracy. It argues for an inclusive democracy built upon a cybernetic understanding of governance and organization structure. Design/methodology/approach -Based on complexity management strategies, the paper offers a conceptual construction of governance and democracy. The case of Colombia over the past 60 years is used to illustrate these strategies; it makes apparent that in spite of good intentions, the cybernetics of the country and its cities has faltered over this period, hindering its democracy. To learn how to overcome this weakness and support the evolution towards an inclusive democracy, the authors propose a research agenda aimed at studying the viability of cities. Findings -The paper indicates that there is a broad field to apply management cybernetic tools in the political domain, as for example the classic archetypes that inhibit the emergence of effective structural recursion and people's local participation in global issues, restricting their social inclusion. Research limitations/implications -In many Colombian cities and towns people live in very difficult conditions and to survive they often fall into corruption, but others display apparent resiliency, solidarity, communitarian organization and so forth. Learning about good practices should help visualise strategies towards democratic inclusion and good governance. Social implications -The main question supporting the whole research could be expressed as, how is it possible to reduce power imbalances that inhibit and restrict the effective participation of its citizens? The corresponding answer will imply improving citizen's quality of life beginning with democratic structures to live in and to practice active citizenship. Originality/value -The paper offers insights about inclusion and effective governance; it argues that "connecting" a local person's views and actions to global policies is feasible and that this is necessary for effective inclusion.

Modeling sequential bargains and personalities in democratic deliberation systems

“…This form of democracy provides better decision-making processes by delegating responsibilities of public settlements to local people with greater understanding of the present reality than rulers and gives space for a greater ownership of state-sponsored operations, as they are co-authors in the creation of the public policy (Bane, 2010;Cohen and Fung, 2004;Fung and Wright, 2003). Bula and Espejo (2012) argues for a cybernetic understanding of the organizational structures and governance to let people the chance of represent their desires, reduce power imbalances and influence their destinies. A desirable democratic system to produce such outcome, under the arguments of Espejo (2000), requires the self-construction process where stakeholders are complete aware of their reality, purpose, personal desires, interests and collective value to steer interaction toward better social agreements.…”

“…From the assumption that democracy is the right of all citizens to participate in deciding their present and future (Bula and Espejo, 2011), some negotiation support systems (NSSs) have been seeking to devote technological manners to promote conflict resolution, develop and improve methodologies to facilitate the participative budget management (Benyoucef and Verrons, 2008;Gomez et al, 2013). By definition, NSSs compose a special category of group support systems designed to support the activities of two or more negotiating parties to reach an agreement via computerized systems that integrate information and communication technologies through electronic media (Bichler et al, 2003;Delaney et al, 1997;Lee et al, 2007).…”

The future of democracy: the end of democracy as we know it

“…Strengthening local government and encouraging self-organization, enabled by ICT and social media, might restore the trust in democracy (Bula and Espejo, 2012).…”

Sharing business partner behavior

“…We propose a mechanism through which players actively and systematically upgrade the system by expressing and sharing their experiences and providing a higher level of organizational transparency, as proposed by Bula and Espejo (2012), with their proposal of inclusive democracy, and Espejo and Bendek (2011), with active citizenship. In this paper, first, technical feasibility of providing a secure, effective and inexpensive sharing environment is examined.…”