Re: <nettime> Mexico City is crowdsourcing its new constitution

[Brian Holmes <bhcontinentaldrift@gmail.com>]

Whoah. Change.org or not, this is a fascinating greater-than-life-size 
experiment.
Mexico City is at once one of the most difficult and one of the most 
vibrant urban regions in the world. The spirit of the early 20th century 
Mexican Revolution, relayed by 1968, continually clashes with the 
massively corrupt political-economic oligarchy, itself both entangled in 
and threatened by the narco cartels, which are street-level gangs 
fractalizing into murderously efficient transnational supply chains. In 
my view, the destiny of North America is being played out in Mexico. Can 
that country's capital govern itself as a democracy? What an audacious 
thought!
Please note, this is not a referendum. Ideas are being crowdsourced, via 
a dubious corporate platform to be sure, but they are the raw material 
for the deliberations of the 27-member constitutional commission. "Among 
its functions," reads the official platform, "is the evaluation of 
citizen's opinions according to the criteria of legality, quality, 
viability and social benefit." So we are not talking about direct 
democracy, nor about some potentially out-of-control electro-populist 
nightmare. This is a high-level mainstream attempt at achieving 
substantial mega-city democracy, driven by a PRD mayor representing the 
left side of Mexico's official political spectrum. I reckon there's a 
real chance it will go beyond the simple beautification of the 
historical districts carried out by past administrations, towards 
addressing some of the staggering problems faced by this colossal 
agglomeration. Let's see what happens!
BH

On 06/05/2016 05:25 PM, nettime's consitutional hobbyist wrote:

> Mexico is launching a big experiment in democracy that promises to turn
> people’s ideas into the new law of the land.
>
> By Rafa Fernandez De Castro
>
> http://fusion.net/story/298572/how-mexico-city-is-using-the-internet-to-crowdsource-its-new-constitution/
>
> In January President Enrique Peña Nieto signed a reform that made
> Mexico’s capital, which has always been known as Distrito Federal or
> Federal District (similar to Washington, D.C.), its own sovereign city.
> Now the local government is getting more autonomy, which means local
> lawmakers will be able to approve the city’s budget and draft their own
> constitution, among other measures.
<...>

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