The Political Plane: Decidim and the Vision of a Radically Democratic Society

This chapter outlines a vision of a radically democratic society. It begins presenting Decidim as an infrastructure for participatory democracy and technopolitical democratisation, rather than as a tool for digital democracy. To unfold the argument, we assess four models of democracy: representative, direct, deliberative and participatory, and suggest the latter is a model of a radically democratic society that incorporates and transforms the previous three. Then we explore the transformation of representative government that such a model of society may imply, arguing that it points beyond open government towards a model of common government. This requires a form of participatory governance and technoacracy radically distinct from technocratic neoliberal governance, and we outline a systemic-functionalist view of it. It also requires a form of (self-)governmentality to which Decidim tries to contribute through new forms of collective subjectivation, collective intelligence and collective action. We close with its final goal: nurturing flourishing personal and collective lives.