583.2
Thinking a Different Way to Govern: The Challenge of Political Decisions in a Complex Society

Tuesday, 12 July 2016: 16:30
Location: Hörsaal 15 (Juridicum)
Oral Presentation
Jorge GARCÍA CASTRO, Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico
Interest in the study of political decisions and their impact on the legitimacy of the political system lies in the main features that rise when observing a society like present-day Mexico, where there exists an unusual breach of rules, great inequality and violated civil rights; all of which is enough to doubt the true possibilities of inference and decision-making that the citizen really possesses in democratic social life.

Political decisions in the Mexican context are often aimed under the power of elite groups isolated from the rest of population; thereby, the lack of representativeness in many decisions is part of the public landscape in which social discontent intensifies. However, in political decisions, the referents produced by protest movements do not represent all of the options that can be observed and analyzed in the political environment. It is precisely on this point that there is a possibility to observe and problematize the economic and corporative function of the state's decisions vis a vis the demands shown in the social discussions as part of a more detailed hetero-observation.

In the framework of a representative democracy, political decisions should be based on social referents that guide to the formulation of satisfactory answers to the whole of society and not just for the powerful few. Therefore starting from the rupture between public interest and political decisions in Mexico, it is important to think of a strategy for linking public demands, economic arrangements, and political decisions in this country as a theoretical and practical challenge of a complex society.