Sweden in Transition #25 - Sanna Ghotbi

Very happy to welcome Sanna Ghotbi to talk about Participatory Democracy !

After working in politics for four years, Sanna is now working with municipalities and public institutions to design participatory democracy processes.

Together we discussed the need to reinvent democracy. We reviewed inspiring examples in various countries: in Spain following 15-M movement in 2011 (Indignados), in France with the tops & flops of the Citizen Convention for Climate, in Ireland on very controversial topics and even in Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan).

We then made a focus on Sweden, known as a Democracy landmark. Partly a myth according to Sanna, who hightlighted opportunities, challenges and specific initiatives going on at the moment.

At the end of the interview, Sanna shared her dream for Participatory Democracy in the future. She would want it to be built on 3 pillars: 1/ Better Representation: Allowing more people from different backgrounds to enter into politics, inspired by the movement "Brand New Congress" in the US, led by AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), 2/ Better everyday participation: thanks to permanent structures, such as for example rotational Citizen Assemblies, 3/ Better Organising on a grassroots level: through Community Organising within Civil Society, "and for that for people in Sweden to wake up ! We are not in this perfect equal country, we need to get organised ! to demand things, to cross pollinate between different movements (equal health care, less discrimination on the job market, better pensions, less segregation and dismanteled public services in disadvantaged areas)".

Hope you you will like this conversation as much as I did !

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