The development of the right to participation in the legislative sphere

The under-development of the right to participation in the legislative sphere is related to the lack of suitable tools to implement it. As occurs with most political rights, citizens' participation cannot be properly exercised without suitable channels and media. Hitherto, legislation on popular legislative initiative had failed to motivate citizens sufficiently, partly due to its complexity of use. Thus, both the Catalan Government and local and central government must set up mechanisms to promote participation. Three reasons justify this need. The first is legal and constitutional in nature, since the democratic system is based on popular participation. The right to intervene in the implementation of public policies, far from being a mere declaration of good will, is a pivotal element in our political system. The second is eminently social. The different views of society must be taken into account if we are to build efficacious public policies. In a complex world such as ours, the best guarantee of efficacy in public policies is the multidisciplinary approach, with inputs from the greatest possible number of social, economic, professional sectors... And finally, the third, more political in nature, is to avert the growing gap between people chosen democratically to govern and the citizens they represent. Popular presence in political action should have different degrees of intensity: the lowest: knowledge, being informed of what is being done; an intermediate degree would be requesting information or explanations, such as the right to petition or the right to be consulted vis-a-vis certain public actions. Finally, there is a degree of greater intensity in which citizens are not only informed, or ask for information or are consulted, but rather make specific contributions. This is where popular legislative initiative lies. It is not easy, because reality is complex, which is why it is necessary to facilitate its use and implement the ideal means to allow it. This calls for a proactive role by the public powers, who have to be more than mere consenters of the right to participate.