State, Democracy & Local Government – Agorastakis Giorgos

Description

Starting from neoliberal globalization and the global economic crisis, the changes taking place at the level of the nation state and its institutions are first examined. In this context, the problem of the political system, the functioning and crisis of institutions and representative democracy in Greece is analyzed. The third part of the book presents the situation in self-government, the constant changes and regressions – two decades now -, the need and conditions for a “democratic decentralized reform” of the state towards self-government and finally the author’s position on the various plans for “administrative reform” discussed in the period 2008-2010.

In a complex and rapidly changing world, the author considers that we need to revisit from the beginning the issues of our governance, to redefine the essence and content of certain fundamental concepts, such as politics, democracy, self-government. His message is: “Back to the roots of politics. Back to Society. Things should start to get on their feet, starting from the bottom up. Citizens must find their link with Politics in the field of Local Government. The State must be decentralized to self-government and at the same time self-government must be opened up to society with the full democratization of its operation. Society must begin to enter the arena of politics from the level of power closest to it, which is self-government”.