Rethinking the law of democracy in times of ecological crisis: the proposition of communalist direct democracy

This article seeks to answer the following questions: Would another system than representative democracy offer us better chances to face the ecological crisis? And if so, what would it look like? This contribution develops the alternative political system called communalist direct democracy, which would allow the people to directly and collectively deliberate and decide on public affairs, including ecological ones, rather than leaving this task to a class of representatives allowed to defend interests which could be opposed to those of their constituents. To develop this alternative, the paper proceeds in two times. The first part exposes how representative democracy has never aimed to allow the people to exercise power, but only to consent to its exercise by a subset of the population: representative government, sole deemed capable, and therefore responsible, to define its constituents’ interests. The second part develops the theory of democracy that is communalist direct democracy. By giving an institutional role to the assembled people and by allowing it to deliberate and decide itself on its interests, rather than leaving this task to representatives, this system offers better chances to solve the ecological crisis