What is Democracy?

What is democracy? Freedom, equality, participation? Everyone has his or her own definition. Across the world, over 120 countries now have at least the minimum trappings of democracy- the freedom to vote for all citizens. But for many, this is just the beginning not the end. After decades of US-backed dictatorships, civil wars and devastating structural adjustment policies, representative politics is in crisis and citizens across the Americas have begun to redefine democracy under their own terms: Participatory Democracy.

In 1989, the Brazilian Worker’s Party revolutionalized the concept of government when they installed the widely successful system of participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil. City residents could now participate directly in the allocation of city funds. Ten years later, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was swept in to power with the promise of rewriting the Constitution with the direct participation of the Venezuelan people. The Venezuelan state will never be the same, and is now passing power directly down to Venezuela’s citizens through tens of thousands of communal councils. Across the Americas, cooperative and recuperated factory numbers have grown, and constitutional assemblies and social movements are increasingly putting power in the hands of their members and citizens. But not everyone is happy with this new participatory democracy, and countries like the United States are fighting back with their own definition.

Produced by Estreito Meios and featuring interviews with Eduardo Galeano, Amy Goodman, Emir Sader, Martha Harnecker and dozens more, Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas is a journey which takes us across the Americas to attempt to answer one of the most important questions of our time: What is Democracy?