Beyond Elections：Redefining Democracy in the Americas

What is democracy? Freedom, equality, participation? Everyone has his or her own definition. Across the world, 120 countries now have a t least the minimum trappings of democracy---the freedom to vote for all citizens. But for many, this is just the beginning not the end. Following decades of US-backed dictatorships, civil wars and devastating structural adjustment policies in the South, and corporate control, electoral corruption, and fraud in the North, representative politics in the Americas is in crisis. Citizens are now choosing to redefine democracy under their own terms: local, direct, and participatory.
　　In 1989, the Brazilian Worker's Party altered the concept of local government when they installed participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, allowing residents to participate directly in the allocation of city funds. Ten years later, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was swept into power with the promise of granting direct participation to the Venezuelan people; who have now formed tens of thousands of self-organized communal councils. In the Southern Cone, cooperative and recuperated factory numbers have grown, and across the Americas social movements and constitutional assemblies are taking authority away from the ruling elites and putting power into the hands of their members and citizens.
　　Featuring interviews with: Eduardo Galeano, Amy Goodman, Emir Sader, Martha Harnecker, Ward Churchill, and Leonardo Avritzer as well as cooperative and community members, elected representatives, academics, and activists from Brazil, Canada, Venezuela, Argentina, United States, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, and more.
　　Beyond Elections is a journey that takes us across the Americas to attempt to answer one of the most important questions of our time: What is Democracy?
　　今天上午在准备讲稿的时候，我在网上搜索，发现2008年还出了一部纪录片，其片名也叫《超越选举》，副标题是“重新定义美洲的民主” (Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas)。这部片子很有意思，采访了美洲一些国家的人，包括巴西、加拿大、委内瑞拉、阿根廷、美国、乌拉圭、智利、哥伦比亚的政治家、学者、普通民众，这些人参与探讨如何用非选举的方式来实现民主。如果大家有兴趣看这部片子从这部片子，大家可以看到选举不是实现民主理念的唯一方式，也未必是最佳方式，还要其它很多方式可以实现民主的理念。——王绍光