Abstract

We write this article coming from a troubled and uncertain situation. The Chilean democracy has not been sensitive or responsive to the people's demands for greater equality and dignity. The so-called Penguin Revolution in 2006, the student mobilizations of 2011, the feminist protests of May 2018, and the demonstrations for No+AFP in 2017 are just some of the acts of civil disobedience and resistance that Chile has experienced during the past two decades; several others exploded during the "social outbreak" of October 2019. The government's response thus far has been to assemble a gender-equal and Indigenous-inclusive constitutional convention, raising hopes as well as presenting considerable challenges. During this period, we have increasingly recognized the need for new forms of participation. If before it was believed that the problem in Chile was a profound political disaffection, today it is clear that the problem is in fact the reduction of participation to a purely electoral issue. Public participation has overflowed traditional channels of democracy; therefore, it is necessary to design more direct, more inventive, and deeper modes of participation.