Publisher Description

"The people, in a country that is not a democracy (and France cannot be), can only speak and act through their representatives" (Abbé Sieyès, 1789) I am not a "citizen" (a citizen is autonomous, he votes his own laws), I am only an "elector", a political child who undergoes the law voted by someone else than me. Our representative regime is an antidemocratic project, deliberate, voluntary, from the beginning, and the popular political impotence that it locks up is the primary cause of economic and social injustices. With the citizens' initiative referendum (RIC), the people take the first step in a constituent process. It writes itself the rules of representation. The constituent citizens, and soon the others, those who look at them and judge that it is a good idea, are in the process of finding a common cause: to institute ourselves the political power that we lack. In a people that has become constituent, and therefore vigilant, there is no room for tyrants.

Author Biography

Étienne Chouard is a professor of economics and law in Marseille. Based on popular education, he has created and leads constituent workshops, so that child voters can transform themselves into adult citizens.

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