Popular Power as Subject of Democratic Transformation: A New Power for the Emergence of Communal Democracy

Abstract

Within the current systemic crisis is a profound political crisis of liberal democracy. Against this backdrop, all over the world disruptive and community social dynamics are emerging that project new forms of democratic intensification.In this text, from the theoretical perspective, we want to analyse popular power as community subject of transformation for the reinforcement of a model of communal democracy as an alternative to the liberal model. Analysing popular power is a complex meta-process that encompasses different spheres of action and collective organisation. After reviewing the historical appearance and the very concept of popular power, we analyse the emergence of popular power as a dynamic process in three dimensions. First, we analyse the gradual construction of a new type of power, confronted by established power, where different theoretical positions are considered vis-à-vis the idea of counter-power, dual power and popular power, and the dialectic relationship between the destituent, instituent and constituent strength of popular power. As well as the transit from "the taking" of power to construction, there is also analysis of the relationship between new power and state power and popular power's relationship with the struggle for social and cultural hegemony. We then analyse popular power as a democratic project in opposition to liberal democracy, with consideration of some characteristics of the democratising practices of community dynamics. Finally, we analyse popular power, beyond the individual subject of modernity, as the construction of the collective subject that articulates This article is part of a research project funded by a FPU 2017 grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education.