How social movements can save democracy: democratic innovations from below

摘要

Social movements have often pioneered and advocated for human rights issues, and crucial contemporary advances in civil and political rights are fundamentally associated to their vision, struggle and determination. If we think about women, minority or LGTQ+ rights, progressive mobilization from below has anticipated, often by several decades, political institutions, even in representative democracies. However, social movements have the tendency to evaporate when their contingent political aims have been achieved, since they do not have the organizational strength of established institutions and associations.