Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho
Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho
Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho
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sibility of employ a national ban to MON 810 (in force in France, Italy,<br />
Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland and Greece [3] ).<br />
The case of Swiss federalism, also important for our research is<br />
even more complicated in some aspects. Swiss politics benefits from<br />
its national autonomy as a non-EU member. On the other hand, the<br />
pressure of the WTO agreements is similar to that experienced by EU<br />
members. National politics are finally conditioned by some specific<br />
citizens’ political rights, characteristics of a semi-direct democracy.<br />
As a result of a popular initiative, submitted in September 13, 2003<br />
and voted in November 27, 2005, GMO plants cultivation is banned in<br />
Switzerland. Is this practice of direct democracy in opposition to the<br />
federalist principles? For their critics, in the Swiss case we are dealing<br />
with the imposition of a majority of national citizens against some local<br />
and particular interests, heavily damaged. On the contrary, partisans<br />
of direct democracy consider popular initiatives and referendums as<br />
the culmination of federalist principles: separation of governmental<br />
powers and active role of regions and their citizens.<br />
Our analysis of the debate about GMO plants in regional press<br />
and public spheres of Murcia, Aragon and Saint-Gallen will provide<br />
us some objective arguments in our quest about the link between<br />
political rights, deliberation and federalist principles.<br />
We will try to give an empirically founded answer to the following<br />
questions:<br />
185<br />
FEDERALISM, DIRECT<br />
DEMOCRACY AND THE<br />
QUALITY OF PUBLIC<br />
DELIBERATION: THE<br />
GMO DEBATE<br />
José Luis Egío<br />
•<br />
•<br />
•<br />
•<br />
Do the relations of production determine society’s other relationship<br />
and ideas? (Marxist approach)<br />
How can political rights’ theory improve the Marxist conception about<br />
the relationship between facts and ideas?<br />
How <strong>do</strong>es the economical structure of this regions influence the<br />
discussion?<br />
Are citizens’ political rights important regarding to the way in which<br />
the debate takes place? As a result of the difference between Spanish<br />
and Swiss democratic systems we will observe two different types<br />
of public deliberation.<br />
3<br />
Source: http://www.gmo-free-regions.org/gmo-free-regions/bans.html