Direct Democracy, Constituent Power, and the Common(s)

Our panel explored how to build power from below. Central to the question of movement building is how we can organize ourselves democratically, without coercion and power-hoarding, and with the particularities of gender, race, ability, and other forms of domination in mind. We will explore many aspects of directly democratic governance, including collective decision making, equitable management of resources, and the emergent contradictions of building and sustaining radical democratic institutions.
We presented this panel at the Ostrom Workshop at Indiana University in Bloomington. We made our panel available for people to attend virtually by livestream.
Panelists:
• ALISON CHOPEL, Universidad de Puerto Rico
• NDINDI KITONGA, Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid
• KERMIT O, abolitionist researcher and writer
• YVONNE YEN LIU, Solidarity Research Center