“Advocacy for a useful democracy”

Refound French democracy in a few lines? We do not have this claim. But a conviction drives us: the pension reform acts as the accelerator of a crisis of public decision-making even more than it attests to the fatigue of our institutions. And to cure these two evils which threaten our country to fall into impotence or violence and avert the risk of a five-year term for nothing, we propose to the President of the Republic and to all the political parties aware of this danger to pass with the French a commitment pact for a useful democracy.

Also read the column: Article reserved for our subscribers “If the request for a referendum on pensions had been made earlier, it could have prompted Macron to promote a more consensual reform”

Local elected officials, associations, unions and of course citizens, we need everyone, as close as possible to the territories, to sign this pact. And thus gradually demonstrate our ability to rebuild and above all co-build the common good.

A useful democracy must involve young people as a priority and overcome the skepticism that turns them away from the ballot box or makes them more and more sensitive to the sirens of populism and extremes. It deems us incapable of resolving the major trade-offs, at the heart of collective deliberation. And she is convinced, not without reason, that sooner or later she will have to pay the price for our lack of courage. Ecological transition, school and university, debt, reindustrialisation, digital revolution, work, pensions, justice, defence…

Listening to the French

These challenges can be counted in a generation, at least! Young people have ideas for projecting themselves into their own future. Let’s create the places and the rites that will allow them to express them, and it is up to us to provide them with concrete proof that democracy is not a besieged citadel but a window wide open on progress. In this respect, the right to vote at 16 is perhaps no longer taboo.

Also read the column: Article reserved for our subscribers “Let’s give our youth the opportunity to really make themselves heard and provide them with answers”

Democracy useful to the culture of results. It must be understandable, which is far from being the case when those who are supposed to serve it stage its own abasement. But it must also be comprehensive, attentive to the needs of French people and the details that make or break the quality of their daily life. If so many French people are turning away from democracy, it is because they do not see how it can contribute to a “better life”. The satisfaction produced by each essential public service will be measured by a barometer established thanks to the precious reinforcement of the digital tool, based on the assessments of its users… and its agents! The results will be published, in order to accentuate the effort when they are insufficient. All the servants of the State, of the local communities, of the hospitals will be the actors of this performance recovered by means of a device of collective financial profit-sharing, which showed all its effectiveness in the private sector.

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