Demands for self-determination in times of crises are growing.
This article by Simon Davis Cohen and published on the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund’s website on February 3rd, 2020.
Protests rocked Puerto Rico in 2019. A core demand of the protests: local self-determination. After the island was hit by a financial crisis, the United States responded by suspending what little local democratic control the island enjoyed over its own finances. It did this by instituting an eight-member Fiscal Oversight Management Board, known as “La Junta,” that has essential veto powers over the island’s laws. In response, a popular movement has placed local democracy at the top of its list of demands.
Today, around the world, we exist in crisis.
The climate. Algae blooms. Droughts. Species extinction. Hurricanes. Fire.
Inequality. The economy. Cuts to public services. Recessions.
That is why ideological responses to “crisis” are extremely important to examine, develop, and confront, when necessary. Local democracy, and the right to self-government, are at the core of these debates.
Suspending Local Democracy
When it comes to financial crises, the elite have cultivated a body of legal thought that argues crisis—when local, state, or federal governments experience financial shock or hardship—justifies a suspension of local democracy, or a limiting of its scope and power.
We are seeing this play out in real time.
(To read the rest of the article at its original source please click HERE.)