Municipalism
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Municipalism is the political system of self-government at the local level, such as of a city or town. In essence, it represents a municipality with its own governing authority, functioning as an administrative division of a sovereign state. Municipalism is a political philosophy that extends beyond mere support for municipalities. It champions the primacy of municipalities as a conduit for local political change and, by extension, grassroots movements seeking to influence political processes at higher levels of government. It is an approach to implementing social change that utilises the municipality as the primary vehicle for effecting change.[1][2]
During the French Revolution, sociétés révolutionnaire controlled municipal governments and established alliances between neighboring cities, forming a federation of hundreds of "municipalist republics" in south France known as communalism.[3]
History
[edit]In Europe, municipalism developed in the socialist parties.[4] In 1881 the Federation of the Socialist Workers of France (a predecessor of the modern French Socialist Party) won control of the municipality of Commentry.[1] In subsequent municipal elections, socialist candidates and parties increased the number of municipalities they controlled to 70 in 1892, and then over 100 in 1896. Meanwhile, in Italy, changes in electoral laws enabled the Italian Socialist Party to gain its first municipality, Imola, under the leadership of Andrea Costa.[1]
Libertarian socialist and social ecologist thinker Murray Bookchin promoted what he called libertarian municipalism as the political branch of social ecology, focusing on the development of direct democracy within existing local governance structures.[5][6] Bookchin argued that citizenship was a virtue that had become denatured by the dominance of late-stage capitalist nation states, and he viewed municipalism - particularly focused on popular, directly democratic assemblies as a form of municipal governance, as the key to reviving it:
Be they large or small, the initial assemblies and the movement that seeks to foster them in civic elections remain the only real school for citizenship that we have. There is no civic "curriculum" other than a living and creative political realm that can give rise to people who take management of public affairs seriously. [7]
Bookchin has been one of the influences on a movement known as "new municipalism" in the twenty-first century, exemplified by Barcelona en Comú.[8][9][10][11]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Dogliani, Patrizia (2002). "European Municipalism in the First Half of the Twentieth Century: The Socialist Network" (PDF). Contemporary European History. 11 (4): 573–596. doi:10.1017/S0960777302004046. ISSN 0960-7773. JSTOR 20081861. S2CID 161327546.
- ^ Thompson, Matthew (2021). "What's so new about New Municipalism?". Progress in Human Geography. 45 (2): 317–342. doi:10.1177/0309132520909480.
- ^ Cobb, Richard Charles (1970). The Police and the People: French Popular Protest, 1789-1820. Clarendon Press. pp. 179–180. ISBN 978-0-19-821479-3.
- ^ Martínez, Miguel A.; Wissink, Bart (2021-08-22). "Urban movements and municipalist governments in Spain: alliances, tensions, and achievements". Social Movement Studies. 21 (5): 659–676. doi:10.1080/14742837.2021.1967121. ISSN 1474-2837.
- ^ Fowler, Kris (2017-08-31). Tessellating Dissensus: Resistance, Autonomy and Radical Democracy - Can transnational municipalism constitute a counterpower to liberate society from neoliberal capitalist hegemony? (MA). Schumacher College.
- ^ Chaia Heller. "Libertarian Municipalism". transversal texts. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
- ^ Bookchin, Murray (1997). Biehl, Janet (ed.). The Murray Bookchin Reader. London: Cassell. p. 182. ISBN 0-304-33873-7.
- ^ Bookchin, Debbie (6 November 2018). "Libertarian Municipalism & Murray Bookchin's Legacy". Green European Journal. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
- ^ Russell, Bertie (2019). "Beyond the Local Trap: New Municipalism and the Rise of the Fearless Cities". Antipode. 51 (3): 989–1010. Bibcode:2019Antip..51..989R. doi:10.1111/anti.12520.
- ^ Sareen, Siddharth; Waagsaether, Katinka Lund (2022). "New municipalism and the governance of urban transitions to sustainability". Urban Studies. 60 (11): 2271–2289. doi:10.1177/00420980221114968. hdl:11250/3030985.
- ^ Davies, Jonathan S. (24 March 2021). Between Realism and Revolt: Governing Cities in the Crisis of Neoliberal Globalism. Bristol University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv1jf2c6b. ISBN 978-1-5292-1093-4.
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