Democracy and Political Organizations. Rita Borsellino’s Cantieri

The study of Rita Borsellino's Cantieri shows the attempt to involve the people supporting her candidature for President of the Sicilian Region into policy-making within a new political organization. The analysis, based on the documents of the organization and many interviews, allows to evaluate how much an initial project of highly inclusive participation has been realized in practice. In fact Rita Borsellino had two important programmatic objectives that concern the method of policy-making more than the policies in themselves: revitalizing political participation and guaranteeing legality. With the aim of engaging the greatest number of citizens in the process, she committed herself in the building of a political organization (Cantieri) that should construct the political program of the coalition. From a political point of view, the shared definition of program within the political organizations appears desirable because it strengthens democracy, even if with the concrete risk that it is irrelevant in comparison to the strategic choices: Cantieri work more as an advisory committee than as a decision-making structure. However, Cantieri emphasize the recovery of the associative dimension in opposition to the idea of individualized participation of other forms of citizen involvement.

Keywords: Participatory Democracy, Rita Borsellino, Electoral Campaign, Political Mobilization

Rossana Sampugnaro, Democrazia partecipativa e organizzazioni politiche. I cantieri di Rita Borsellino in "PARTECIPAZIONE E CONFLITTO" 2/2011, pp 99-122, DOI: 10.3280/PACO2011-002005