Since the elections in June 1977, Spain has been a representative democracy.

Spanish Democracy is still young when compared with other Democracies in Europe, but the majority of the Spanish people are very proud of it and believe that their democratic regime is much better than General Franco's regime. This means that Spain has made great progress in the political field.

However, when we reflect on our democracy, we find very serious defects that cannot be overlooked. These defects can be summed up in one word: 'PARTICRACY' Instead of a Democracy, at the present time we have a 'Particracy', which means that the power is not held by the people but by the political parties, and even more so by the leaders of those parties.

What is wrong with Particracy?

Particracy has converted citizens into mere spectators of political life. Citizens vote every three or four years, after which they become passive political figures.
Particracy has created CORRUPTION on a large scale. Political corruption can take different forms. Economic corruption is the most common, but it is not the only one. Every time that a person exercising political power, uses that power to
reap private benefits, he is acting in a corrupt fashion.
How can we avoid both pitfalls?

Answer - By tackling the problem at its source, that is to say, by condemning IRRESPONSIBILITY.Corruption occurs because politicians are not accountable to the citizens for their actions.

In an autocratic regime, politicians do not have to account to the citizens, because they do not owe them anything for their power.
In a democratic regime, politicians should be responsible to the citizens, because it is the citizens that have given them that power. They are the representatives of the citizens. In Spain, and in some other nations as well, citizens do not have the means of effectively controlling their representatives in fulfilling their responsibilities.
This means that our Spanish representative democracy is very IMPERFECT.
Our democratic representation is not sufficiently democratic because it is insufficiently representative. If we want a better democracy, we must improve democratic representation.
Any true representation is based on the TRUST that the person who
wishes to be represented, has in the person he freely chooses as his
representative. In any democratic representation, the bigger the gap
between the voter and his representative, the smaller the room for
trust. Political representation can only be truly representative, if the
citizen can choose his representative directly and can control what his representative does with his citizen´s vote.
CERLE wants a different democracy, a new democracy in which the citizens can directly choose and control their representatives.