PLEBISCITARIANISM AND CRISIS OF THE REPRESENTATIVE PARADIGM. AN APPROACH FROM THE PROCESSES OF INTRA-PARTY DEMOCRACY

The crisis of representative democracy and the technological revolution have revitalised the postulates of direct democracy. However, the analysis of the main criticisms of referendums leads us to demystify these experiences and invites us to improve the quality of democracy by enhancing political intermediation. Intra-party democracy is therefore an interesting participatory mechanism to increase the legitimacy of our representative institutions. Nevertheless, it is important to evaluate the impact of the democratisation strategies promoted so far -most of them plebiscitary- and to propose a set of good practices in different dimensions of party life in order to achieve a party model that combines members' direct intervention with a strong organisational structure, capable of counteracting hyper-leadership and authoritarian tendencies.