The Travelling Assembly
Towards a permanent Peoples' Assembly for Europe
8. “Care is at the heart of democracy’ - TENSIONS?
[Please note this latest version was made public on 25 May 2025, after the final meeting (External link) of the 2024/25 pilot Assembly]
Tensions? (Florence spirit)
Some members prefer to reserve care for the relationship between citizens themselves, while others think public authorities should be guided by care concerns. Some assembly members noted that maybe we are asking too much from governments. Clearly love cannot be legislated and institutionalised. But at least can we expect authorities to show true compassion for those affected by their actions? There were two rather different interpretations. Questions arise about the need for institutional care: in a democracy, it is not only mutual care between peoples that matters, but also the care between institutions and peoples holding offices in the institutions. Institutions have a longer trajectory of life than individuals, so perhaps this is also a call for people to care for their institutions, such as professional civil service, courts or publicly funded media?
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