Democracy

The world today is more democratic than ever before. However, on a global level, democracies are eroding in terms of their functioning and quality. Setbacks in civil liberties are added to a profound disenchantment on the part of citizens, who are seeing a succession of economic crises, cases of corruption, rising unemployment rates and growing inequalities. All of this coincides with the reappearance of nationalist and xenophobic movements, the polarisation of political discourse, fake news and, not so long ago, a global pandemic. For all these reasons, at Political Watch we believe that we are at a turning point where it is necessary to revive and renew democratic values with the aim of designing models of democracy that are adapted to the challenges and the reality in which we live. Thus, we work for the construction of an inclusive, fair and sustainable democratic model, where citizen participation is the norm and the political class is subject to constant scrutiny by citizens, with governments that are open and capable of responding to the different global challenges of our era.

The importance of transparency: public and accessible information and data

We work to promote an open and transparent state that provides easy and complete access to information and public data on the work it carries out. To this end, we develop technological tools that bring the state closer to citizens, while at the same time we ally with other organisations and groups in the demand for greater transparency and accessibility.

There is no democracy without an active and watchful citizenship

No state is open without a citizenry that is active and assertive of its rights. We work to raise awareness and empower citizens to play their essential role in monitoring the political class, to demand accountability and the fulfilment of commitments.

Accountability as an impulse to democracy

We believe that political accountability is an essential part of democracy, as it allows citizens to know and evaluate the work of their representatives. For this reason, we monitor politicians and, in alliance with other civil society organisations, we promote campaigns to demand permanent, transparent and honest communication with citizens from the political class.

Advocacy

If we want to change the way we do politics, we have to innovate in the way we do advocacy.

In contrast to traditional lobbying practices, public advocacy proposes a new, more open and transparent way for civil society to influence decision-making processes. With our advocacy projects, we seek to make political representatives publicly commit themselves to social proposals and demands, and then demand that they fulfil their commitments. Without avoiding criticism, we focus on constructive proposals for improvement, but ensuring that non-fulfilment of commitments has a public cost.