BUILDING ALTERNATIVES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: ABDULLAH ÖCALAN’S THEORY OF DEMOCRACY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18485/Keywords:
Abdullah Öcalan, radical democracy, democratic confederalism, emocratic civilizationAbstract
The subject of this inquiry is the theory of democracy of the long-term leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan. The current practical implementation of participatory decision-making methods in local assemblies and councils in northern Syria makes this topic particularly topical. The main goal of research is to examine the essential theoretical viewpoints of Abdullah Öcalan in understanding democracy, politics, and the state. Öcalan’s concept of “democratic civilization” is presented as the starting point of the analysis. The second part of the paper deals with the issue of democratic confederalism and criticism of the state. The concluding thesis is that Öcalan successfully elaborated a comprehensive system of democratic civilization to a significant extent, enabling his model of democratic confederalism space devoid of capitalism, representation, and the state. On the other hand, the weakness of his theory is reflected in the ambivalent attitude towards the existing structures of the state with an insufficiently elaborated model of “mutual coexistence of the state and democracy”.
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