Horizontality or horizontalism is a theory or system that advocates the creation, development and maintenance of social structures for the equitable distribution of management power. These structures and relationships function as a result of dynamic self-management, involving continuous participation and exchange between individuals to achieve the larger desired outcomes of the collective whole.
Horizontality is an attempt to decentralize power by allowing everyone to become active and direct participants in the decisions and actions that affect the individual most. This is accomplished without top-down directives or obligations to the individual. Autonomy is constructed through mutual agreements and voluntary commitments that respect the diversity of individual capabilities and personal desires.
In anti-globalization politics
As a specific term, horizontalidad is attributed to the radical movements that sprouted in Argentina after the economic crisis of 2001.[citation needed] The related term horizontals arose during the anti-globalisation European Social Forum in London in 2004 to describe people organising in a style where they "aspire to an open relationship between participants, whose deliberative encounters (rather than representative status) form the basis of any decisions,"[1] in contrast to "verticals" who "assume the existence and legitimacy of representative structures, in which bargaining power is accrued on the basis of an electoral mandate (or any other means of selection to which the members of an organisation assent)".[1]
This concept is related to the theory of communist anarchism, titoism, autonomist marxism and participatory economics.[2] To these radical left-wing ideologies, horizontality is a necessary factor for real freedom because it allows personal autonomy within a framework of social equality. These ideologies advocate a kind of socialist direct democracy and workers' councils (autogestion).
See also
- Corporative federalism
- Consociationalism
- Kritarchy
- Multicameralism
- Panarchism
- Pillarisation
- Polycentric law
- Symbolic interactionism
References
- ^ a b Reyes, Oscar; Hilary Wainwright, Mayo Fuster I. Morrell, Marco Berlinguer (December 2004). "European Social Forum: debating the challenges for its future". Transnational Institute. http://www.tni.org/detail_page.phtml?act_id=16321&username=guest@tni.org&password=9999&publish=Y. Retrieved 2007-09-11.
- ^ Sitrin, Marina. Horizontalism. AK Press, 2007 1-904859-58-5.
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