Alito Moreno calls for a social, future-oriented democracy before 600 political leaders

Alejandro Moreno Cárdenas used a gathering of 600 political party leaders in Seoul to call for a new democratic model centered on citizens, social conditions and the future.

Speaking at the First Intercontinental Dialogue among Political Parties, Moreno, who leads Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party and the Permanent Conference of Political Parties of Latin America and the Caribbean, said political parties had a historic responsibility as autocracies re-emerged and social polarization deepened.

“We must act, amid our peoples’ distress, as firm promoters of the revival of their hope and advance new social pacts based on citizen power,” he said. He argued that defending democracy in its traditional form was no longer enough, because formal preservation alone did not guarantee legitimacy, well-being, governability or public support.

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We must act, amid our peoples’ distress, as firm promoters of the revival of their hope and advance new social pacts based on citizen power.

Moreno described the current moment as a historical crisis of adaptation and called for a democracy that preserves institutional achievements while acknowledging their shortcomings. Such a system, he said, should transform power structures and place citizens at the center.

He said institutions, states and parties inherited from the 20th century were facing increasing difficulty understanding and governing societies that had changed profoundly. “It is not only change, but the speed of change, that exceeds the capacity of institutions to adapt,” he said. He also pointed to weakening traditional social identities, more fragmented public aspirations, insecurity and the concentration of economic, informational and technological power beyond the reach of conventional democratic mechanisms.

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It is not only change, but the speed of change, that exceeds the capacity of institutions to adapt.