UNDP and INTEC analyze crisis of political parties

Santo Domingo.- The sociologist and political analyst Rosario Espinal reflected on the crossroads in which the political parties meet to meet the demands of social inclusion of citizens in a democracy within the framework of the discussion "Crisis of political parties or parties politicians in crisis? ", sponsored by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC).

"The purpose of the parties is to forge a vision of well-being in society, articulate social demands, compete electorally to reach the government, transform those demands into public policies, and execute them from the government," the academic emphasized. Nowadays, parties have difficulties to fulfill their purpose.

The activity was carried out in the House of the United Nations of the Dominican Republic, in the framework of an agreement signed between UNDP and INTEC to promote the strengthening of Dominican political parties and, therefore, of national democracy, taking into account that the 2015 it is an election year and that a discussion on the Law of Political Parties is currently taking place.

The meeting was led by the Resident Representative of UNDP, Lorenzo Jiménez de Luis and Rafael Toribio, coordinator of the Center for Governance and Social Management (CEGES) of INTEC.

Jimenez de Luis emphasized that "Political Parties are the basic tool of participatory democracy, without them we can not guarantee a real democracy, but for this democracy to be real and represent all of us, we must have quality political parties." 

While Toribio stated that for INTEC the issue is a priority, and that spaces for dialogue and analysis are produced and promoted in order to generate a critical mass of citizens committed to politics, which allows society to face the changes. In the specific case of the political parties, Toribio said that society is demanding democracy and internal institutions, as well as transparency and accountability.