“
What is this democracy?
” Graciela Montes asks – and tells it to the kids – a book from Siglo XXI with illustrations by Penélope Chauvié, an updated version of the one the author published in the 80s, part of the collection
Understanding and Participating
, and which points out that Younger children become familiar with topics such as voting, citizen rights and different forms of representation, without “infantilizing” the content.
Highly recommended reading for these times when it is so important to share with children, grandchildren, nephews or friends the intergenerational transmission of knowledge, experiences and memories.
For kids who want to know what it's all about.
The book by Graciela Montes, with illustrations by Penélope Chauvié (Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 2024)
Something that also happens, from another perspective, with
Whish,
the film with which Disney Studios celebrates its centenary, which could well be seen as a fable about democracy, the links between rulers and the governed, desires and ambitions for power and the question of where the source of the legitimacy of any political and social order lies.
A classic question, from the ancient Greeks to the present day.
The story of
Wish
takes place in the Kingdom of Rosas, on an island in the Mediterranean where the people live in apparent happiness and harmony.
There we find the Magnificent King, a ruler gifted with the secrets of magic and sorcery who has the ability to grant the wishes of his subjects.
When each resident turns 18, a ceremony is held in which they deliver their wishes to Magnifico, who keeps them sealed in his observatory.
The Magnificent King and Asha in one of the key scenes of Wish: The Power of Wishes
Once a month, Magnifico selects one of the residents' wishes to be granted before the city.
By doing so, the population becomes docile, dependent and submissive.
Until Asha, the heroine of this story, a 17-year-old girl, assisted by a lucky star and encouraged by her friends to make the wish of her grandfather Sabino, who turns 100, discovers that the Magnificent King erases her memories. citizens' wishes when they are fulfilled and never returns ungranted wishes to their owners.
The benevolent despot is revealed to be a narcissistic tyrant who exposes his fallibility, and society is also rebelling in another sense.
What happens from then on is open-ended and leaves us with morals.
Session of the Chamber of Deputies, 1/2/2024.- Second day of debate on the Omnibus Law project.
Photo: EFE/ Chamber of Deputies.
Like democracy itself, in which the sovereign people, through their representatives, always have the possibility of granting, delegating, limiting or revoking powers to their rulers.
Something like what, without going any further, is being debated in Congress in these weeks: how much power the President should have to be able to govern in the conditions in which our country finds itself, without deviating from what the Constitution mandates and the operation of a republican democracy.
And for those who rant or lament about the marathon sessions, the disagreements between groups, the negotiations in which the representation of interests come into play, the tensions and friction between protesters and security forces, it is worth reminding them (reminding us), like children: "this is how a democracy works."
Beyond fairy tales.