Silla Vacía (lit. Empty Chair)
Silla Vacía (lit. Empty Chair) is a democratic innovation included in the Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008 that allows any citizen to occupy the "Empty Chair" in any session of the legislature of the sub-national entities in Ecuador with speaking rights and a vote in matters of societal interest. The main idea is that each legislative chamber has an "empty chair" that can be used by a citizen who intends to participate in areas of interest. Although the Constitution establishes this innovation, its regulation depends on the sub-national entities of Ecuador. Beyond the possibilities of citizen participation with speaking privileges and a vote offered by the "empty chair", the empty chair mechanism has been questioned at the level of decentralized autonomous governments that win with partisan affinity.
Institutional design
Formalization: is the innovation embedded in the constitution or legislation, in an administrative act, or not formalized at all?
Frequency: how often does the innovation take place: only once, sporadically, or is it permanent or regular?
Mode of Selection of Participants: is the innovation open to all participants, access is restricted to some kind of condition, or both methods apply?
Type of participants: those who participate are individual citizens, civil society organizations, private stakeholders or a combination of those?
Decisiveness: does the innovation takes binding, non-binding or no decision at all?
Co-governance: is there involvement of the government in the process or not?
- Formalization
- embedded in the constitution/legislation
- Frequency
- regular
- Mode of selection of participants
- open
- Type of participants
- citizens
- Decisiveness
- democratic innovation yields no decision
- Co-Governance
- no
Means
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Ends
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