Explaining the impact of citizens’ initiatives on social movements: insights from the Spanish housing movement

ABSTRACT

How do instruments of direct democracy affect the social movement organisations that sponsor them? Drawing on social movement studies and direct democracy research, we argue that direct democracy has a transformative effect on its sponsors because it triggers a triple process of movement building, learning, and bargaining with political elites. This triple process sets in motion enduring trends within the organisation that has undertaken the burden of promoting the initiative. We illustrate this argument with the case of a people’s legislative initiative (a non-binding mechanism of direct democracy) organised by a housing rights organisation between 2011 and 2013 to counter the eviction crisis in Spain. This initiative did not result in the reform that activists demanded. Nevertheless, it contributed to consolidating the sponsor organisation, innovating its repertoire of action, and broadening its strategic options.

KEYWORDS:

• Soft direct democracy
• agenda-setting initiatives
• people’s legislative initiative
• social movement tactics
• impact
• housing justice movement

Acknowledgements

The author wants to thank the interviewees that generously agreed to participate in this research project. She also wants to thank the anonymous reviewers who helped greatly to improve the paper, and Mary Foster for her thorough proofreading.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Compliance with ethical requirements

This research was conducted under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements recommended by French research institutions. All the interviewees gave informed consent for inclusion before participating in the study. The treatment of the information contained in the interviews ensured anonymity and confidentiality.

Notes

1. The Spanish political system is decentralized and includes 17 autonomous regions (comunidades autónomas). Each region has its own parliament and president, in addition to the national parliament and the national president (the prime minister).

2. PLIs submitted to regional parliaments need fewer signatures. For example 50,000 signatures (gathered in 4 months, extendable to 6) are required for Catalan PLIs to proceed in the regional parliament.

3. Only adult Spanish citizens with full political rights can sign in support of a national PLI. The Catalan regulation for regional PLIs allows non-residents and minors over 16 years old to sign.

4. According to the civil rights organization Civio, 166 PLIs were promoted between 1984 and 2019 at the national level. Sixty per cent were submitted after 2011, while the remaining forty per cent belong to the period from 1984 to 2010. Only three of these 166 PLIs finished the process, reaching the final adoption stage. Cf. Ángela Bernardo, ‘Solo una de cada diez iniciativas legislativas populares llega a votarse en el Congreso’, https://civio.es/2019/05/30/iniciativas-legislativas-populares/

5. The official data on evictions is produced by the Spanish General Council of the Judiciary, cf. ‘Efecto de la crisis en los órganos judiciales’, Consejo general del poder judicial. Retrieved from: https://www.poderjudicial.es/cgpj/es/Temas/Estadistica-Judicial/Estadistica-por-temas/Datos-penales–civiles-y-laborales/Civil-y-laboral/Efecto-de-la-Crisis-en-los-organos-judiciales/

6. We highlight this specific interval (2008–2013) because it corresponds to the period from the creation of the PAH to the promotion of the PLI against evictions. Since 2013, evictions have continued at similar levels (Observatori DESC, 2020).

7. DESC is the Catalan acronym for ‘economic, social and cultural rights’.

8. In Galicia (2014), Murcia (2014), Andalucía (2015), and Cantabria (2018), the drafts did not pass the first phase, examination by the regional parliamentary committee. In Madrid in 2017, although the draft made it through the first and second phases, obtaining the required signatures, most regional members of parliament voted against it. Only in Catalonia did the PLI launched in October 2014 go through all the phases and get adopted as law in July 2015.

9. We accessed these documents through the websites of the Spanish parliament (Congreso de los diputados, https://www.congreso.es/es/cem/dspl11-xiv), and the Catalan parliament (Parlament de Catalunya, https://www.parlament.cat/web/documentacio/publicacions/diari-ple/index.html).

10. The Indignados movement is also known as ‘15 M’ because it started with demonstrations against austerity and for ‘real democracy’ in many cities and towns on May 15^th, 2011. After the demonstrations, many demonstrators remained in the streets, installing camps the same evening and creating committees (housing, health, education) to organise collective responses to the urgent needs provoked by the crisis. Some of these committees remained active long after the occupation of public squares had ended.

11. Interview 5, conducted on Zoom on 17 December 2021.

12. Interview 13, conducted on Zoom on 15 February 2022.

13. El Pais, ‘Los desahucios unen a los votantes,’ 16 February 2013. Retrieved from: https://elpais.com/politica/2013/02/16/actualidad/1361053281_008924.html

14. The last time we checked PAH’s website, the organisation listed 216 local branches (https://afectadosporlahipoteca.com/contacto/#listado, accessed December 2023).

15. The regulation stipulates that only attestors (fedatarios in Spanish) can collect signatures. These individuals are granted temporary power by the competent authority to certify the validity of signatures.

16. Interview 6, conducted on Zoom on 29 December 2021.

17. Interview 8, conducted on Zoom on 25 March 2022.

18. Some elected representatives of the PP compared the PAH’s escraches with Nazi denunciations and with intimidation actions by the former Basque terrorist organization ETA.

19. Interview 7, conducted on Zoom on 25 March 2022.

Additional information

Funding

Part of this research project was funded by the European Research Council [MSCA-101024283].

Notes on contributors

Montserrat Emperador Badimon

Montserrat Emperador Badimon is Associate Professor (Maîtresse de conférences) in the Department of Political Science at Université Lumière Lyon 2. She holds a PhD in Political Science (Institut d’études politiques d’Aix-en-Provence) and is a MSCA (Marie Sklodowska Curie Action) fellow. Her research interests include housing policy-making and contentious collective action against evictions and displacement in Spain and Quebec.