The fourth power and the protection of the common interest (I)

It is necessary that a new power, which I will call the fourth power, becomes integrated in the institutional structure of the constitutional state, for the following purposes: a) Protecting the “common interest”: that which community members decide is in the interests of “everyone”, which nowadays public powers are not in a position to guarantee; b) “Democratizing democracy”: overcoming the shortcomings of representative democracy by creating new institutions of counter-democracy and participatory democracy which better articulate the relations between civil society, the public domain and representative institutions. The principles of a rule-of-law governed state – division of powers, legality, etc. – are no longer sufficient to organize a democratic system of government that defends the general interest, guarantees rights and promotes processes of democratization in the current constitutional states. Globalization and neoliberal politics have brought to light weaknesses and shortcomings of the institutional structure of a rule-of-law governed state inherited from the Enlightenment and developed by liberalism during the 19th century