Peticiones al Senado: ¿una herramienta  de participación ante las preocupaciones  sociales?

Iris Simón-Astudillo; Irene López-Alonso

doi:10.62008/ixc/15/02Petici

Authors

Iris Simón-Astudillo Universidad de Valladolid https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3114-8414
Irene López-Alonso Universidad Complutense de Madrid https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6130-5267

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62008/ixc/15/02Petici

Keywords:

Petition, Public Opinion, Participation, Disaffection, Spain, Senate

Abstract

For decades, political disaffection has been a common feature of society since citizens do not feel represented by those who govern them, which can lead them to abstain from participating in political life. To address this issue, we decided to examine whether the problems identified by the Spanish population in the barometers of the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS) are related to the petitions registered in the Senate. To this end, sixty surveys and all the initiatives sent to the Upper House over the course of seven full legislatures (2004-2023) were collected and analyzed. It was found that there is no correlation between the population's concerns and the petitions submitted to the Senate. This result suggests that citizens do not possess sufficient knowledge to use this channel of participation in an adequate manner, besides the institutions' failure to promote it.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biographies

Iris Simón-Astudillo, Universidad de Valladolid

Predoctoral Researcher in the area of Journalism at the Universidad de Valladolid and member of the Mediaflows Research Group, affiliated to the University of Valencia. Her lines of work focus on the interactions between the feminist movement and the Spanish parliament, disinformation in the digital sphere and gender issues as a cleavage in current politics. She has carried out an international stay at the Europa-Universität Viadrina (Germany), in addition to presenting her studies at various conferences and research journals.

Irene López-Alonso, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

PhD student in Journalism at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where she also completed a Master's Degree in Advanced Studies in Political Communication after having studied a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism at the Universidad de Valladolid. She has held various representative positions in both universities, as well as having work experience in Communication and Marketing in the health sector.

References

ALAMINOS-FERNÁNDEZ, A. F., FRANCÉS GARCÍA, F., y SANTACREU-FERNÁNDEZ, O. (2024). La influencia de la eficacia política y la identidad partidista sobre la participación electoral en España: los vínculos de la ciudadanía con el funcionamiento del sistema político. Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, (185), 3-22. https://doi.org/10.5477/cis/reis.185.3-22

ALONSO, L. E., BETANCOR NUEZ, G., y CILLEROS CONDE, R. (2015). Nuevos y novísimos movimientos sociales: Una aproximación al activismo social en la España actual. En C. Torres Albero (Ed.), España 2015. Situación social (pp. 1126-1148). CIS (Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas).

ÁLVAREZ SÁNCHEZ, S., y ARCEO VACAS, A. (2023). El lobbying de las Organizaciones de la Sociedad Civil en España: Capacidad de influencia sobre las instituciones públicas. Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico, 29(3), 521-532. https://doi.org/10.5209/esmp.88987

AZEDI, A. (2022). Does Job Insecurity Motivate Protest Participation? A Multilevel Analysis of Working-Age People from 18 Developed Countries. Socio- logical Perspectives, 66(3), 476-495. https://doi.org/10.1177/07311214221139291

BARBERÁ, P., CASAS, A., NAGLER, J., EGAN, P. J., BONNEAU, R., JOST, J. T., y TUCKER, J. A. (2019). Who Leads? Who Follows? Measuring Issue Attention and Agenda Setting by Legislators and the Mass Public Using Social Media Data. American Political Science Review, 113(4), 883-901. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055419000352

BARRIE, C., FLEMING, T. G., y ROWAN, S. S. (2023). Does Protest Influence Political Speech? Evidence from UK Climate Protest, 2017–2019. British Journal of Political Science, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123423000376

BOCKING-WELCH, A., HUZZEY, R., LESTON-BANDEIRA, C., y MILLER, H. (2022). Petitioning and People Power in Twentieth-Century Britain. In M. Mair, R. Meckin y M. Elliot (Eds.), Investigative Methods: An NCRM Innovation Collection (pp. 75-86). ESRC National Centre for Research Methods. https://doi.org/10.5258/ncrm/ncrm.00004550

BORBÁTH, E. (2023). Differentiation in Protest Politics: Participation by Political Insiders and Outsiders. Political Behavior, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-022-09846-7

BORBÁTH, E., y GESSLER, T. (2020). Different worlds of contention? Protest in Northwestern, Southern and Eastern Europe. European Journal of Political Research, 59(4), 910-935. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12379

BOUZA, F. (2011). La agenda pública en el Reino de España: desafección política, paro y problemas económicos. Papeles de relaciones ecosociales y cambio global, 116, 151-158.

BURCIU, R., y HUTTER, S. (2022). More stress, less voice? The gender gap in political participation during the COVID-19 pandemic. European Journal of Politics and Gender, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1332/251510821X16602276230640

CAFFARENA, V. A. (2020). La toma de decisiones públicas: la zona gris de la transparencia institucional. Revista española de la transparencia, (11), 75-111. https://doi.org/10.51915/ret.112

CALVO, D. (2016). Participación política y peticiones electrónicas: calidad y temática de las iniciativas publicadas en Change.org. En Comunicación, cultura y cooperación: V Congreso Iberoamericano de Comunicación: libro de comunicaciones (pp. 500-514). Asociación Española de Investigación de la Comunicación.

CAMPOS-DOMÍNGUEZ, E. (2009). El desarrollo de la ciberdemocracia en el Congreso de los Diputados: la comunicación e interacción entre ciudadanos y parlamentarios a través de internet (2004-2008) [Tesis doctoral]. UCM. https://bit.ly/4cfufvt

CASTELLANOS, C. J. (2020). Participación ciudadana y buen gobierno democrático: posibilidades y límites en la era digital. Marcial Pons, Ediciones Jurídicas y Sociales.

CASTELLS, M. (2020). Ruptura. La crisis de la democracia liberal. Alianza editorial.

CAZORLA-MARTÍN, Á., MONTABES-PEREIRA, J., y HERNÁNDEZ-TRISTÁN, M. J. (2023). Political Disaffection and Digital Political Participation in Latin America: A Comparative Analysis of the Period 2008–2020. Societies, 13(3), 59. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13030059

COFFÉ, H., y BOLZENDAHL, C. (2010). Same Game, Different Rules? Gender Dif- ferences in Political Participation. Sex Roles, 62(5-6), 318-333. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-009-9729-y

COFFÉ, H., y BOLZENDAHL, C. (2021). Are all politics masculine? Gender social- ised personality traits and diversity in political engagement. European Journal of Politics and Gender, 4(1), 113-133. https://doi.org/10.1332/251510820X15991530007006

GAUSE, L. (2022). Revealing Issue Salience via Costly Protest: How Legislative Behavior following Protest Advantages Low-Resource Groups. British Journal of Political Science 52(1), 259-279. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123420000423

GERBER, M., SCHAUB, H. P., y MUELLER, S. (2019). O sister, where art thou? Theory and evidence on female participation at citizen assemblies. European Journal of Politics and Gender, 2(2), 173-195. https://doi.org/10.1332/251510819X15471289106095

GIL-TORRES, A. (2018). Bipartidismo y pluridemocracia en España: la construcción del contexto sociopolítico español según el CIS (2011-2016). index.comunicación, 8(1), 81-100. https://bit.ly/3KO7B1n

HELD, D., GÓMEZ CEDILLO, A., ALBERO, T., y GÓMEZ CEDILLO, A. (2001). Modelos de democracia. Alianza Editorial.

HOOGHE, M., y MARIEN, S. (2013). A comparative analysis of the relation between political trust and forms of political participation in Europe. European Societies, 15(1), 131-152. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2012.692807

HUTTER, S., y KRIESI, H. (2013). Movements of the left, movements of the right reconsidered. In J. Van Stekelenburg, C. Roggeband y B. Klandermans (Eds.), The future of social movement research: Dynamics, mechanisms, and processes (pp. 281-298). University of Minnesota Press.

JEROENSE, T., y SPIERINGS, N. (2023). Political participation profiles. West European Politics, 46(1), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2021.2017612

LESTON-BANDEIRA, C. (2019). Parliamentary petitions and public engagement: an empirical analysis of the role of epetitions. Policy & Politics, 47(3), 415-436. https://doi.org/10.1332/030557319X15579230420117

LESTON-BANDEIRA, C., y SIEFKEN, S. T. (2023). The development of public en- gagement as a core institutional role for parliaments. The Journal of Legislative Studies, 29(3), 361-379. https://doi.org/10.1080/13572334.2023.2214390

MAGALLÓN-ROSA, R. (2021). La agenda que queda fuera de los medios. Desinformación y «fact-checking» sobre (in)migración. Migraciones, 52, 59-87. https://doi.org/10.14422/mig.i52.y2021.003

MARTIN, I., y VAN DETH, J. (2007). Political Involvement. In Van Deth, J., Montero, J. R. y Westholm, A. (Eds.), Citizenship and Involvement in European Democracies. A Comparative Analysis (Chapter 12). Routledge.

MCADAM, D., TARROW, S., y TILLY. C. (2001). Dynamics of Contention. Cambridge University Press.

MEGÍAS, A., y MORENO, C. (2024). La desafección política en los países del en- torno europeo español ¿una actitud estable? Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, (179), 103-124. https://doi.org/10.5477/cis/reis.179.103

MERINO, M. (1997). La participación ciudadana en la democracia. Instituto Federal Electoral.

MEYER, D. S., y TARROW, S. (1998). The Social Movement Society: Contentious Politics for a New Century. Rowman and Littlefield.

MORALES-MEDINA, T. y CABEZAS-CLAVIJO, Á. (2024). Netflix y la cultura de la cancelación: análisis a través de Change.org. index.comunicación, 14(1), 229-254. https://doi.org/10.62008/ixc/14/01Netfli

PÉREZ-CURIEL, C., y GARCÍA-GORDILLO, M. (2020). Indicadores de influencia de los políticos españoles en Twitter. Un análisis en el marco de las elecciones en Cataluña. Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico 26(3), 1133-1144. https://doi.org/10.5209/esmp.64880

PFANZELT, H., y SPIES, D. C. (2019). The gender gap in youth political participation: evidence from Germany. Political Research Quarterly, 72(1), 34-48. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912918775249

QUARANTA, M., CANCELA, J., MARTÍN, I., y TSIRBAS, Y. (2021). Trust, Satisfaction and Political Engagement during Economic Crisis: Young Citizens in Southern Europe. South European Society and Politics, 26(2), 153-179. https://doi.org/10.1080/13608746.2021.1991568

RODRÍGUEZ-DÍAZ, R. y MCCOMBS, M. (2023). La relación entre la agenda personal y la agenda pública: una condición contingente para los efectos de agenda setting. Communication & Society, 36(4), 191-212.

RUBIO NÚÑEZ, R., MARAÑÓN MARTÍN, L., y GONZALO ROZAS, M. A. (2021). ¿Existe el lobby ciudadano? Una experiencia de participación en el Congreso de los Diputados. Revista De Las Cortes Generales, (110), 235-271. https://doi.org/10.33426/rcg/2021/110/1573

SCHOENE, M. (2019). Institutional Distrust, Institutional Participation, and Protest Behavior in the European Social Movement Sector. Contention, 7(2), 51-75. https://doi.org/10.3167/cont.2019.070204

SERRA-SILVA, S. (2022). How parliaments engage with citizens? Online public engagement: a comparative analysis of Parliamentary websites. The Journal of Legislative Studies, 28(4), 489-512. https://doi.org/10.1080/13572334.2021.1896451

SIMANCAS GONZÁLEZ, E., GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, M., ARÉVALO-SALINAS, Á. I., y BUSTOS-DÍAZ, J. (2023). Activismo ciudadano en la Red más de diez años Después del 15m. El caso de ‘vota, por favor’. index.comunicación, 13(2), 225-243. https://doi.org/10.33732/ixc/13/02Activi

The international institute for democracy and electoral assistance. (s.f.). Voter Turnout Database. https://bit.ly/3yYmMTb

TOUBØL, J. (2019). From democratic participation to civic resistance: The loss of institutional trust as an outcome of activism in the refugee solidarity movement. British Journal of Sociology, 70(4), 1198-1224. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12622

VAN DETH, J. W. (2014). A conceptual map of political participation. Acta Política, 49(3), 349-367. https://doi.org/10.1057/ap.2014.6

VERBA, S., SCHLOZMAN, K. L., y BRADY, H. E. (1995). Voice and equality. Civic voluntarism in American politics. Harvard University Press.

WEISS, J. (2023). Disengaged or raising voices? An analysis of the relationship between individual risk perception and non-institutionalised political participation. Acta Política, (59), 439-457. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41269-023-00301-x