15. THE OMBUDSMAN

Effective and responsible management of the public is an important personal responsibility, as well as laborious, and requires an in-depth study of the different concurrent aspects of each management so that from certain levels, it requires absolute dedication. For this reason, politics, as long as it is managerial and not the government, should be a reasonably remunerated vocational profession, such as that of a doctor or pianist. A political vocation means dedicating yourself entirely to the public's good management, with professionalism and independence. If current politicians do not make this principle valid, it is largely due to the negative influence of the political parties to which they are affiliated, to their ideological intransigence and their hierarchical structures. An independent politician can dedicate himself fully to the social function so that it has been entrusted to him by the citizen mandate without having to adapt, in addition, to the ideological and hierarchical demands of a party. This proposal is that politics should not occupy citizens more than is reasonable because they have many other occupations to focus on. For this reason, democracy cannot burden the citizen with constant obligations since this is precisely why the representatives are there.

On the other hand, the representatives must have certain guarantees that their representatives will propose projects and initiatives in the medium and long term, which they could not carry out if they were constantly questioned. Therefore, citizens must grant a reasonable margin of action to their representatives in the same way that we give it to companies or teachers' directors. This would lead us to avoid, as far as possible, the direct intervention of citizens in public administration once the representatives have been chosen, such as the convening of referendums, which are usually abused in those countries that more or less practice direct democracy, or, What is even more necessary, avoid the need for the massive street demonstrations as methods of political pressure, which are inevitably used by groups of citizens with violent and antisocial behavior, and which delegitimize the good intentions of the protesters.

Naturally, despite limiting themselves to electing their local representatives, citizens should have the opportunity to intervene directly in the initiatives presented by the Assemblies and Commissions. Still, instead of directly challenging these management bodies, they would indirectly do so through the Ombudsman.

This means that citizens must have effective means to correct the possible abuses of power of their representatives, or to cancel citizen initiatives that have a majority rejection, or even be able to directly present interpellations, motions or citizen initiatives for the consideration of the Assemblies, including the national and the European, without the need to call popular referendums, or have to resort to demonstrations.

As we have already said, this would create the Ombudsman or a "super-representative" with the capacity to intervene in the Assembly's deliberations, but not with a single vote, but with as many as the citizens granted with the collection of signatures. In other words, if the citizens did not agree with a certain bill or initiative, the opponents and organizers would collect signatures of support, the amount of which, proportionally, would determine the number of votes that the Ombudsman would have at the time of voting. Thus, if half the population signs the rejection of a certain proposal, the "super-representative" of the citizens would have half the votes of the Assembly and would only need a third more votes to defeat the project or to present a motion or a new initiative.

This same procedure would be valid for the provincial, regional, national and even the European Assemblies. Simultaneously, direct election referendums would be avoided, since, as I have already argued in the previous chapter, beyond the local or district Assemblies, the necessary infrastructures would not exist to implement electronic voting.

In those Assemblies with sufficient means, such as the regional and national ones, the debates should be transmitted live by "streaming" through the Internet, in audio-video or audio only, with formats also for tablets and mobile phones. What would facilitate the monitoring of its processing by interested citizens?