The flavors of democracy in action

Things may be changing in Spain. In the last few days, Ciudadanos has discreetly been moving to form a temporary alliance with Podemos-IU and with the PSOE to force Mr. Rajoy´s minority government to initiate parliamentary consultations for constitutional reform. What Mr. Rivera defends are changes to begin to put limits on the omnipotence of powers of Spain´s political parties. The closed lists oblige voters to vote for one party or another. Here, there is no cross voting to elect the best candidate. The party leader is in total control in his/her regions. In secret candidates comfortable to the bosses are named. Often the candidate has never lived in the constituency he/she represents. Primaries are unknown. The average Spaniard has no idea who represents them in parliament. Mr. Rivera of Ciudadanos has almost no chance of dismantling the all-powerful parties of left or right. All the bosses are far too comfortable in their control of the keys to real power in their region. In popular speech they are referred to as the Barons. In English it would be the Bosses. Of course they all agree that the subject is worthy of talking about,  in small committees behind closed doors, with eventual reporting back to parliament.