THE CITY, DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNABILITY - THE CASE OF BARCELONA

'The city is the people' has been the watchword of the municipal gover nment of Barcelona for the last fifteen years. This approach has found expression in three courses of action. The first lies in making the c ity - building it up as a place fit for citizens, with a system of pub lic spaces and an environment conducive to good fellowship. The second involves citizen participation as a form of government and permanent contact with the public, while the third relates to the development of a collective enterprise in which all citizens are engaged. Twenty yea rs ago Barcelona was an emerging civil society; by the time of the 199 2 Olympic Games, the city had become a powerful social, economic, cult ural and political force based on a special symbiosis between key inst itutions and community associations. The policy of building up the cit y, promoting citizen participation and devising major forward-looking projects is indivisible. The city as identity, citizenship as the coll ective use of urban space, and the future as a strategic project start ing today are the parameters of this mobilizing model.