ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses political commons as both a concept and a practice that offers a means to challenge many of the assumptions and structures of liberal democracy. As a concept it links the commons to Dussel's notion of critical democracy that exceeds the limitations of its defunct liberal namesake. The chapter discusses how the internet has opened up a space by which the sharing of values based on collectivism over competition and the public over profit have inspired protest and mobilisation that brings the potential for change into people's fields of vision. It explains the relationship between the emergence of political commons and digital media. A political commons must develop an alternative politics that can advance freedom, equality, collectivism, and ecological sustainability while avoiding corporate, financial, and market domination. The experience of the Syriza party in Greece attempts to govern by representing the political choices of its citizens taught the extra-political power of the banks and financial agencies.
