ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some social movements that claim to promote democracy in order to explore popular forms of democracy. It presents brief considerations of different notions of populism and the relation between democracy and autonomy. Further, it introduces some of the main arguments promoted by political and social elites against popular democratic practices. It then presents some specific practices from our own day and examines what they mean by democracy and how they put it into practice. The chapter also discusses the options available to mass movements that choose to intervene or even overthrow their state governments and those that choose other routes, such as building autonomous spaces or projects with hybrid goals. It examines some of the popular movements that have promoted change in state policies, as did the 15-M in Spain. It presents three sites for equal social practices that are defined by a contrast with electoral state democracies.
