The 'Empty Chair': Its Use By Youth In The Province Of Santo Domingo De Los Tsáchilas.
The Rights of the people as well as their exercise are fundamental in the development of every society; that's why the current Constitution opened a field of action for citizen participation, based on the precept that sovereignty lies with the people whose will is the basis of the authority exercised through the organs of public power and democratic means. The paper aims at establishing the real state of citizen participation and social control exercised by the youth of the province of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, considering that the percentage of young people in this province exceeds 28% of the total population, becoming the main actor called to exercise the rights of citizen participation contemplated in the Magna Carta. The field study and specifically the survey revealed that young people in the province are not only aware of their rights as citizens but also, the existence of citizen participation mechanisms such as the empty chair; bringing as a serious consequence, that the youth of Santo Domingo is not ready to face in an active way the corruption and abuse of power that may occur by officials of public institutions; as the mechanisms of citizen participation were created to stop one of the most devastating evil – the corruption that afflict the country arising within the public administration.
Volume & Issue
Vol. Volume 2 / Iss. Issue 2