55 UNBOUND Vol. 12:55, 2019 Becoming Mayor to Abolish the Position of Mayor? Thinking the Line Between Reform and Revolution in a Communalist Perspective Sixtine van Outryve d’Ydewalle* “We took the social networks, we took the streets and we took the squares. However, we found that change was being blocked from above by the institutions. We couldn’t allow this. So, we decided that the moment had arrived to take back the institutions and put them at the service of the common good. We decided to win back the city.” —Barcelona en Comú, “How to Win Back the City en Comú”1 “In no case is this simply a return to an electoral strategy, only conducted on a municipal rather than a national level. Rather, it’s an openness to the idea of occupying both the squares and the institutions—of exploring how best to generate power and exercise leverage to achieve social change.” —We Are Plan C, “Radical Municipalism and Directional Demands Cluster” 2 I. Introduction In the aftermath of the financial crisis, many movements have emerged across the world not only to criticize the state, capitalism, and their mutually reinforcing relationship, but also to create a space for direct democracy. Whether it is Occupy Wall Street, the 750 other Occupy events that followed around the world, the Indignados or 15M movement in Spain, the occupation of the Syntagma Square in Athens, or Nuit Debout in France, these calls for the physical occupation of public squares and parks have connected social movements and individuals from different horizons. While these * I thank Daniel Markovits, Paul Kahn, Daniela Cammack, David Grewal, Olivier De Schutter, Hélène Landemore, Debbie Bookchin, David Goldman, Blair Taylor, James Herod, Catherine Mooney and Anne Mishkind for helpful discussions, comments and advice. I am deeply grateful to the members of the Communalist movements in Portland (OR), Olympia and Seattle (WA), as well as to the members of Cooperation Jackson in Jackson (MS), for influencing the political and theoretical orientation of this paper by their committed praxis and by inspiring discussions. I owe them the expression “Becoming mayor to abolish the position of mayor”. I also thank the participants of the workshop “Law, Politics and Theory” of the 8th Annual Doctoral Scholarship Conference at Yale Law School on November 9-10, 2018 for their careful reading and feedback. Lastly, I thank the Unbound Editorial Collective for their editorial support and for engaging and valuable comments. This article was written while being a recipient of a Fellowship of the Belgian American Educational Foundation. 1 Barcelona in Comú, How to win back the city en Comú. Guide to Building a Citizen Municipal Platform, March 2016, https://barcelonaencomu.cat/sites/default/files/win-the-city-guide.pdf. 2 We Are Plan C, Radical Municipalism and Directional Demands Cluster , https://www.weareplanc.org/blog/radical-municipalism-demanding-the-future/