How to Activate Collaborative Change within a Competitive, Oligarchy-Influenced System

European leaders are talking seriously about a “Green Social Deal”—a vision for a more sustainable, inclusive Europe. But underneath the rhetoric lies a paradox: the EU continues to operate largely as a top-down, competitive, oligarchy-driven system. Meanwhile, Marinaleda, a small town in Andalusia, offers a radically different model—one born of community-led solidarity and participatory democracy. Could Europe learn from these grassroots alternatives?

1. Scale & Origin

EU Social Contract

• A technocratic endeavor stretching across 27 member states.
• Shaped by political compromise, economic interests, and powerful lobby groups.

Marinaleda Model

• Emerged bottom-up through community action—land occupations, collective pressure, local solidarity.
• Rooted in lived experience and direct democracy, not policy decree.

2. Governance & Decision-Making

EU Imperatives:

• Implement binding local assemblies for budget decisions.
• Create regional cooperative foundations insulated from lobbying.
• Introduce citizen veto power on major policies.

3. Economic Model & Finance

EU Model

• Competitive markets with green overlays (ETS, subsidies).
• Dominated by corporations and financial interests.

Marinaleda Model

• Non-capitalist cooperatives, collective municipal economy.
• Profits reinvested in the community—no exploitation, no shareholders.

EU Pilots:

• Launch cooperative enterprise schemes in regions.
• Create a European Cooperative Development Fund to rival oligarchic investment.
• Enact anti-consolidation laws to protect local economies.

4. Housing & Public Goods

EU Model

• Market-driven housing, supplemented by subsidies—frequently speculative.

Marinaleda Model

• Self-built homes with stable €15 monthly rent, no speculation, community ownership.

EU Actions:

• Establish land trusts and community-build programs city-wide.
• Ban speculative investments in designated zones.
• Promote large-scale cohousing cooperatives.

5. Civic Empowerment vs. Lobby Power

EU Model

• Lobbyists and corporate coalitions have disproportionate influence.

Marinaleda Model

• Virtually no external lobbying—decisions reflect citizen consensus.

EU Reforms:

• Publicly fund civic movements and independent oversight.
• Enforce conflict-of-interest and transparency laws.
• Empower citizen assemblies with veto authority over lobby-influenced deals.

6. What It Would Take in a Competitive/Oligarchy-Influenced System

  To shift toward a Marinaleda-like model, the EU would need to:

1. Radical Transparency
   – Ban dark money, restrict lobbyist access to civil servants, and publish all draft policies.
2. Participatory Democracy
   – Channel a portion of public budgets directly to citizen assemblies and make their decisions binding.
3. Parallel Economic Ecosystems
   – Fund and support regionally-based cooperatives and collective enterprises independent of corporate
   finance.
4. Regenerative Public Commons
   – Legally protect housing, utilities, and green spaces as shared, co-owned assets.
5. Scaled Living Experiments
   – Pilot cooperative policies regionally, document outcomes, and build political awareness.
6. Rebuild Public Narrative
   – Showcase Marinaleda-style models not as fringe anomalies, but as practical visions of participatory
   democracy.

Final Thought

Marinaleda proves that it’s possible to build a cooperative system within—rather than outside of—a competitive societal framework. But scaling that model across the entire EU—in a system where power is dominated by corporate and oligarchic interests—requires strategic shifts:

• Democratize budget and policy control at every level.
• Establish a parallel ecosystem of cooperatives, housing collectives, and citizens’ assemblies.
• Strong safeguards against lobbying and economic domination.

This isn’t utopia—it’s intentional design for system change. By planting cooperative alternatives within existing structures, we can set in motion a scalable continental transformation.

Govert van Ginkel

This article is written by Govert van Ginkel. Govert specializes in Nonviolent and Effective Communication and is active in this field as a trainer, speaker, coach, and mediator. More information about Govert can be found here. The current training offer can be found here