Political Pleasure in Policy-Making: ‘Sovereign Hernani’ in the Basque Country

Abstract

Can we speak of experiencing political pleasure in participating and enacting public policy? In this article I examine the enactment of an innovative framework for local public policy-making in the Basque Country. Aimed at producing alternative social development, ‘Sovereign Hernani’ is based upon public-cooperative-community collaboration of the local government, a citizens’ assembly, and organised social sectors such as energy, care, food, telecommunications, commerce, currency, biodiversity, labour, and housing. Drawing from my ethnography with the promoters and government officials who foster this project, the article suggests it is possible to complement the anthropological study of sovereignty and policy-making with an ethnographic exploration of political pleasure. I conclude that political pleasure is experienced both collectively and in a personal manner, and that in certain sociopolitical settings it may offer some answers regarding what a contemporary Left could offer to reimagine public well-being.