Kurdish: Konfederalîzma demokratîk), also known as Kurdish communalism, Öcalanism, or Apoism, is a political concept theorized by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan about a system of democratic self-organization with the features of a confederation based on the principles of autonomy, direct democracy, political ecology, feminism ("Jineology"), multiculturalism, self-defense, self-governance and elements of a cooperative economy. Influenced by social ecology, libertarian municipalism, Middle Eastern history and general state theory, Öcalan presents the concept as a political solution to Kurdish national aspirations, as well as other fundamental problems in countries in the region deeply rooted in class society, and as a route to freedom and democratization for people around the world
The term refers to a political concept theorized by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan about a system of democratic self-organization with the features of a confederation based on the principles of autonomy, direct democracy, political ecology, feminism ("Jineology"), multiculturalism, self-defense, self-governance and elements of a cooperative economy. Influenced by social ecology, libertarian municipalism, Middle Eastern history and general state theory, Öcalan presents the concept as a political solution to Kurdish national aspirations, as well as other fundamental problems in countries in the region deeply rooted in class society, and as a route to freedom and democratization for people around the world
Democratic confederalism, as articulated by Abdullah Öcalan, is a non-state, grassroots model of self-government that organizes society through locally anchored assemblies, councils, and federations rather than a centralized nation-state. It understands democracy as collective consensus and voluntary participation, not bureaucratic administration, and is explicitly flexible, multicultural, anti-monopolistic, and anti-nationalist. Power flows upward only for coordination, with decision-making rooted in communities; ecology and women’s freedom are foundational pillars, and an alternative, needs-oriented economy replaces extractive accumulation. Confederalism treats society as ethically and politically capable of governing itself, embraces plural identities across existing borders, and defends itself through social and, where necessary, material self-defense under civilian control. It can coexist peacefully with states so long as they do not interfere in core self-administration, but it aims, over time, to render the homogenizing, coercive logic of capitalist nation-states obsolete by proving superior problem-solving capacity from the local to the global scale.