Direct Democracy at the Turn of the Century

Abstract

Direct Democracy Worldwide addresses the relationship between direct and representative democracy and uncovers the specific conditions under which both can coexist in a mutually reinforcing way. It demonstrates that direct democracy is Janus-faced: Some mechanisms of direct democracy look forward in an attempt to democratize politics whereas others look backward, enhancing the power of politicians who deliberately use them. From this latter perspective, instead of giving power to the people, other times it subjects the people to the powerful . Direct Democracy Worldwide fills a lacuna in our understanding on the uses of mechanisms of direct democracy in the contemporary world, paying special attention to how direct and representative democracies interact under different institutional circumstances. This book reevaluates how citizens acquire power to abide by public decisions and whether they have the right to take part equally and fairly in the entire process that generates these decisions, which naturally fall beyond national elections and the twelve or thirteen times we exercise sovereignty in our lives. It does not debase the importance of free and fair elections – to the contrary. Free and fair elections are a sine qua non constitutive element of democracy, and without them everything collapses. However, the time elapsed between elections may be agonizingly long for citizens whose preferences are systematically unheard, and these interelection spaces constitute the weakest link of current democracies.