Form Of Direct Democracy Research Articles

Article III Standing and State Separation of Powers

With marriage equality likely to receive the blessing of United States Supreme Court as a fundamental right in the near future, the Court’s refusal to determine the Constitutional merits of the issue just three years ago in Hollingsworth v. Perry might ordinarily end a minor footnote in history, considered a false start in the overall fight for equality. At the time, it certainly was less celebrated than its companion case, United States v. Windsor. But while the Court’s decision in Windsor had a momentous impact on the rights of the LGBT community, both cases involved justiciability issues that also are likely to reverberate into the future. And of the two, it can be argued that the Court’s decision to dismiss Hollingsworth for the petitioners failing to meet Article III standing requirements is the more critical. The Court’s holding that the petitioners could not represent the State’s sovereign interests in federal court, despite them being authorized to do so under California law, threatens to disrupt fundamental rationales for states adopting a form of direct democracy.

How Far Can Citizens Influence the Decision-Making Process? Analysis of the Effectiveness of Referenda in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary in 1989–2015

Abstract This article explores the political role of a referendum in Central European countries, in particular in Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. In this article, political effectiveness is understood as a possibility to influence the decision-making process by citizens through a referendum. The transformation of political systems in Central European states from socialist/communist to democratic ones resulted in increasing interest in the notion of referendum, one of the common forms of direct democracy. However, most referenda have been abused for political purposes. The focus of this article is a referendum used at the national level. This study examines the use of a referendum in Central European states from 1989 to 2015. The database presents, country by country, the subject matter of voting, people’s participation and the results in order to show the citizens’ opportunity (or lack of it) to express their opinions and to contribute to policy-making by circumventing the standard legislative process. The aim of this paper is to analyze referenda in the selected countries and to verify two hypotheses. Firstly, the weak use of a referendum and a small size of complementation of representative democracy. Secondly, the citizens’ belief in a referendum as an element of communication and consultation between authorities and society.

Referendum as a Constitutional Right of Citizen Participation in Albania

The referendum is one of the oldest forms of putting directly the democracy into use. The referendum represents a personal, direct statement of the citizens for any legal act or any "other matters of special importance", so that the state must take citizens' opinions before taking a decision. This notion implies the coexistence of sovereign representative bodies (assemblies) and direct popular intervention procedures.The idea of developing referendums in Albania for various issues, has become one of the main subjects of the political debates; especially when dealing with political disputes and the debate fails to find consensus. Although every political debate mentioning the idea of a referendum, once they have achieved the political consensus they let the will of the people in limbo. Unlike many other countries of the world, where the organization and development of referendums is common, leaving people the right to decide on certain issues, Albania after the dictatorship have been organised only three referendums.The referendum as a form of direct democracy is provided in the Constitution of the Republic of Albania in Articles 108/4, 150, 151, 152, 177/4, the Law No.7866, 10.06.2004 "On Referendums" and the Code election of the Republic of Albania in Articles 118-132. The paper analyses different forms of referendums as an important tool for the citizens’ participations. A special attention is paid to the case in Albania. Below there is a brief analyse about the referendums in Albania by bringing the practice and facing it with albanian consitution provisions. Event though it is a common form of direct democracy in different countries, Albania has a poor experience which had faced several problems and arised different discussions through researchers of citizens participation right. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n2s2p73

Referendums and deliberative democracy

The theoretical concepts of deliberative democracy and the institutions and processes associated with direct democracy often pull in different directions, despite their surface similarity. A deliberative model emphasizes the importance of voice whereas referendums prioritize votes. A deliberative model would involve citizens at every stage of the political process, whereas a referendum typically brings them in only at the very end. A deliberative democratic process is less interested in resolving an issue than in discussing it, while a referendum often takes place solely for the purpose of settling a particular question. However without institutions, deliberative democracy remains an elusive and idealistic concept. Here, I examine four specific areas in which the conduct of referendums often tends to inhibit deliberation, and consider ways in which the quality of deliberation within existing rules and practices might be improved. These are: the intrusion of politics, the absence of clarity, the amount and quality of information, and the degree of participation and engagement of citizens in the process. Together, the cases considered here suggest some ways in which the familiar institutions of initiative and referendum could be retooled to approximate a more deliberative form of direct democracy.

Referendum in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

AbstractFor more than 80 years the Czechs and the Slovaks have been functioning within one political. economic and social system. Various political and economic circumstances resulted in the division of Czechoslovakia to the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Ever since the political systems of both countries became different. These various political systems inspired me to examine the people's participation in the political life of those countries.The aim of this paper is to analyse and compare the most common form of direct democracy -a referendum - in both the Czech and Slovak political systems. It will be compared on two levels. The first one will deal with general constitutional background of a referendum and its procedures, as well as with a comparison of regulations in the respective countries. The second one will concern the practice of referendum in the analysed countries.

A New Form of Direct Democracy: Constitutional Conventions in the Digital Era

There has been renewed interest in mechanisms of constitutional change in recent years. In particular, instances of constitutional change wherein popular involvement was central have attracted significant attention. Examples include the attempts at electoral reform in British Columbia, The Netherlands, and Ontario, followed by more sweeping reform sought in Iceland and Ireland. In all these cases, creative avenues were explored whereby constitutional change would occur via a participatory, partially citizen-led process that would also revitalize politics.The little legal scholarship which has thus far looked at these developments has provided an insufficiently analytical account of such novel approaches to constitution-making. This paper seeks to put forth precisely such an analysis. It builds on descriptive work on constitutional conventions, focusing on the cases of Iceland and Ireland. The paper aims to evaluate whether the novelty in means also translates into novelty at a more substantive level, namely, in the quality of the process of constitution-making and legitimacy of the end product. The paper proposes standards of direct democratic engagements which adequately fit these new developments and identifies lessons for participatory constitution-making processes in the digital twenty-first century.

Konstytucjonalizacja dialogu społecznego

Human life happens in a daily interaction space of symbolic interactions and communication dialogue, in which individuals produce specific practices and come into contact with social structures materialized in the daily activities. The article aims to show the value of dialogue as a unique tool of democratic creation of future filled with peace, respect for others, solidarity, kindness and hope. The addition to the term “dialogue” of the adjective term “social” means that the perspective, at which it is targeted, is not individual, but covers the society as a whole. The dialogue itself is understood as conversation, an exchange of views, which can lead to achievement of common compromise and aiming at common goals. For direct expression of the will of the nation or its communities forms of direct democracy are used. The principle of dialogue presented in the article refers to both the sphere of domestic and international law, including the law of EU.

Against Elections: The Lottocratic Alternative

It is widely accepted that electoral representative democracy is better — along a number of different normative dimensions — than any other alternative lawmaking political arrangement. It is not typically seen as much of a competition: it is also widely accepted that the only legitimate alternative to electoral representative democracy is some form of direct democracy, but direct democracy — we are told — would lead to bad policy. This article makes the case that there is a legitimate alternative system — one that uses lotteries, not elections, to select political officials — that would be better than electoral representative democracy. Part I diagnoses two significant failings of modern-day systems of electoral representative government: the failure of responsiveness and the failure of good governance. The argument offered suggests that these flaws run deep, so that even significant and politically unlikely reforms with respect to campaign finance and election law would make little difference. Although my distillation of the argument is novel, the basic themes will likely be familiar. I anticipate the initial response to the argument may be familiar as well: the Churchillian shrug. Parts II, III, and IV of this article represent the beginning of an effort to move past that response, to think about alternative political systems that might avoid some of the problems with the electoral representative system without introducing new and worse problems. In the second and third parts of the article, I outline an alternative political system, the lottocratic system, and present some of the virtues of such a system. In the fourth part of the article, I consider some possible problems for the system. The overall aims of this article are to raise worries for electoral systems of government, to present the lottocratic system and to defend the view that this system might be a normatively attractive alternative, removing a significant hurdle to taking a non-electoral system of government seriously as a possible improvement to electoral democracy.

Power to the People! But How? the Different Uses of Referendums around the World

Are the voters capable of making complex decisions and informed choices in referendums? Do referendums and other forms of direct democracy provide mechanisms for citizen deliberation? Why do dictators like Hitler and Pinochet use referendums? Are referendum campaigns ultimately decided by who has got the deepest pockets and the best campaign advisors? These are the questions discussed and investigated in the books under review. The conclusion that emerges is that voters are able to make informed choices which broadly reflect their political preferences and they are generally not swayed by spin and campaigns. In the light of these findings, there is reason to be cautiously optimistic as regards the deliberative potential of referendums.

Lokalne referendum odwoławcze – rys historyczny i propozycje zmian

The article presents the history of local referenda that seek to recall local authorities in Poland following political changes. In recent years, Poles have proven willing to turn to local referenda to enforce political accountability of their representatives in local government bodies – especially municipality heads (town or city mayors). This has led to the activation of not only local communities, but also political parties and other civil organisations operating at the local level. In the heat of political struggle, the idea of referenda as a form of direct democracy disappears. In the second part of the article the author wonders whether politicians (even those occupying key positions in the country) harm this manifestation of the development of civil society in Poland. Finally, proposals submitted by the president of Poland B. Komorowski for amending some laws with regard to local recall referenda are analysed.

Democracy under Fire: Voter Confusion and Influences in Colorado's Anti-Affirmative Action Initiative

In this article, Amy N. Farley, Matthew N. Gaertner, and Michele S. Moses examine the use of ballot initiatives as a particularly attractive form of direct democracy for opponents of affirmative action in higher education. Building on previous scholarship, the authors question whether anti-affirmative ballot initiatives validly reflect voters’ attitudes toward affirmative action. The authors examine the case of Colorado's Amendment 46, an anti-affirmative action ballot initiative. They investigate the language of the initiative itself, as well as voters’ perceptions of and confusion around its intent, and the factors that influenced voting behavior. They employ item response theory to estimate voters’ attitudes toward affirmative action. The authors then describe the prevalence of voter confusion around the initiative's intent. Finally, employing a binary logistic regression model, they analyze survey data to determine which factors influenced voting behavior. They find that the initiative's language was successful at confusing voters who intended to support affirmative action. Following the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Fisher v. University of Texas and in anticipation of its decision in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, the authors call for greater scrutiny with regard to the use of initiatives to craft education policies that have a disproportionately negative impact on members of disadvantaged populations.

"La carta del Nuovo Municipio"

Charter for a New is a document presented and discussed at the Word Social Forum in Porto Alegre (January 2002) and at the European Social Forums in Florence (November 2002) and St. Denis (November 2003), due to the initiative of several research laboratories based in Florence, Bologna, Milan, Rome and Venice universities. To implement the principles contained in the Charter, The New Municipium Network (ARNM) was created in 2003; it is a no-profit association linking local Authorities, territorial associations and academic experts. The association aims to function as a permanent place for the discussion and the promotion of common action strategies amongst its members, experimental territorial workshops and participatory intermediate institutions centred on the themes of self-sustainable local development (new forms of direct democracy, new multicultural territories, new welfare indicators, new sustainable economic systems, valorisation of territorial heritage, fair exchange and trading networks), identifying the local dimension as the strategic level for analysis and action towards a fair and non-hierarchical bottom-up globalization.

Why Party Democrats Need Popular Democracy and Popular Democrats Need Parties

Too often, popular political power—whether it is in the form of direct democracy or other more innovative forays in participatory or deliberative democracy—presents itself principally as a counterweight to the political power parties wield. Yet setting up “popular democracy” and “party democracy” in opposition to one another in the American political landscape is not only unnecessary but also pathological: this oppositional posture risks the ossification of party democracy and keeps popular democrats insulated from the substantial improvements the power of parties could bring to the polity. This Article, accordingly, seeks to enrich both party democracy and popular democracy by showing how each might draw strengths from the other, and how each needs the other to function more effectively. A new literature in political theory explores the central role of partisanship in democratic functioning, and we will deploy that theory in service of some practical applications in institutional design here. We have been involved—on the ground level—in two recent policy conversations that really would have been improved with a complementary vision of the parties and the people. We could have better exercises of party democracy and popular democracy, if only we started to see how they might be brought into pragmatic symbiosis.

Rola referendum w powstawaniu państw po 1989 r. w Europie

The institution of the referendum is one of the forms of direct democracy. Referendums are understood as direct suffrage on important matters of state, or a part of its territory, that constitute the subject of the vote. In the processes of democratic transformation, outlooks on this institution of direct democracy evolve. Referendums have become a tool to express the will of the nation to choose in matters of sovereignty. This form of asking the nation has turned out to be effective for those communities with a strong sense of national identity and the belief that it is necessary for the state to be revived as a sovereign entity. The results of the referenda held in the Baltic states, in the Balkans and Ukraine have confirmed their peoples’ wills to independently exist within the framework of a sovereign state.

Current World Economic Crisis is the Reflection of Ultra- Degree of Capitalism Over Socialisation: A Modest Analytical Contemplation

A nation needs the function of the all its economic machine to work properly with better lubricant and oil of remuneration and employment generating capacity, having some good productivity in the economy, but after democratizing with involving all citizen in the direct form of democracy, people have some good efficiency to analyzing its weakness with the democratic form of its nation and taking the bad benefit of having some short term gain and corruption which have the bad impact to both economy as well the lubrication of national economy with democracy. As a result of which it creates national conundrum and worn out the axis of national economic chariot. Crisis infection now spreading from nation to nation by global dependence and global form of bilateral and multilateral trade among the nations of the world. So here we take the sovereign wealth fund typically created when governments have budgetary surpluses and have little or no international debt. Is this surplus is due to social expenses reduction of national budgetary allocation. This Sovereign Wealth Fund is one type of dominating tool from one country to another, but in this study we will realize how the socialism put itself under pressure from capitalism in a national economic segmentation of welfare to free business and open market in nation in various logical and analytical way. What is the degree of socialism and capitalism and what will be the main factor for disturbance in this economic down turn and the bad headache of the world total economic. The discussion on this matter through different world summit and conference, it need permanent root solution through this small analytical form of thinking with best realization of all nation. This study consisting of various data which will present the line and thin social factor which should take into account for this economic crisis and what should be the social oriented steps taking the best patent medicine for this world crisis.

Meeting Plato’s challenge?

We can regard the history of Political Philosophy as a sequence of responses to a challenge that Plato left behind as a—somewhat poisoned—legacy of his political thoughts. In a nutshell this challenge consists of two assumptions: 1. People have to confer political power on political rulers who are authorized to make collective decisions about the public welfare according to their personal convictions and insights. 2. People have to trust their political rulers, and society has to ensure that trustworthy persons are enthroned as such. Both assumptions are closely related: political rulers in Plato’s view do not merely act as simple “representatives” who just do what they are told by the people or what the people would otherwise do themselves. Political rulers have to decide on the basis of their own knowledge and judgment which is not comprehensible to ordinary people. Therefore it is not possible for the people to evaluate and control the decisions of their political leaders and they thus have to trust in their leaders’ political wisdom and moral commitment to promote the common good. Plato’s own answer to this challenge is well known: we have to educate a societal elite in a manner that ensures that they acquire the knowledge and attitudes that qualify them as political rulers in whom people can trust. It is not an answer that has triggered many affirmative reactions; on the contrary, starting with Aristotle, it has evoked a long chain of attempts to refute Plato’s assumptions and conclusions in one way or another—and this chain has created much of the tradition behind the modern views on politics and political systems. These attempts question the need for autonomous political leadership by defending the ability of people to rule themselves in the form of direct democracy or via political representation, and/or they deny the necessity of genuine trust in political rulers by referring to institutionalized control and incentive mechanisms to prevent the misuse of power. Does the The Calculus of Consent belong to this tradition, and does it produce innovative and convincing arguments to take up Plato’s challenge? I will discuss these questions by first digressing and referring to a quite different approach to contesting Plato’s views. In

Issue-Choice, Messaging, and Organizing: A Sociological Approach to Three Ballot Measures in Colorado in 2006

This article examines the coincidence of apparently contradictory ballot measure results in Colorado in 2006 as a case study of the significance of this form of direct democracy for progressive social movements: are ballot measures an opportunity or a hindrance for progressive organizing? Based on qualitative fieldwork in Denver in March and April 2008, we use framing theory to argue that whether ballot measure campaigns divert the action of social-movement organizations from their long-term goals, or allow them to pursue them by empowering voters is more dependent on the forms of organizing, than on issue-choice or messaging.

Democracy, Institutional Changes and Economic Development: The Case of Ancient Athens

The discussion of strengths and weaknesses of democracy is almost as old as democracy itself and it still continues. In the present paper we present a new theoretical perspective on democracy as a system that facilitates changes, especially in the form of direct democracy. We stress the role of the “initiator”, e.g. anybody who has the right to introduce a new proposal. This possibility increases the existence of the number of available strategies in a point of time. The decision makers can choose strategies form this set, and under a continuous situation of trial and error can reject wrong ones and retain correct ones (in the sense of welfare increasing strategies). Thus, society gains knowledge and new efficient institutions emerge. Lastly, we analyse the prototype direct democracy of ancient Athens, as a case study to highlight and test our model's hypotheses. It will also be analysed how under direct democracy of the Athenian type, the Assembly became a market place for the competition of ideas.

The Regressive Effects of Direct Democracy: Evidence from Property Tax Assessors

What effect does increasing opportunities for participation have on policy outcomes? While formal models predict progressivity (Acemoglu and Robinson 2006; Besley and Coate 2003), empirically, there are large biases in who actually participates in politics (Verba, Schlozman and Brady 1995). Exploiting a New York law requiring the appointment of tax assessors in towns with over 10,000 residents, I show that a particular form of direct democracy – the direct election of tax assessors – makes local tax policy more regressive.

An Economic Theory of Switzerland

Switzerland is often viewed as a federalist curiosity and a unique form of direct democracy. But this view does not provide a proper understanding of the country. A theory of Switzerland is necessary. A consideration of the initial, exogenous geographical situation of Swiss territory provides a better understanding of the country’s development. It was out of the frac-tured geography that the institutions of federalism and direct democracy as they are known today developed and established themselves. Although there was a trend to internal centralisation in the 20th century, the regional authorities have maintained their autonomy considerably better in Switzerland than in other states. An important factor is that the federal government, cantons and municipalities are each responsible for their own finances and debts. This stabilises not only the budget of regional and local authorities but also prevents interference on the part of the central government.