- Taking the Initiative
- As this decade's redistricting cycle begins, Republicans are licking Read the Rest...
- Peoples’ will sets the agenda
- As Switzerland gears up for parliamentary elections in October, political parties and lobby groups are turning to people’s initiatives to influence the debate. Considered a cornerstone of Swiss democracy, the initiative system allows any citizen to call for a vote on any issue providing they collect at least 100,000 signatures in support of it. Read the Rest...
- GOP goes from anti-tax to anti-voter
- For more than a decade, the Republican Party has made it clear that any state legislator who votes for a tax increase, even a temporary one, will face the political death penalty - an immediate recall or removal from office in the next election. During my tenure in the Assembly (2000-06), Republican legislators who voted for taxes were defeated, typically in their next primary elections or when they ran for another office. (Two legislators, seeing the writing on the wall, simply quit.) Has the death penalty now evolved to apply to legislators who vote simply to place tax measures on the ballot? Read the Rest...
- Everyone invited to functional democracy
- To the Editor: The elections of fall 2010 are over, and the new members of Congress have recently taken their seats. However, it still appears that there are openly hostile relations between various members of Congress and the two political parties as a whole. This comes at the expense of the great citizens of this fine country, who want and need to be more involved with the decision making of our nation, above and beyond merely voting for those who will make all of the decisions, which is very little power indeed. Read the Rest...
- At citizen’s expense
- The elections of fall 2010 are over and the new members of Congress have recently taken their seats. However, it still appears that there are openly hostile relations between various members of Congress and the two political parties as a whole. This comes at the expense of the great citizens of this fine country, who want and need to be more involved with the decision making of our nation, above and beyond merely voting for those who will make all of the decisions, which is very little power indeed. Read the Rest...
- A Middle East Warning: American-Style Democracy Isn’t the Answer
- The entire world except for government leaders and politicians are thrilled with the revolutionary spirit moving through the Middle East. The leaders of authoritarian regimes from Tunisia to Egypt have fallen and the rest are threatened in every nation in the region. Read the Rest...
- VANISHING CYPRUS By Andreas C Chrysafis February 2011
- VANISHING CYPRUS By Andreas C Chrysafis February 2011 (No15) VANISHING CYPRUS By Andreas C Chrysafis February 2011 (No15) Election Fever… Read the Rest...
- Withdrawing from the War on Drugs
- GENEVA – Switzerland’s direct democracy allows citizens who have gathered enough petition signatures to challenge government policies and laws in nationwide referenda. After a spate of AIDS deaths during the 1980’s, the Swiss came face to face with a problem that has destroyed millions of lives in the United States, Russia, Latin America, the European Union, southern Asia, and other regions. Intravenous drug users – especially heroin addicts – had turned public spaces in Zurich and other Swiss cities and towns into needle parks. Read the Rest...
- Direct Democracy Would Solve Problems
- Direct Democracy Would Solve Problems The elections of fall 2010 are over and the new members of Congress have taken their seats. However, it still appears that there are openly hostile relations between various members of Congress, and the two political parties as a whole. Read the Rest...
- Swiss not as democratic as they think
- by Isobel Leybold-Johnson in Zurich, swissinfo.ch Switzerland may be famed for its direct democracy but in a new democracy survey of 30 countries it has only managed 14th place. The Democracy Barometer, co-authored by researchers at Zurich University and unveiled on Thursday, found that Denmark, Finland and Belgium had the world’s best functioning democracies. Britain and France were among the worst performers. Read the Rest...
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