News

• Stateside and abroad: Direct democracy is global and spreading, though the flavour varies
• IN ALL 50 STATES citizens may occasionally have a referendum put before them by their state legislature. But only 24 states are considered to have statewide direct democracy, defined as a process in which citizens themselves place initiatives or referendums on ballots. The differences are huge. Of the more than 2,000 statewide initiatives in American history, the overwhelming majority have taken place in just a handful of states, led by Oregon, California and Colorado. In those states, direct democracy is in effect a fourth branch of government. Read the Rest...


• Origin of the species
• ONE HUNDRED YEARS ago Hiram Johnson, one of the most consequential governors in California’s history, called a special election. Johnson was a leader of a movement called Progressivism that reacted to America’s industrialisation by demanding women’s suffrage, direct election of United States senators (originally chosen by state legislatures) and other expansions of democracy. In this Californian election voters had to decide on three new types of balloting: referendums, recalls and initiatives. They accepted them all with enthusiasm. Read the Rest...


• Vox populi or hoi polloi?
• IN 2004, while tossing chunks of meat to his pet Bengal tigers, Saif Qaddafi (then seen as the Libyan ruler’s reformist scion) outlined to a foreign visitor his plans to convert his father’s rambling theory of direct democracy into a real political system. Something on Swiss lines would be ideal. Read the Rest...


• What do you know?
• “A POPULAR GOVERNMENT without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to Farce or Tragedy or perhaps both,” James Madison wrote. “A people who mean to be their own Governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives.” The question in any democracy, but especially a direct democracy in which citizens legislate at the ballot box, is how much voters do in fact know. Read the Rest...


• Get together
• The elections of fall 2010 are over, and the new members of Congress have been in their seats since January. 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...


• Foxes and Henhouses
• Everyone knows that foxes shouldn't guard henhouses. Everyone, that is, except for the Florida Legislature. As the debate rages over the state's next round of redistricting, the Legislature argues that it can be trusted to draw the new lines fairly. Even more brazenly, the Legislature insists that no one else -- not even the people of Florida -- can tell it how to go about its district-drawing business. Read the Rest...


• Move towards direct democracy
• The Cricket World Cup is over -- the hangover from the defeat in the finals at Mumbai is still haunting us, but the winds blowing from across the Palk Strait on matters more serious cannot but demand the attention of this country. The April 13 Tamil Nadu State Assembly elections are gripping the attention of our immediate northern neighbourhood, but more on that next week.   Read the Rest...


• ‘Jan’ Lokpal in the making
• Perhaps ever since the ''JP Movement'' of the 1970s, India had not seen a people's upsurge in support of a cause, espoused by an individual, largely unknown across the country. Gandhian Anna Hazare’s demand for a Jan Lokpal Bill elicited a surprisingly huge response as never before in the last three decades, thanks to its motto of action against corruption. Read the Rest...


• Time to go to direct democracy
• Re: Federal election We have the right, every so often, to elect a dictator of our choice in Canada. Yet we call this democracy. Isn’t it time for direct democracy? At one time it was impossible for all citizens of this, the best country in the world, to gather each day and decide issues that affected the entire country. So we elected politicians to represent us to the government. This is called representative democracy. How is this working for you? Read the Rest...


• Citizens want to be involved with government
• The elections of fall 2010 are over, and the new members of Congress have been in their seats since January. 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. This is above and beyond merely voting for those who will make all of the decisions, which Is very little power Indeed. Read the Rest...