open space of democracy

[Frend]

I am here to ask a question; if it can be refuted then I will be happy that I have finally received an answer. I have been posing a question to my friends lately of what would happen if I ran for office and allowed all the people in my district to vote (online, through mail, and by phone) on every issue so that it is not me making the decisions rather they vote on ever decision I make. I am young and probably don't understand the reality of this type of thing but personally think that this emphasizes the true democracy that we all talk about.
Peace
K+ to all those who agree w/ budfather

 

[Guest]

Too easy to abuse most systems you mentioned and the political peoples usually have their own agendas and those of the people they obey.


Seems like they throw the public a half eaten bone occasionally and continue to hoard everything else.

 

[Pops]

I recently posted in another thread that this would be the ideal form of democracy. It would take specialized equipt. to log ip addresses so that people couldn't vote several times on an issue. Most people today have computers, so it wouldn't be too much trouble for people to vote directly on issues, if they would. Apathy is the greatest killer of democracy and is why we have the problems that we have today.

 

[Trichome Toker]

Like all great ideas, it has all ready been done.

Direct democracy
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Democracy

Direct democracy, classically termed pure democracy,[1] comprises a form of democracy and theory of civics wherein sovereignty is lodged in the assembly of all citizens who choose to participate. Depending on the particular system, this assembly might pass executive motions (decrees), make law, elect and dismiss officials and conduct trials. Where the assembly elected officials, these were executive agents or direct representatives (bound to the will of the people). In a representative democracy sovereignty is exercised by a subset of the people, elected periodically, but otherwise free to advance their own agendas. It also deals with how citizens are "directly" involved with voting for various laws, instead of voting for representative to decide for them.

This article deals with direct democracy in its modern sense. Modern direct democracy is characterized by three pillars:

* Initiative
* Referendum including binding referenda
* Recall

The second pillar can include the ability to hold a binding referendum on whether a given law should be scrapped. This effectively grants the populace a veto on government legislation. The third pillar gives the people the right to recall elected officials by petition and referendum.

Other institutions exist which are regarded as being directly democratic in character. In particular, the use of sortition to fill posts in government or decision making bodies and the formation of Citizen Assemblies for collective decision making (Canada used this to come up with a proposal for a new constitution).

Switzerland provides the strongest example of modern direct democracy, as it exhibits the first two pillars at both the local and federal levels. In the past 120 years more than 240 initiatives have been put to referendum. The populace has been conservative, approving only about 10% of the initiatives put before them; in addition, they have often opted for a version of the initiative rewritten by government. (See Direct democracy in Switzerland below.)

Another distinctive example comes from the United States, where, despite being a federal republic where no direct democracy exists at the federal level, over half the states (and many localities) provide for citizen-sponsored ballot initiatives (also called "ballot measures" or "ballot questions") and the vast majority of the states have either initiatives and/or referenda. (See Direct democracy in the United States below.)

Some of the issues surrounding the related notion of a direct democracy using the Internet and other communications technologies are dealt with in e-democracy.

Also relevant is the history of Roman democracy beginning circa 449 BC (Cary, 1967). The ancient Roman Republic's "citizen lawmaking"—citizen formulation and passage of law, as well as citizen veto of legislature-made law—began about 449 BC and lasted the approximately four hundred years to the death of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. Many historians mark the end of the Republic on the passage of a law named the Lex Titia, 27 November 43 BC (Cary, 1967).

Since Athenian democracy, however, this form of government has rarely been used (some governments have implemented it in part but few as fully as in ancient Athens). Modern mass-suffrage democracies generally rely on representatives elected by citizens (that is, representative democracy).

Modern-era citizen lawmaking began in the towns of Switzerland in the 13th century. In 1847, the Swiss added the "statute referendum" to their national constitution. They soon discovered that merely having the power to veto Parliament's laws was not enough. In 1891, they added the "constitutional amendment initiative". The Swiss political battles since 1891 have given the world a valuable experience base with the national-level constitutional amendment initiative (Kobach, 1993).

Many political movements seek to restore some measure of direct democracy or a more deliberative democracy (based on consensus decision-making rather than simple majority rule). Such movements advocate more frequent public votes and referenda on issues, and less of the so-called "rule by politician". Collectively, these movements are referred to as advocating grassroots democracy or consensus democracy, to differentiate it from a simple direct democracy model. Another related movement is community politics which seeks to engage representatives with communities directly.

 

[Pops]

My ancestors, the Swiss, are a little ahead of us on this. this could be implemented on a national basis in the U.S. very easily, but the politicians wouldn't like it. they don't want power back in the hands of the people.

 

[Haps]

A "Popular Vote" platform would get my vote. As Pops said, it would be easy enough to impliment here in the states, you have a voters id number. We will see this first in state or local races, some go getter will post a website, with all of the issues and a place for his constituants to vote on anything that might come up over the next year. It would also be a way for the democraps or the greens to gain ground seat at a time, without a big tv budget. Good thread.
H

 

[KharmaGirl]

K+ to al who agree with budfather? Huh?

 

[Pops]

KG, I was kind of wondering about that myself. I think that for Christmas here at ICMag, we need to give out some 2 handed crowbars, so that some folks can pry their heads out of their asses.

 

[KharmaGirl]

Heeeeey, that's a neat idea :wink: