A comparison and ranking of democracy in different countries has been
prepared by the Amsterdam-based Initiative & Referendum Institute
Europe, IRI:
Country Index on Citizen Lawmaking 2002.
Along with versions in french, german and spanish, an english version
may be found and downloaded at http://www.iri-europe.org/reports.htm
More about the chances for improving democracy in Britain may be found
at Citizens' Initiative and Referendum I&R http://www.iniref.org
The Country Index contains the following (selected) items:
The Design of Direct Democracy
Table 1
The performance expectations of Direct Democracy at the individual,
societal and institutional levels.
Comparison of Initiative and Referendum practice: A preliminary
comparative evaluation of I & R in 32 European states.
Democracy and European integration
Six qualitative sets
Set 1 The Avantgarde.
Set 2 The Democrats.
Set 3 The Cautious.
Set 4 The Fearful.
Set 5 The Hopeless.
Set 6 The Tail Enders.
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In which Set (above) does Great Britain land? Would anyone care to
hazard a guess?
Sincerely,
Michael Wallace-Macpherson
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