Friends, colleagues.
Re. Direct democracy conference London LSE October 2004
An introduction is pasted below.
Short reports and lecture summaries, plus links to country-based
resources are now available via http://www.iniref.org/conf.html
Sincerely,
Michael Macpherson
======================
Direct democracy conference London LSE October 2004
The conference had two aims, firstly to supply knowledge about how
direct democracy works in places where it is established or at least
well known. The examples chosen were four countries of western Europe
and one "post-communist" country of eastern Europe. The history of
direct democracy, levels of governance involved and legal regulation of
direct democratic procedures vary among the different countries. The
second aim of our conference was to stimulate a debate about the future
role of direct democracy in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Why did we select the countries and democracies chosen as examples?
The Netherlands because it is quite similar to Britain, e.g. it is a
"constitutional" monarchy. The Dutch, like the British, have little
experience of direct democracy. But, in contrast, there has been some
direct democratic innovation in the large, capital city, Amsterdam,
whose parliament recently voted unanimously to introduce citizens'
initiative and referendum.
Poland because, even under the rapidly changing social and political
conditions of the last decade, significant components of direct
democracy have been available to citizens, and are being used, from the
country level to the village.
The development of post-war Germany has been heavily influence by
lessons of history. One indication of this is the importance given to
their "basic law" of constitution, which regulates governance and
democracy. For many outsiders it is surprising to learn that there is
extensive practice of direct democracy in the federal states (Lands),
cities and districts. There is a strong movement to protect these
democratic rights and to improve them, prime examples being Bavaria and
Hamburg.
Italy's direct democracy is special and in one way shows citizens'
direct democracy in its strongest form. It is special for instance
because it is "only" abrogative, that is the referendum cannot be used
to make a new law ("propositional") but can only strike out an existing
one, or part(s) of it. It is strong because here we have the best
example, at least in Europe, of legally binding, citizen-initiated
law-making at the country level.
At all levels of governance Switzerland combines the direct with the
indirect. A wealth of experience of over a hundred years shows direct
democracy as public participation, with widespread deliberation of
proposals and laws, a strong sense of civic stake-holding plus a
reliance on the ultimate and in some cases direct authority of the
people in matters of state. There is a tradition of consensus seeking
among citizens' groups, non-governmental organisations, lobbyists,
trade-unions, parliaments and governments. All of this can fascinate and
astound some of us who take our main experience of political life from
purely indirect ("representative") democratic, or from frankly
undemocratic, systems. Thousands of political problems, proposals and
conflicts, from the federal constitution to village traffic, have been
deliberated and decided upon in procedures such as citizens' initiative
and facultative referendum -- the people's veto.
During Sunday we heard talks by experts and practitioners of direct
democracy from all of these countries. For Britain a proposal to
introduce elements of direct democracy such as citizens' initiative
(law-proposal), ordered debate of endorsed proposals in parliament or
council, and citizen-triggered referendum for decision-making, was
presented. Having learned how things are done elsewhere, we held a
workshop to discuss the future of direct democracy in Britain. Those who
came were interested, had good questions and made some proposals for
further action.
A documentation with short reports from the conference is online at
http://www.iniref.org/conf.html
Minutes of the workshop: "Direct democracy GB" are available on request
to [log in to unmask]
The author has worked as a general medical practitioner and clinical
scientist, co-founded Physicians for Social Responsibility in Britain,
is director of Psycho-Social and Medical Research PSAMRA and founded the
campaign Citizens' Initiative and Referendum I&R.
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